In situ Investigation of Magnetism in Metastable Phases of Levitated Fe83B17 During Solidification

Understanding transient phases that evolve during solidification can be critical to phase selection and the resulting microstructure of an alloy. However, the nature of high-temperature metastable phases makes them difficult to study with conventional techniques. The authors combine a tunnel-diode oscillator, electrostatic levitator, and x-ray diffraction for contactless precision measurement of magnetic transitions during the freezing of Fe-B, an industrially important material. This technique will prove invaluable for studying high-temperature magnetism in challenging systems.