Magnetic short-range order in β-Mn1−xCox

We present a study of the magnetic ground state properties of β-Mn metal alloyed with Co, using neutron polarization analysis of the diffuse neutron scattering cross-section. We analyse the magnetic structure obtained using a reverse Monte Carlo procedure to extract the Mn–Mn spin correlations. The addition of Co leads to a static disordered magnetic structure with medium-range correlations. Our analysis of the spin correlations indicates that both 8c and 12d non-equivalent lattice sites present in the β-Mn structure contribute to the magnetic ground state, where previously it was thought that the 8c site was non-magnetic