Magnetic properties of mechanically alloyed nanocrystalline Ni3Fe

Disordered nanocrystalline Ni3Fe alloy was prepared by mechanical alloying of elemental powders. X-ray diffractograms show the formation of Ni3Fe sing le phase. The chemical composition and morphology of the powder have been o btained by using EDAX and SEM analysis respectively. While the saturation m agnetisation decreases with milling time, the coercivity increases. The wid th of the hyperfine field distributions obtained from Mossbauer studies sho ws that the alloy is highly disordered Atomic ordering is found to take pla ce at a faster rate compared to that in the bulk alloy. (C) 1999 Acta Metal lurgica Inc.