Atom probe tomography study of ultrahigh nanocrystallization rates in FeSiNbBCu soft magnetic amorphous alloys on rapid annealing

Rapid annealing (4–10 s) induced primary crystallization of soft magnetic Fe–Si nanocrystals in a Fe73.5Si15.5Cu1Nb3B7 amorphous alloy has been systematically studied by atom probe tomography in comparison with conventional annealing (30–60 min). It was found that the nanostructure obtained after rapid annealing is basically the same, irrespective of the different time scales of annealing. This underlines the crucial role of Cu during structure formation. Accordingly, the clustering of Cu atoms starts at least 50 °C below the onset temperature of primary crystallization. As a consequence, coarsening of Cu atomic clusters also starts prior to crystallization, resulting in a reduction of available nucleation sites during Fe–Si nanocrystallization. Furthermore, the experimental results explicitly show that these Cu clusters initially induce a local enrichment of Fe and Si in the amorphous matrix. These local chemical heterogeneities are proposed to be the actual nuclei for subsequent nanocrystallization. Nevertheless, rapid annealing in comparison with conventional annealing results in the formation of ∼30% smaller Fe–Si nanocrystals, but of identical structure, volume fraction and chemical composition, indicating the limited influence of thermal treatment on nanocrystallization, owing to the effect of Cu