Determination of the local structure of the first and second shells in ordered and disordered Ni-Mn alloys.

The coordination numbers and the interatomic distances for 50, 75 and 80 at.% Ni-Mn alloys in ordered and disordered states are presented. A new method for determining the first and second nearest neighbor coordination numbers in a binary alloy is applied. It is shown that magnetic properties of these alloys depend on short range order in atomic arrangement.