Magnetism and nanostructure of Fe{sub 93{minus}x{minus}y}Zr{sub 7}B{sub x}Cu{sub y} alloys
- Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, Wolczynska 133, 01-919 Warszawa (Poland)
- Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)
A set of Fe-based amorphous alloys, Fe{sub 93{minus}x{minus}y}Zr{sub 7}B{sub x}Cu{sub y}, with x=4, 6, 8, or 12, and y=0 or 2 has been systematically characterized in their ability to form nanocrystalline, magnetically soft material via annealing in the range of 430{endash}600{degree}C. Conventional M{umlt o}ssbauer spectroscopy is used to follow the degree of bcc-Fe formation as well as changes in the hyperfine field distribution of the amorphous phase as a function of anneal temperature. Copper plays a strong role in the bcc-Fe formation for x=12 but less of a role for x=8 and 6. Unconventional M{umlt o}ssbauer studies utilizing radio frequency (rf) fields provide information on the soft magnetic nature of the alloys by observing the degree of rf-induced collapse of the hyperfine fields. The M{umlt o}ssbauer experiment in which the rf collapse and rf sideband effects are used allows the soft nanocrystalline bcc phase to be distinguished from magnetically harder microcrystalline {alpha}-Fe. The rf M{umlt o}ssbauer technique, being particularly sensitive to the magnetic anisotropy, provides information on the anisotropy fields and hence on the grain size distribution. X-ray diffraction (XRD) is used to estimate the bcc-Fe grain size based on the diffraction peak linewidths. Average grain sizes of 5{endash}14 nm are found for 500{endash}550{degree}C annealed specimens where smaller grain sizes are always observed for y=2 compared to y=0 for fixed x. Small-angle x-ray scattering is also used to study the grain size and this method yields sizes in the range from 3 to 7 nm, consistently almost a factor of 2 smaller than those from the XRD line broadening. This discrepancy is attributed to the difference in the regions of the 20-{mu}m-thick ribbons probed by the two methods. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 527976
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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