LAUSR

Abstract The influence of alloying in Ni54Fe19Ga23X4 Heusler glass-coated microwires doped by X  = B, Al, Ga, In is presented in this work. Even though the alloys exhibit different chemical compositions, the valence electron concentration (e/a) was constant. Furthermore, basic magnetic and resistivity measurements have been performed to determine the chemical doping effect on the magnetic properties and the associated structural transformation. Results point to the fact that the fine-tuning of the chemical composition may be a suitable tool for adjusting the Curie temperature, transformation temperature, and magnetocaloric properties of the glass-coated microwires. In the case of Ga and the Al-doped alloy, a thermal hysteresis can be distinguished in the M(T) dependences at saturation magnetic field, pointing to the presence of the structural transformation. Moreover, the 4% Al doping shifts the structural transformation temperature and the Curie temperature almost to the same position. On the other hand, B and In doping may lead to the disappearance or shift of the structural transformation out of the measurement range (100–400 K). Resistivity measurements proved these results.