The influences of glass–glass interfaces and Ni additions on magnetic properties of transition-metal phosphide nano-glasses

Abstract

In this work, a novel kind of non-crystalline materials, the metallic nano-glasses (NGs), is synthesized, and the influences of glass–glass interfaces (GGIs) and Ni additions on the structural and thermodynamics properties, as well as the magnetism of (Co, Fe, Ni)–P NGs with various sizes of glassy grains (Davg) are studied systematically. The addition of Ni and the reduction of Davg are found to improve the glass forming abilities of NGs. The influences of volume fractions of GGIs on the magnetism of NGs are analyzed by Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetization hysteresis measurements. It is found that the soft magnetic properties of (Co, Fe)–P NGs with reduced Davg can be dramatically improved, as compared with micro-structured samples. Thus, this work has an in-depth understanding of the structural properties and magnetism of NGs as affected by the glass–glass interfaces in magnetic NGs.