The crystallization and properties of alloys with Fe partly substituted by Cr and Cu fully substituted by Au in Finemet

The structure, crystallization and magnetic properties of ribbons obtained by first making amorphous ribbons and then objecting them to a crystallization annealing have been published elsewhere by us previously. In the present work the soft magnetic ribbons Fe73.5−xCrxSi13.5B9Nb3Au1 (numbers indicate at.%, x = 1–5) are prepared by fast quenching on a single copper wheel. X-ray diffraction patterns show that the as-cast samples are amorphous. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis indicates that the crystallization temperature of the α-Fe(Si) phase is a little higher than that of pure Finemet. With the same annealing conditions, the crystallization volume fraction decreases with increasing Cr content substituted for Fe. Hysteresis loops of as-cast samples measured by Permagraph show that domain walls are pinned. After appropriate annealing, the ultrasoft magnetic properties of nanocomposite materials are established. The magnetic entropy change, |ΔSm|, of studied samples has been determined, and a giant magnetocaloric effect is found. Our materials could be considered as promising magnetic refrigerants working at high temperatures (several hundreds °C).