Phase transformation behavior of a dual-phase nanostructured Fe-Ni-B-Si-P-Nb metallic glass and its correlation with stress-impedance properties

A study of the phase transformation process of a Fe-Ni-B-Si-P-Nb metallic glass using a suite of advanced characterization tools is reported.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and small angle neutron scattering(SANS)experiments show that the as-spun metallic glass ribbon has a dual-phase structure with bcc nanoclusters of a size of 2-3 nm.In situ high-energy X-ray diffraction(XRD)reveals a three-stage crystallization process when heating the metallic glass into supercooled liquid states.The isothermal annealing experiment shows the nanoclusters grow instantly without incubation.The easy formation and phase stability of the nanoclusters are due to the low interfacial energy between the amorphous matrix and clusters,as real space analysis shows that the nanoclusters and the amorphous matrix share similar short-to-mediumrange orders.We further find that the dual-phase structure reduces local magneto-anisotropy and enhances effective magnetic permeability,resulting in an excellent stressimpedance effect without sacrificing coercivity.Our work sheds light on the structure-property engineering of soft magnetic metallic glasses and provides a foundation for developing novel magnetic functional materials with nanostructured dual-phases.

Asynchronous responses of mechanical and magnetic properties to structure relaxation for FeNbB bulk metallic glass

Asynchronous responses of mechanical and magnetic properties to structure relaxation for the Fe71Nb6B23 bulk metallic glass were systematically investigated. It is interesting that this ternary alloy can combinedly exhibit outstanding magnetic and mechanical properties, especially good ductility, after optimally annealing in structure relaxation stage for eliminating the internal stress and homogenizing the microstructure. The alloy exhibits low coercive force of 1.6 A/m, high effective permeability of 15 x 10^3, high fracture strength of 4.2 GPa and good plastic strAln of 1.8%. It is also found that responses of mechanical and magnetic properties to structure relaxation are asynchronous. The glass transition and crystallization will greatly deteriorate the magnetic and mechanical properties. Here we propose a physical picture and demonstrate that the primary structure factors determining magnetic and mechanical properties are different. This work will bring a promising material for application and a new perspective to study the effect of annealing-induced structure relaxation on mechanical and magnetic properties.