Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Mechanically Alloyed Fe–Zn

The coercivity of the as-milled samples had a maximum value of 90 Oe for 33.9 wt%Zn. When annealed at 400° C for 10 days, the metastableεphase, and Γ and Γ1phases appeared with 9.75 wt%Zn, and 33.7 wt%Zn, respectively. The α-Fe phase disappeared at 73.3 wt%Zn, causing the saturation magnetization to decrease drastically to 2 emu/g. The precipitation of the metastableεphase in the annealed samples containing 24.2 wt%Zn had a maximum coercivity of 175 Oe. A single α-Fe phase is obtained upon solution treatment at 800° C for 1 h. After aging, precipitation of theεphase occurred for Zn content above 6.74 wt%. The saturation magnetisation and the coercivity of aged samples were larger than those of solution-treated samples.