The effects of high-energy milling on the structural and hyperfine properties of YFe 2

Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and nuclear magnetic resonance have been used to study the effects of severe milling on the atomic and magnetic properties of the ferromagnetic intermetallic Laves phase compound YFe ₂. The Mössbauer effect and nuclear magnetic resonance were carried out on the Fe site and on the Y site, respectively. Consistently, after 30 h of milling, the results indicate that the milling process induces structure and atomic disorder. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows no crystalline reflection planes, indicating that the structure is amorphous within the experimental resolution. The Curie temperature reduces from 542 K to less than 100 K after 50 h milling, although at 4.2 K the average ⁵⁷Fe magnetic hyperfine field value remains near the same as in the original crystalline compound.