Influence of global magnetic state on chemical interactions in high-pressure high-temperature synthesis of B2 Fe2Si

We show that effective chemical interactions in an alloy can be tuned by its global magnetic state, which opens exciting possibilities for materials synthesis. Using first-principles theory we demonstrate that at pressure of 20 GPa and at high temperatures, the effective chemical interactions in paramagnetic Fe-Si system are strongly influenced by the magnetic disorder favoring a formation of cubic Fe2Si phase with B2 structure, which is not present in the alloy phase diagram. Our experiments confirm theoretical predictions, and the B2 Fe2Si alloy is synthesized from Fe-Si mixture using multianvil press.