Fe-based glassy alloys with high iron content and high saturation magnetization

Iron-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are attractive due to their excellent magnetic properties. It is known that increasing the iron content in alloys would enhance the magnetic property of glassy alloys, but would reduce their glass forming ability. Despite researchers are keen to develop Fe-based BMGs with high Fe content, BMG with Fe content higher than 79 at.% has not been reported. Here we report that Fe-based BMGs with Fe content as high as 78 similar to 81 at.% have been successfully prepared. The as-prepared Fe81Mo1P7.5C5.5B2Si3 BMG possesses a saturation magnetization of 1.64 T, which is significantly higher than the reported value in BMGs. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.