PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Ge-71 tracer diffusion was studied to gain insight into the atomistic transport processes underlying the formation of magnetic anisotropy in nanocrystalline soft-magnetic Fe73.5Si13.5B9Nb3Cu1. The interfacial diffusion characteristic was determined by the residual intergranular amorphous phase, which gives rise to a strongly reduced interface diffusivity compared with grain boundaries in metals. Ge diffusion in the nanocrystallites, which is considered to characterize Si self-diffusion, is much slower than Fe diffusion owing to the D0(3) order of the Fe3Si nanocrystallites. Slow Si diffusion in the nanocrystallites is identified as the rate-controlling process for the generation of the field-induced magnetic anisotropy.