Mesostructural origin of stress-induced magnetic anisotropy in Fe-based nanocrystalline ribbons

Abstract

The cross-sectional mesostructure of a stress-annealed Fe-based (Fe 73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9) ribbon (SAR) has been investigated by atomic force microscopy. The magnetic anisotropy field was measured via the curves of the giant magnetoimpedence effect in SAR. The stress-induced magnetic anisotropy field (ΔH k) showed a linear correlation with the transverse congregating vector Kv of the agglomerated grains. This indicated that the ΔHk originated from the directional congregation of the agglomerated grains formed in SAR. A model for this directional congregation has been established. The previous diverse viewpoints on the mechanism of stress-induced magnetic anisotropy have been unified in this model. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.