Influence of structure on the evolution of magnetic and mechanical properties of amorphous and nanocrystalline Fe85.4Hf1.4B13.2 alloy

The amorphous Fe85.4Hf1.4B13.2 alloy is transformed into a two-phase nanocrystlline material in the optimization annealing at Top = 523 K, near to primary crystallization temperature Tx1. Correlations between structure and magnetic and mechanical properties in amorphous and nanocrystalline samples are studied by applying different experimental techniques. It has been shown that 1-h optimization annealing treatment at temperature Top leads to a significant increase of magnetic permeability with excellent plasticity. The resulting structure is composed of αFe nanocrystlline grains with diameter of about 5 nm embedded in the amorphous matrix.