CRYSTALLIZATION OF GLASSY FE80B20-XSIX (0-LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-X-LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-12) ALLOYS

High-temperature magnetization as well as X-ray diffraction studies have been done to elucidate systematically the effect of the metalloid Si on the crystallization mechanism of Fe-B amorphous alloys. It has been observed that with the addition of Si, the crystallization temperature increases, implying higher thermal stability of the system. The effect of Si addition (x greater-than-or-equal-to 4) is that the crystallization occurs in two steps instead of one. For x = 0-2 the final crystallized phases are alpha-Fe and t-Fe3B but for x greater-than-or-equal-to 4 the phases are alpha-Fe and t-Fe2B.