Physics of ferromagnetic amorphous alloys

Abstract

After some introductory comments on materials classification and a brief historical outline, this review seeks to identify those fundamental physical phenomena that underlie the major technical properties of ferromagnetic amorphous alloys. Those phenomena are reviewed and an attempt is made to compare existing data and, where possible, to synthesize new perspectives. A fundamental approach is taken in the sense that we move from consideration of the local atomic structure to its consequences for the electronic structure and from the electronic structure finally to the physical properties it determines. We focus on the aspects of the structure-property sequence that set amorphous metallic alloys apart from their crystalline counterparts. Such a review would be incomplete without addressing the new issues and insights raised by the discovery of the quasicrystalline state. The very existence and better understood atomic arrangements of quasicrystals help to define and illuminate their amorphous cousins.