Influence of metalloids and annealing on the fundamental magnetic properties of bulk Fe–(Cr,Mo,Ga)–(P,B,C) metallic glasses

Abstract

Although bulk ferromagnetic metallic glasses have been synthesized in many alloy systems, the dependence of fundamental magnetic properties – saturation moment and Curie temperature – on annealing treatments and the content of alloying metalloids has not been well understood. In the present work, bulk ferromagnetic glassy alloys of Fe77.5−x(Cr0.33Mo0.33Ga0.33)xP12B5.5C5 (x = 8–14), (Fe66Cr4Mo4Ga4P12C5)(100−x)/95Bx (x = 3–7), and (Fe66Cr4Mo4Ga4P12B5) (100−x)/95Cx (x = 3–8.5) were prepared by a flux-melting and water-quenching technique. The effects of alloying metals (Cr, Mo, and Ga), metalloids (P, B, and C), and annealing treatments on the saturation moment and Curie temperature of these bulk glasses were investigated. The saturation moment and Curie temperature decrease linearly with increasing metals content. However, the saturation moment and Curie temperature change complicatedly with metalloids content. The Curie temperature increases with both annealing temperature and annealing time. The dependence of magnetic properties on the composition and annealing treatment for our bulk glasses was compared with that for glassy ribbons. The results suggest that the dependence found in our bulk glasses can be explained by the theoretical models proposed for glassy ribbons.