Effect of isothermal treatments on the magnetic behavior of nanocrystalline Cu-Ni-Fe alloy prepared by mechanical alloying

The present study concerns magnetic behavior of nanocrystalline Cu-Ni, Cu-Fe and Cu-Ni-Fe alloys prepared by mechanical alloying. It has been found that the magnetic properties e.g. Hc, Mr and Ms of the nanocrystalline alloys were significantly influenced by the changes in microstructural constituents, grain size and evolution of phases. Microstructural changes in the alloys have been effected by carrying out isothermal treatments on the mechanically alloyed products in the temperature range of 450-650 °C. Phase evolution in the samples after the isothermal treatments were identified and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) techniques and the results were correlated with the magnetic properties of the alloys.