Structural and Magnetic Properties of Fe76P5(Si0.3B0.5C0.2)19 Amorphous Alloy

Recently, bulk amorphous alloys were produced in the Fe-B-Si-P-C system with high glass forming ability, excellent magnetic properties and the advantage of containing no expensive glass-forming elements, such as Ga, Y, Cr or Nb, having, therefore, a good perspective of commercial applications. In the present work, the Fe76P5(Si0.3B0.5C0.2)(19) amorphous alloy prepared by two quenching techniques has been studied. Amorphous ribbons of about 40 mu m thick were obtained by planar-flow casting together with cylinders having 1 and 2 mm diameter produced by copper mold injection casting. All the samples appear fully amorphous after X-ray diffraction analysis. A comprehensive set of thermal data (glass, crystallization, melting and liquidus temperatures) were obtained as well as a description of the melting and solidification processes. Mechanical microhardness tests showed that the samples have a hardness of 9.7 +/- 0.3 GPa. Good soft-magnetic properties were obtained, including a high magnetization of 1.44 T and a low coercivity (4.5 A/m for ribbons and 7.5 A/m in the case of 1 mm rod samples, both in as-cast state). Thermomagnetic studies showed a Curie temperature around 665 K and the precipitation of new magnetic phases upon temperatures of 1000 K. Furthermore, the frequency dependence of magnetic losses at a fixed peak induction was studied. The results suggest the occurrence of a fine magnetic domain structure in bulk samples. The good soft magnetic properties of the bulk metallic glass obtained by copper mold casting for this particular Fe-based composition suggests possible applications in transformer cores, inductive sensors and other devices.