ATOMIC MAGNETIC MOMENT AND ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF Fe-B AMORPHOUS ALLOYS BASED ON X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY

The electronic structure of amorphous and crystalline Fe100–xBx alloys for 14≤x≤19.5 has been studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and calculated in terms of the modified coherent potential approximation. Exchange splitting measurements of 3s-spectra were used to estimate the atomic magnetic moment of the Fe atom in Fe-B amorphous and crystalline alloys. These results agree qualitatively with saturation magnetization measurements including the deviation from the Slater-Pauling curve. This deviation according to our calculations is the result of the specific charge transfer of s, p and d electrons at about 15.5 at % B. The calculation in ternary alloy approach shows a stable ferromagnetic state of Fe atoms for the studied alloy concentrations.