Shinji Furukawa

Preparation, mechanical strengths, and thermal

Ni-based amorphous wires with good bending ductility have been prepared for Ni75Si8B17 and Ni78P12B10 alloys containing 1 to 2 at. pct Al or Zr by melt spinning in rotating water. The enhancement of the wire-formation tendency by the addition of Al has been clarified to be due to the increase in the stability of the melt jet through the formation of a thin A12O3 film on the outer surface. The maximum wire diameter is about 190 to 200 μm for the Ni-Si (or P)-B-Al alloys and increases to about 250 μm for the Ni-Si-B-Al-Cr alloys containing 4 to 6 at. pct Cr. The tensile fracture strength and fracture elongation are 2730 MPa and 2.9 pct for (Ni0.75Si0.08B0.1799Al1) wire and 2170 MPa and 2.4 pct for (Ni0.78P0.12B0.1)99Al1 wire. These wires exhibit a fatigue limit under dynamic bending strain in air with a relative humidity of 65 pct; this limit is 0.50 pct for a Ni-Si-B-Al wire, which is higher by 0.15 pct than that of a Fe75Si10B15 amorphous wire. Furthermore, the Ni-base wires do not fracture during a 180-deg bending even for a sample annealed at temperatures just below the crystallization temperature, in sharp contrast to high embrittlement tendency for Fe-base amorphous alloys. Thus, the Ni-based amorphous wires have been shown to be an attractive material similar to Fe- and Co-based amorphous wires because of its high static and dynamic strength, high ductility, high stability to thermal embrittlement, and good corrosion resistance.

Uniaxial magnetic FeC thin films sputtered onto polymer substrates

Thin films of FeC were deposited onto a polymer substrate by reactive DC magnetron sputtering, using an argon and hydrocarbon gas mixture. The polymer web is wound by a roll coater, and an individual thin film with a constant thickness is piled up by increasing a number of passes UP to a desired thickness. Uniaxial films with Hk=4000 A/m and low dispersion were obtained. The coercive force was a function of thickness; it was Hc=8 A/m for films 0.8 /spl mu/m thick. The easy axis of the uniaxial anisotropy was along the direction transverse to the rolling direction of the polymer web. The origin of the uniaxial anisotropy is the anisotropic thermal shrinkage of the polymer web is discussed by a model.

Large Barkhausen discontinuity of Co-Fe-Si-B amorphous films sputtered on polymer substrate

Co-Fe-Si-B films have been prepared using a roll coater and DC magnetron sputtering system onto a polyethylene terephthalate substrate. This thin film exhibited an excellent uniaxial anisotropy introduced by an asymmetric thermal shrinkage of the substrate. Reversal with a single large Barkhausen pulse has been observed in thin film structure 1 mm by 50 mm by 0.65 /spl mu/m. Closure domains have been clearly identified at the film ends. The threshold for the reversal is the coercive force. The reason for reversal with a single Barkhausen jump is that the long narrow film geometry has essentially zero demagnetizing field over most of the film. Once the walls start to move through the center portion of the film, there is nothing to stop them so the reversal proceeds with a single large Barkhausen pulse.

High-Tc superconductors prepared by oxidation of vapor-quenched amorphous alloy films in Ba−Y−Cu and Ba−Yb−Cu systems

Amorphous Ba1Y2Cu5 and Ba2Yb1Cu6 alloy films were obtained by rf sputtering. The oxidization treatment by annealing of the alloy films in the range of 1173 to 1223 K in an oxygen flowing atmosphere gave rise to the formation of Ba1Y2Cu5Oy and Ba2Yb1Cu6Oy oxide films. The Ba1Y2Cu5Oy and Ba2Yb1Cu6Oy films consisted mainly of an orthorhombic phase and exhibited high-Tc superconductivity with onset at 91 and 86 K and zero resistance at 75 and 82 K, respectively.