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) fo r comparison with the multicomponent Fe81Cu1Si9B6Nb3 (FINEMET) composi tion, which was also prepared by the MA technique. This latter alloy i s usually prepared with an amorphous structure by the melt quenching t echnique and subsequently annealed to produce a nanocrystalline materi al. X-ray and neutron experiments have been made on the Fe-Cu and FINE MET alloys to investigate the evolution of their structures as a funct ion of time of MA treatment. The results suggest that the multicompone nt Fe81Cu1Si9B6Nb3 has more pronounced nanocrystalline properties in c omparison with the binary BCC Fe80Cu20 extended solid solution. (C) 19 97 Acta Metallurgica Inc.