Structural relaxation, crystallization and improvement of magnetic properties in FeXSiB (X=Cr, Nb)-type amorphous alloys

In the present paper, the influence of Nb and Cr on intensity of structural relaxation, crystallization processes, electric and magnetic properties in the Fe76Nb2Si13B9, Fe76Cr2Si13B9 and Fe76Nb1Cr1Si13B9 alloys were investigated. It was shown that the improvement of magnetic permeability caused by a suitable annealing is a thermally activated process. Activation energy of this process is found to be of the order of 1 eV. Cr as an alloying addition to the Fe-Si-B alloy does not change the 1 h optimization annealing temperature and causes an increase of its efficiency. Nb as an alloying addition causes an increase of the 1 h optimization annealing temperature, and also the temperature of the first step of crystallization.