Structure of melt-spun Fe-Ga based magnetostrictive alloys

Summary form only given. The Fe-Ga system is characterized by a large solid solubility of Ga in /spl alpha/-Fe, up to 36a% at 1037/spl deg/C. The replacement of Fe by Ga increases /spl lambda//sub 100/ magnetostriction constant by ten fold and maximizes at around 17 to 19a% of Ga. The decrease of /spl lambda//sub 100/ at higher Ga content coincides with the change of structure from the disordered bcc to an ordered phase. In the hope of further increasing /spl lambda//sub 100/, we studied the extent of retaining the disordered bcc phase at room temperature by melt spinning the alloy of Fe/sub 1-x/Ga/sub x/ (x=0.17, 0.21, 0.25 and 0.3). In addition, the magnetostriction of Fe/sub 83/Ga/sub 17/ was reported to be highly anisotropic, with a small negative value of /spl lambda//sub 111/ and a large /spl lambda//sub 100/. It is of technological interest to produce {100}<001> texture in melt-spun ribbons to obtain large magnetic displacement in the length direction. Therefore, we also emphasized our research on the texture of the ribbons as a function of the melt spinning parameters and annealing.