Influence of annealing process on texture evolution and magnetostriction in rolled Fe-Ga based alloys

The influence of annealing process, including heating rate and final annealing atmosphere, on texture evolution and magnetostrictive performance of rolled 0.16 wt% NbC doped Fe-Ga sheets has been investigated. It demonstrates that texture evolution is closely related with heating rate, and strong Goss texture {110}〈001〉 was obtained at 0.25 °C/min after the heating process from 900 °C to 1080 °C, accompanied with a peak value of saturation magnetostriction. Non-Goss texture and deviation from ideal {110}〈001〉 were observed at lower or higher heating rate, resulting in the decrease in saturation magnetostriction. Compared with pure-Ar annealed sheets, the hydrogen introduced into annealing atmosphere during final treatment promoted (110) grain growth and eliminated the Nb-rich precipitates, and additional improvement in the saturation magnetostriction was observed for the same annealing protocols, with a maximum measured value, (3/2)λs=λ//−λ⊥, of 233×10−6 obtained in the final Ar/H2 annealed sheet.