Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
The ordered structure of Fe–40A1 B2 powders was completely disordered by high energy ball-milling. The defect structures of the powders disordered to different extents were characterized using X-Ray diffraction. A significant lattice expansion was observed, which we tried to relate to the high concentration of point defects introduced into the material as a consequence of milling.
A complete reordering was accomplished by heating up the specimens under an inert Ar atmosphere. We followed the kinetics of the disorder to order transformation by Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Thermogravimetric Magnetic Measurements. The two techniques allowed us to identify the temperature range and the apparent activation energy of the process. As expected, a decrease in the magnetic moment of the originally disordered powders as a consequence of the reordering treatments was also observed.