Abstract

The changes in the magnetic properties (coercive field and saturation magnetostriction) of Ni5Fe68.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 amorphous alloy after thermal treatment are reported. In order to develop a nanocrystalline structure, the thermal annealing was carried out by Joule heating currents of 1.7 and 1.8 angstrom during different annealing times. Additionally, a microstructural characterization of the treated samples was performed by x-ray diffraction, determining the partial volume of the two, crystalline grains and residual amorphous matrix, existing phases. They seem to be correlated to the softening of the nanocrystallized samples in comparison to the as-cast one. (C) 2006 American Institute of Physics.