Effect of ordering transformation rate on the magnetic properties of Fe–Pt-based bulk alloys

We have investigated the ordering transformation and magnetic properties of Fe_59.75Pt_39.5Nb_0.75 bulk alloys in detail by using different high-temperature homogenization treatments, different cooling rates and different low-temperature annealing treatments to obtain samples with different microstructure and different atomically ordered states. The quenching rate after the high-temperature homogenization treatment was chosen much lower than in previous investigations. In this way, we were able to obtain nanostructured bulk alloys consisting exclusively of the hard-magnetic face-centered-tetragonal phase. A high remanence ratio was obtained by profiting from the nanocomposite exchange coupling between nearest-neighbor-ordered regions. The present results are compared with results of previous investigations in which much higher cooling rates were applied. We also discussed why the present alloy systems are less suitable for the attainment of exchange spring behavior.