Magnetic and crystallization studies of splat-cooled praseodymium–gallium–iron alloys

Abstract

Magnetic hysteresis and crytallization studies are reported for several (Pr80Ga20)100−xFex metallic glasses, where 30≤x≤80. Thermomagnetic data show the presence of two magnetic phases which are probably responsible for the relatively high coercive fields observed at cryogenic temperatures. As the iron content of the sample is increased, the magnetic moment increases substantially but the coercivity is drastically reduced. In (Pr80Ga20)70Fe30 the observed coercive fields are strongly temperature dependent indicating strong thermal activation effects which are consistent with the magnetic viscosity measurements. The hard magnetic properties disappear after crystallization and the samples appear to be paramagnetic at room temperature.