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The effects of dislocations on crystallographic twins and domain wall motion in magnetite at the Verwey transition.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Feinberg, Joshua M 
Harrison, Richard J 
Loudon, James C 
Newell, Andrew J 

Abstract

Pure magnetite experiences a first-order phase transition (the Verwey transition) near 120-125 K wherein the mineral's symmetry changes from cubic to monoclinic. This transformation results in the formation of fine-scale crystallographic twins and is accompanied by a profound change in magnetic properties. The Verwey transition is critical to a variety of applications in environmental magnetism and paleomagnetism because its expression is diagnostic for the presence of stoichiometric (or nearly stoichiometric) magnetite and cycling through the Verwey transition tends to remove the majority of multidomain magnetic remanence. Internal and external stresses demonstrably affect the onset of the Verwey transition. Dislocations create localized internal stress fields and have been cited as a possible source of an altered Verwey transition in deformed samples. To further investigate this behavior, a laboratory-deformed magnetite sample was examined inside a transmission electron microscope as it was cooled through the Verwey transition. Operating the microscope in the Fresnel mode of Lorentz microscopy enabled imaging of the interactions between dislocations, magnetic domain walls, and low-temperature crystallographic twin formation during the phase transition. To relate the observed changes to more readily measurable bulk sample magnetic behavior, low-temperature magnetic measurements were also taken using SQUID magnetometry. This study allows us, for the first time, to observe the Verwey transition in a defect-rich area. Dislocations, and their associated stress fields, impede the development of monoclinic magnetite twin structures during the phase transition and increase the remanence of a magnetite sample after cooling and warming through the Verwey transition.

Description

Keywords

Dislocations, Domain wall, Low-temperature demagnetization, Magnetite, Oxidation, Phase transition, TEM, Transmission electron microscopy, Verwey transition

Journal Title

Earth Planets Space

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1343-8832
1880-5981

Volume Title

71

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
The Royal Society (uf071166)
European Research Council (320750)
The Institute for Rock Magnetism and LacCore are supported by the NSF EAR Instrumentation and Facilities Program and by the University of Minnesota, Earth Sciences Division, National Science Foundation. This work was funded by EAR-0810085 to JMF, by EAR-0810252 to AJN, and by a Geological Society of America grant to AKL. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement No. 320750. JCL was funded by the Royal Society, UK.