Precipitation processes in AlNiCo

Complete hysteresis loops can be obtained in the vicinity of the Curie temperature by the use of a modified Lange magnetometer. These loops were plotted during the heat treatment, with and without a magnetic field, after cooling the samples from the homogenization temperature. The discussion of the saturation magnetization, remanence, and coercivity taken from these loops and their temperature and time dependence leads to additional details about the formation and variation of the precipitates with shape anisotropy. Immediately below the Curie temperature spherical precipitates are present, which soon are interconnected parallel to the field direction to form highly elongated particles. Later, or at lower temperatures, more crosslinks are formed between them.