Magnetic properties of melt‐quenched Ni‐rich amorphous and bcc Zr–Ni alloys (abstract)

It has been demonstrated recently that the structure of melt‐quenched Zr–Ni ribbons in the vicinity of 90 at. % Ni was strongly dependent on the quenching rate: at the highest quenching rate, the alloys Zr10Ni90 and Zr9Ni91 could be prepared with an amorphous structure whereas at lower quenching rates the Zr9Ni91 alloy was prepared as a solid solution of Zr in Ni with a body‐centered cubic (bcc) structure. In a preliminary measurement we have established a Curie point (Tc) of 66 K for the a‐Zr9Ni91 ribbon which was much smaller than the value Tc=235 K reported for an a‐Zr10Ni90 ribbon. This discrepancy has motivated us to perform the present detailed magnetization study in the temperature range 5 to 300 K. It was also of interest to compare the Curie point of the amorphous and bcc phase with the same chemical composition. The real component χ′ of the AC susceptibility as well as the magnetization isotherms up to H=18.5 kOe have been investigated. The measurements of χ′ yielded T=41, 66, and 70 K for a‐Zr1...