On the formation of nanocrystals in the soft magnetic alloy Fe73.5Nb3Cu1Si13.5B9

✍ Scribed by J.D Ayers; V.G Harris; J.A Sprague; W.T Elam; H.N Jones

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 647 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1359-6454
• DOI: 10.1016/s1359-6454(97)00436-9

✦ Synopsis

studies demonstrated that Fe-rich nanocrystals precipitated from the amorphous starting materials exhibited the DO 3 structure from very early in the transformation process. This result was corroborated by extended X-ray absorption ®nes structure (EXAFS) studies which showed evidence of ordering in the Fe-rich precipitates from early in the transformation process. EXAFS studies also showed that Cu clusters with near-f.c.c. structure were present from very early stages of the crystallization process. A model is proposed which describes the role of the Cu clusters as catalyzing nucleation of the DO 3 crystallites by providing a low energy interface upon which the activation energy for nucleation of the DO 3 phase is lowered.