A study of nanocrystalline binary Fe80Cu20 and multicomponent Fe81Cu1Si9B6Nb3 alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

A series of Fe100-xCux alloys were made by mechanical alloying (MA) for comparison with the multicomponent Fe81Cu1Si9B6Nb3 (FINEMET) composition, which was also prepared by the MA technique. This latter alloy is usually prepared with an amorphous structure by the melt quenching technique and subsequently annealed to produce a nanocrystalline material. X-ray and neutron experiments have been made on the Fe-Cu and FINEMET alloys to investigate the evolution of their structures as a function of time of MA treatment. The results suggest that the multicomponent Fe81Cu1Si9B6Nb3 has more pronounced nanocrystalline properties in comparison with the binary BCC Fe80Cu20 extended solid solution. (C) 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.