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We report a detailed experimental and theoretical study of the effects of V substitution for Fe atom on the structural, magnetic, transport, electronic and mechanical properties of an off-stoichiometric Fe 3− V Ge intermetallic alloy series (0 ≤ ≤ 1). Single phase microstructures are observed for < 0.75, whereas higher V content alloys ≥ 0.75 are multi-phased. Vanadium substitution is observed to induce a diffusionless martensitic phase transformation from a Heusler-like L2 1 structure to hexagonal DO 19 structure, as corroborated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry results. The vanadium substitution is also found to decreases the grain size, inhibiting the grain growth by pinning the grain boundary migration. All the alloys in the series are found to be soft ferromagnets at 5 K with saturation magnetic moment and Curie temperature decreasing as V concentration increases. The low temperature saturation magnetic moment is in close agreement with the expected Slater-Pauling values for the L2 1 phases, while the hexagonal samples have markedly higher values of saturation moments. First-principle calculations agree with the experimental findings and reveal that V substitution energetically favours one of the Fe sites in Fe 3 Ge. The electrical resistivity measured over the temperature range from 5 K to 400 K shows negative temperature coefficient of resistivity at high temperatures with increasing the V concentration. Relatively high mechanical hardness values are also observed, with the values increasing with increasing V content. Vanadium substitution is found to play a central role in tuning the mechanical properties, stabilising the L2 1 structure, and shifting the martensitic transformation temperature to higher values from that of parent Fe 3 Ge.

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Nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) thin films are grown epitaxially on two different isostructural substrates, (100)-oriented MgGa2O4 and ZnGa2O4, using pulsed laser deposition. These spinel substrates have a lattice mismatch of 0.62% and 0.04%, respectively, with NiFe2O4 crystal. While the films grown on MgGa2O4 substrates exhibit significant strain resulting in a tetragonal distortion of the crystal structure, the films on ZnGa2O4 substrate are essentially strain-free and retain their cubic structure because of the near-perfect lattice match. Magnetometry data suggest that film strain is the principal factor determining the anisotropy of these NiFe2O4 films. This is also confirmed by the effective magnetization values obtained from ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. While there is only a modest decrease in effective Gilbert damping constant with strain reduction, an enhancement in the spin voltage is observed in the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) measurements for NiFe2O4 films grown on ZnGa2O4 substrate with thickness ≤200 nm.

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