Structural Studies of the Relaxed Amorphous Phase in the Fe81B14Nb5 Alloy

Abstract

Amorphous alloys based on iron, obtained by melt spinning technique, are modern and very promising soft magnetic materials. The thermal annealing at temperatures closed to the crystallization temperature can cause an increase of magnetic permeability more than 10 times i.e. the so called enhancement of soft magnetic properties effect (ESMP). It is usually explained by formation of iron nanocrystallites in amorphous surroundings or by formation of the relaxed amorphous phase. Such a microstructure leads to averaging out of magnetic anisotropy and cause the ESMP.