ANNEALING EFFECT ON PHASE-TRANSITION OF EQUIATOMIC FERH ALLOY

The effect of thermal treatment on the behavior of the transition of a n Fe-50.5 at%Rh alloy between the anti-ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phase was carefully investigated with electric resistivity measuremen ts and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The specimens were anne aled near 1000 K after solution treatment at 1370 K. In the as-quenche d specimen from 1370 K the magnetic phase transition occurred abruptly near 300 K, and the extended transition temperature and temperature h ysteresis loop resulted with annealing. Correspondingly, precipitates of the Rh-rich gamma phase appeared in the alpha(1) grains of B2 struc ture in the annealed specimens. This fact shows that the phase decompo sition from alpha(1) to alpha(1) and gamma occurred in the alloy with annealing, and the change in the temperature of the magnetic phase tra nsition is an effect of the change in the composition of the alpha(1) phase with the phase decomposition. These results reveal requirements for partial correction of the conventionally used phase diagram of the Fe-Rh alloy system. Neither anti-phase boundaries nor aggregation of point defects is observed in any specimen. The in-situ observation of the magnetic phase transition was also performed with Lorentz microsco py and TEM. Nucleation of transition phases occurred on the surfaces o r the grain boundaries, and the phase transition progressed with rapid mobility of the phase boundaries between the anti-ferromagnetic and t he ferromagnetic phases. No intermediate phase accompanying the transi tion was observed.