Stress annealing of Fe-Ga transduction alloys for operation under tension and compression

Abstract

The addition of Ga to bcc α-Fe increases the magnetostriction of Fe in the [100] direction (a factor of 12 for Fe81 Ga19). The effect of annealing highly textured polycrystalline Fe81.6 Ga18.4 rods under compressive stresses of -100 and -150 MPa for 10-100 min at temperatures between 625 °C and 635 °C was examined. After annealing, all samples showed nearly full performance at near-zero stresses. Samples annealed with -100 MPa stress maintained a high magnetostriction up to ~20 MPa tensile stress; the sample annealed with -150 MPa stress maintained its magnetostriction up to ~30 MPa. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.