Mechanisms of isothermal relaxation and recovery in the amorphous alloy Fe40Ni40P14B6

Abstract

The relaxation and recovery behaviour of the spin‐quenched amorphous alloy Fe40Ni40P14B6 is investigated by means of the magnetic after‐effect. Three processes are clearly distinguished: (i) reorientation of anisotropic defect configurations; (ii) defect migration induced by magnetic anisotropies; (iii) diffusion due to quenched‐in gradients of defect concentrations. This latter process, causing the transition of the as‐quenched system into the completely relaxed glassy state, is thoroughly investigated in dependence on systematically varied thermomagnetic pretreatments of the alloy.