A Transmission Electron Microscopy study of the B2-DO3 ordering phase transformations in Fe-6.3wt% Si after rapid quenching and annealing
Iron-silicon alloys are extensively used in transformer cores owing to exceptional soft magnetic behavior that is optimized at about 6.5 wt% Si. Unfortunately this equilibrium microstructure is completely brittle at room temperature. The brittle behavior coincides with the onset of an ordering reaction of the disordered A2 into the B2 and DO3 superlattices at approximately 5 wt% Si. Rapid solidification methods have been shown to improve the ductility of Fe- 6.3 to 6.5 wt% Si. In this investigation, rapidly quenched and annealed samples of Fe-6.3wt% Si were examined in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) to study the ordering phase transformations of this alloy and its effect on the mechanical behavior.Samples of Fe-6.3wt% Si were rapidly solidified by melt spinning into ribbons (t=20-80 microns) as well as by splatting using an opposing piston double anvil method. Rapidly quenched samples were subsequently heat treated in evacuated quartz tubes at 500, 600, and 700 C for 24 h.