Effect of stress anisotropy on hysteresis and Barkhausen noise in amorphous materials

Abstract

Hysteresis, power losses, and the Barkhausen effect are investigated in an Fe-based highly magnetostrictive amorphous material, as a function of applied stress. By means of the static and dynamic Preisach model, and of existing theories of the Barkhausen effect, the results are shown to be compatible with the existence of a characteristic structural length δc, playing a role similar to that of grain size in crystalline materials. At low applied stresses, where the magnetization process is dominated by quenched-in stresses σi, δc is identified with the typical wavelength of σi fluctuations. The theoretical analysis leads to the estimate δc∼70–100 μm and 〈σi〉∼3.5 MPa.