Crystallization processes in Fe–Pt–Nb–B melt spun ribbons

Intermetallic Fe–Pt–Nb–B alloys with 3 different compositions have been synthesized by rapid solidification technique and their phase structure was characterized by means of X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectrometry. It is shown that Fe68Pt21Nb2B9 and Fe65Pt25Nb2B8 as-cast samples consist mainly of A1 soft magnetic f.c.c. Fe–Pt phase, while the Fe68Pt13Nb2B17 as-cast sample exhibits topological short-range order, typical for amorphous ribbons. Crystallization processes in the amorphous sample and phase evolution with the temperature have been studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The occurrence of exothermic peaks is related to structural transformations in the alloys and the crystallization process is shown to be highly dependent upon the heating rate in the DSC process.