INFLUENCE OF Ge ON THE ANTIFERROMAGNETIC TRANSITION AND γ→ε MARTENSITIC TRANSFORMATION OF Fe-24Mn ALLOYS

The aims of the work were to study the effect of Ge (0-6wt. %) on the paramagnetic-antiferromagnetic transition and martensitic transformation of Fe-Mn alloy using the susceptibility, micro structure examination, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and latticeparameter measurement. Ge lowers the Néel temperature, TN, and enhances the magnetic susceptibility x, changing the Pauli paramagnetism above TN to paramagnetismstate obeying the Curie Weiss law, which is essentially similar to that of γ-Fe-Mnalloys containing Al or Si; Ge depresses γ-ε martensitic transformation, whichattribute to Ge increasing the stacking fault energy; Moreover, Ge increases the lattice parameter of γ phase, and low content Ge increases the lattice parameter of γphase more than that of high Ge content. Comparing Ge(4s24p2) with Si(3s23p2) and Al(3s2 3p1), which have the same outer-shell of electron structures, we found that their effects on the martensitic transformation of Fe-Mn alloy are completely different. The result suggests the