Reply to "Comment on 'Grain-boundary structure and magnetic behavior in nanorystalline ball-milled iron'"

Ln their Comment Balogh et al, criticize our paper [Phys. Rev. B 56, 8894 ( 1997)] dealing with nanocrystalline Fe synthesized through bah milling by v arying the duration of the milling process (2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 h) so to ob tain powder with different mean grain size, in the 8-25 nm range. Balogh et al. suggest that it is possible to explain some features of the Mossbauer spectra of these powders, shown in the original paper, by impurities instea d of the presence of a grain-boundary region among the crystallites, In par ticular, they claim that 0.3-0.5 at. 4 Cr, deriving from the milling proces s, is present in the sample milled for the longest time. In this reply, we discuss energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy results demonstrating the abse nce of Cr, at least in an amount higher than 0.1 at. %. Moreover, we contes t the statement that steel milling tools necessarily introduce significant levels of Cr impurity into the milled materials. Finally, we explain how th e presence of on amount less than 0.1 at. % Cr in the 32 h milled Fe sample would not affect our. previous conclusions. [S0163-1829(99)06021-X].