Structure and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline mechanically alloyed Fe-10% Ni and Fe-20% Ni

The mechanical alloying technique has been used to prepare nanocrystalline Fe-10 and Fe-20 wt.% Ni alloys from powder mixtures. The structure and magnetic properties were studied by using X-ray diffraction and hysteresis measurements, respectively. For both alloys studied, a disordered body centered cubic solid solution forms after 24 h milling time. The higher the milling time, the larger the lattice parameter. The steady-state grain size is approximate to 10 nm. The reduction of the grain size increases the saturation magnetization and decreases the coercivity. Nanocrystalline Fe-10 and Fe-20 wt.% Ni have been shown to exhibit a soft magnetic behavior. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.