Anomalous behavior of the Debye temperature in Fe-rich Fe-Cr alloys

Debye temperature, ${\mathrm{\Theta }}_D$, of Fe-rich Fe${}_{100-x}$Cr${}_x$ disordered alloys with $0\le x\le 22.3$ was determined from the temperature dependence of the central shift of M"ossbauer spectra recorded in the temperature range of 60 – 300 K. Its compositional dependence shows a maximum at $x\approx 5$ with a relative increase of $\sim 30$% compared to a pure iron. The composition at which the effect occurs correlates well with that at which several other quantities, e. g. the Curie temperature and the spin-wave stiffness coefficient, $D_0$, show their maxima, but the enhancement of ${\mathrm{\Theta }}_D$ is significantly greater and comparable with the enhancement of the hyperfine field (spin-density of itinerant $s$-like electrons) in the studied system. The results suggest that the electron-phonon interaction is important in this alloy system.