Magnetic annealing and crystallization kinetics of the metallic glass Fe5Co70Si15B10

Magnetic annealing and crystallization kinetics of amorphous ribbons of Fe₅Co₇₀Si₁₅B₁₀ were studied. For a toroid stress-relieved at 365°C for 2 h, the anistropy energy K_u obtained by cooling in a magnetic field from 300°C was ≈1.1 × 10³erg/cm³ at room temperature. The reorientation of induced anisotropy of this toroid followed the equation for first-order kinetics closely, yielding an activation energy ΔE = 1.9 eV and a pre-exponential frequency factor v₀ = 3.2 × 10¹³s^-1. Anisotropy reorientation in a toroid partially stress-relieved at 220°C, although was clearly reversible during 8 cycles of isothermal annealing in tranverse and in longitudinal field, exhibited significant deviations from the equation for first order kinetics. Treating the data in terms of the equation for first order kinetics, a narrow spectrum of activation energy from 1.2 to 1.8 eV, with corresponding frequency factors from 1.8 × 10⁸ s^-1 to 5.6 × 10¹² s^-1, was obtained. The difference in behavior between the two samples is discussed in the light of concepts in structural relaxation recently proposed by T. Egami. Crystallization kinetics was studied on a DSC apparatus, using Kissinger's method. At 10 K/min heating rate, the temperature of incipient crystallization was found to be 770 K. The activation energies found were in the range 4.8–4.2 eV.