TEM studies of the FeSiB amorphous alloy nanocrystallized by means of Nd:YAG-pulsed laser heating

The paper describes results of microstructural and magnetic domain analyses of the Fe80Si11B9 amorphous alloy, which was nanocrystallized by Nd:YAG-pulsed laser heating. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of the laser-crystallised samples showed the presence of a crystallised nano-phase (20–30 nm) in areas of low temperature and nano-eutectics (40–60 nm) in the centre of the heated areas where the temperature was high. High-resolution TEM was used to localise the very early stages of the crystallisation process, which was naturally impossible by means of X-ray diffraction. Fresnel magnetic imaging in TEM showed that the nanocrystallization of the Fe80Si11B9 amorphous alloy caused a significant refinement of the magnetic domain structure.