The role of magnetic fields on the arrangement of ordered variants of L10-type Fe–55Pd (at.%) alloy

An Fe–55Pd (at.%) alloy exhibits a disorder–order transformation from the A1-type disordered cubic phase to the L10-type ordered tetragonal phase. We have investigated the influence of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy on the selective formation of a variant of the ordered phase during heat treatment. We found that the strength of the magnetic field required to produce a single variant decreases from approximately 4 T to approximately 0.4 T when the ordering heat-treatment temperature is decreased from 673 to 603 K. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy was evaluated at these temperatures as a function of magnetic field. The nucleation ratio between different variants was evaluated through the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. It is revealed that a single variant state is obtained during the growth process when the nucleation ratio of the dominant variant exceeds approximately 1.1.