Soft ferromagnetism in amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys

Soft magnetism is achieved both in rapidly quenched glassy ribbons and in nanocrystalline alloys prepared by the partial crystallization of glassy ribbons. The use of these materials in power transformers and other energy-conversion devices has, however, been limited by their small thickness. In this paper, we discuss soft ferromagnetism both in bulk amorphous metallic alloys prepared by flux melting and water quenching and in nanocrystalline alloys prepared by mechanical alloying.