Glass transition and thermal stability of hard magnetic bulk NdAlFeCo metallic glass

Glass transition and thermal stability of bulk Nd60Al10Fe20Co10 metallic glass were investigated by means of dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The glass transition temperature, not revealed by DSC, is alternatively determined by DMTA via storage modulus E′ and loss modulus E″ measurement to be 498 K at a heating rate of 0.167 K s−1. The calculated reduced glass transition temperature (Tg/Tm) is 0.63. The large value of Tg/Tm of this alloy is consistent with its good glass-forming ability. The crystallization process of the metallic glass is concluded as follows: amorphous→amorphous+metastable FeNdAl phase→amorphous+primary δ-FeNdAl phase→primary δ-phase+eutectic δ-phase+Nd3Al+Nd3Co. The appearance of hard magnetism in this alloy is ascribed to the presence of amorphous phase with highly relaxed structure. The hard magnetism disappeared after the eutectic crystallization of the amorphous phase.