Analysis of the thermal expansivity near the tricritical point in dilute chromium alloys

Abstract

Chromium (Cr) undergoes a first order Neel transition as an antiferromagnetic material. When V, Mo and Mn atoms are substituted in the Cr lattice, a weak first order Neel transition in pure Cr changes toward a second order transition and a possible tricritical point in CrV occurs close to 0.2 at %V, as observed experimentally from the measurements of the thermal expansivity at various temperatures. In this study, we analyze the experimental data for the thermal expansivity from the literature as a function of temperature using the power - law formula for Cr alloys (Cr - 0.1V, 0.2V, 0.5V and Cr - 0.1Mn, Cr - 0.2Mo, 0.3Mo, 0.4Mo). Our results are interpreted near the tricritical point in dilute chromium alloys.