Influence of Si content on the surface magnetic properties of Fe80SixB20-x metallic glasses (x = 6,10)

Abstract

The surface sensitive magneto-optical Kerr effect methods and conversion as well as integral low-energy electron Mössbauer spectroscopy are used to compare the surface magnetic and microstructural properties of two Metglas alloys with compositions Fe80Si6B14 and Fe80Si10B10. It is shown that the samples differ markedly both in the Mössbauer spectra and the surface hysteresis loops. While the ribbon with lower amount of Si is amorphous and characterized by three contributions corresponding to clusters with prevailing content of Fe and Si atoms, to clusters of mainly Fe and B atoms, and regions in between, the surface of the second sample is partially crystallized into bcc-FeSi crystals embedded in the residual amorphous matrix.