Microstructural and magnetic behavior of nanostructured soft alloys prepared by mechanical grinding and gas atomization

Nanocrystalline powder of Fe–Si–B–Cu–Nb has been obtained by means of mechanical milling of the corresponding nanocrystalline ribbons. Gas atomization technique has been used to minimize the magnetic hardening due to stress effects observed in ball-milled samples. Fe–Si–B–Cu–Nb and Fe–Si nanocrystalline samples have been prepared by gas atomization. The aim of our work is to analyse the particle size dependence of coercivity in this nanostructured alloys and to show the analogies and differences between ball-milled and gas atomized samples.