Formation and properties of high Fe-content Fe-（B-Si）-Zr bulk amorphous alloys

The present work is devoted to the development of Fe-（B-Si）-Zr amorphous alloys with high glass-forming ability and good magnetic properties. Using the cluster-plus-glue-atom model proposed for ideal amorphous structures, [FeFe11B3Si]（Fe1-xZrx） was determined as the cluster formula of Fe-（B-Si）-Zr alloys. The glass formation and thermal stability of the serial alloys, namely, [FeFel~B3Si]（Fel_xZrx） （x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.75, and 1.0）, were studied by the combination of copper mold casting, X-ray diffraction, and differential thermal analysis techniques. The maxima of glass-forming ability and thermal stability were found to occur at the compositions of [FeFe11B3Si] （Fe0.6Zr0.4） and [FeFe11B3Si]（Fe0.5Zr0.5）. The alloys can be cast into amorphous rods with 1.5 ram diameter, and upon reheating, the amorphous alloys exhibit a large undercooled liquid span of 37 K. The saturation magnetization of the [FeFe11B3Si]（Fe0.5Zr0.5） amorphous alloy was measured to be 1.4 T.