Mentor: Mahmud Khan, Ph.D.

Permanent magnets are crucial in the production of electric motors, wind turbines, hearing aids, and many other technologies. Rare-earth magnets currently represent the gold standard for commercial magnets in terms of energy product, although they are more expensive to produce than their alternatives. Manganese based systems, like MnBi and MnAl can offer better performance at high temperatures and a lower cost for raw materials. τ-MnAl is specifically comparable to standard rare-earth magnets in terms of cost-to-energy-product ratio. Producing a pure sample of τ-MnAl can be difficult as an ε to ε' to τ path must be followed. In this work, we explore the possibility of increasing sample purities through melting samples in an applied magnetic field. The field is produced by strong neodymium magnets which are arranged to apply an even field across the entire sample. We have found that the field does not greatly reduce impurity phases, although it does suppress certain peaks in the X-ray diffraction pattern of as-cast samples.

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