Sharp Goss orientation and large magnetostriction in the rolled columnar-grained Fe–Ga alloys

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the 〈1 0 0〉 directional solidified feedstock slabs were used to produce the rolled Fe–Ga sheets, and sharp Goss orientation was developed in the 0.3 mm sheets after annealing processes. The area fraction of Goss grains in the annealed binary Fe–Ga sheets approached to 62.4% without abnormal grain growth, accompanied with a maximum magnetostriction ( λ // − λ ⊥ ) of 199 ppm. The addition of only 0.1 at% NbC notably promoted the abnormal Goss grain growth without sulfur annealing, and large single-crystal-like grains, up to several centimeters, were obtained with few island-like grains after sulfur annealing and final Ar/H 2 annealing processes. High magnetostriction ( λ // − λ ⊥ ) of 245 ppm with little deviation was achieved in the (Fe 83 Ga 17 ) 99.9 (NbC) 0.1 sheets, and a large magnetostrictive strain ( λ // ) up to 243 ppm under no pre-stress was observed with an applied magnetic field along the rolling direction.