Magnetic Properties and Medium-Range Order in Metallic Glasses

Abstract

Magnetic properties of metallic glasses are primarily determined by both the chemical composition and the atomic arrangement. Alloying effects were found in many cases to be predominant on basic magnetic properties, so that a proper evaluation in the structural effects can be achieved only by a direct comparison between an amorphous alloy and a crystalline compound of same composition. Such a comparison has been made for a rather large number of compounds. The structural information that can be thus extracted is most often analyzed in two parts namely the “short-range” order for the first atomic shells and the “long range” disorder for the more remote environment. However, some indications about atomic arrangements over a medium scale ranging from about 15 A up to few thousands A can be found in basic magnetic properties such as distribution of hyperfine fields, approach to saturation, temperature dependence of bulk magnetization, critical and pseudocritical phenomena. These structural information concern various phenomena ranging from concentration or density fluctuations up to possible phase separation.