Ultrafine-grained microstructure and controllable magnetic domains in Fe-based nanocrystalline alloys with excellent magnetic properties induced by hot isostatic pressing

Abstract

The coarsening and inhomogeneous distribution of nano-grains caused by traditional heat treatment processes are the biggest obstacles for obtaining ultrahigh permeability and excellent comprehensive soft magnetic properties in Fe-based nanocrystalline alloys. Here, we propose a new strategy to control grain growth and magnetic anisotropy, by introducing isotropic compressive stress field in the annealing process to optimize the magnetic properties. Compared with conventional isothermal annealing, the coupling of stress-temperature field generated by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) induced the microstructure, magnetic domain evolution and magnetic properties in Si-rich Fe73.5Si15.5B7Nb3Cu1 amorphous ribbons have been systematically investigated. We demonstrate that HIP treatment promotes more Si atoms to dissolve in Fe unit cell to form Fe(Si) solid solution causing an increase in interplanar spacing. Also, the high-density Cu clusters precipitate in the amorphous matrix upon HIP serving as nucleation sites for α-Fe(Si) grains, which facilitate a high volume fraction, uniform and ultrafine-grained microstructure. Moreover, the existence of stress field introduces induced anisotropy effectively controls the magnetization mechanism and magnetic structure evolution. Furthermore, the Fe73.5Si15.5B7Nb3Cu1 nanocrystalline alloy treated by HIP exhibit excellent comprehensive magnetic properties, such as high Ms, high μe, low Pcv, low AC Hc and high Br/Bm.