DOMAIN STUDIES ON MECHANICALLY ALLOYED FE-ZR-B-CU-NANOCRYSTALLINE POWDER

Soft magnetic FeZrBCu-particles with a grain structure in the nanomete r range and a coercivity of about 600 A/cm were fabricated by mechanic al alloying and subsequent annealing, Domain observation by high resol ution Kerr microscopy shows a patch domain structure and a inhomogeneo us distribution of coercivity across the particle diameter, indicating the existence of strong inhomogeneous long-range stresses in addition to atomic level microstress. The strong stress together with an inhom ogeneous microstructure is believed to be responsible for the poor sof t magnetic properties of the material.