Structure and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline mechanically alloyed Fe–10% Ni and Fe–20% Ni

The mechanical alloying technique has been used to prepare nanocrystalline Fe–10 and Fe–20 wt.% Ni alloys from powder mixtures. The structure and magnetic properties were studied by using X-ray diffraction and hysteresis measurements, respectively. For both alloys studied, a disordered body centered cubic solid solution forms after 24 h milling time. The higher the milling time, the larger the lattice parameter. The steady-state grain size is ≈10 nm. The reduction of the grain size increases the saturation magnetization and decreases the coercivity. Nanocrystalline Fe–10 and Fe–20 wt.% Ni have been shown to exhibit a soft magnetic behavior.