Magnetoelastic damping in Fe–Ga solid-solution alloys

The damping capacity of highly magnetostrictive Fe–Ga solid-solution alloys (6, 12 and 17 mol% Ga) has been studied in the temperature range from −190 to 800 °C. The mechanical loss, Q−1, under dynamic shear deformation has been measured at frequencies below 10 Hz. The concentrated alloys (12 and 17% Ga) exhibit Q−1 of the order of 10−2 even at low strain amplitudes of 10−5 at temperatures between −190 and 300 °C. This loss is attributed to magnetoelastic hysteresis originating from the large magnetostriction of the alloys.