Annealing effects and short-range ordering in the non-magnetostrictive amorphous alloy Co58Ni10Fe5Si11B16

Effects of isothermal and isochronal annealing on the coercive field and the effective magnetic anisotropy in the as-quenched and the stress relieved amorphous alloy Co₅₈Ni₁₀Fe₅Si₁₁B₁₆ were investigated. The mechanisms of the deterioration of soft magnetic properties in non-magnetostrictive amorphous alloys by annealing at low temperatures,T_a<T_c, are discussed. It turned out, that short-range ordering, i.e., topological short-range ordering (TSRO) and chemical short-range ordering (CSRO), caused by annealing lead to changes of the magnetostriction_s, and of the induced magnetic anisotropyK_i. Both effects give rise to an increase of the coercive field. In addition, the kinetics of short-range ordering was studied and from these data, which are closely related to the stability of soft magnetic properties, the activation energy and a preexponential factor was derived:Q_s.r=0.7eV,v₀=9.6×10³s^–1.