Mössbauer study of nanocrystallization in amorphous Fe-P-Si-V alloys

Nanocrystallization of amorphous Fe-P-Si-V alloys during annealing is studied by Mossbauer spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. The resulting nanostructured materials are shown to contain not only equilibrium phases (α -Fe and Fe3P) but also a significant amount of the metastable paramagnetic phase Fe2P and trace levels of the σ and D phases. Nanocrystallization markedly enhances the strength of the alloys but has an adverse effect on their magnetic properties.