Structural phase transformations during deformation Of Fe-Co-V alloys using the high-pressure torsion method

Fe-Co alloys belong to the soft magnetic materials and have an extremely high value of saturation magnetization σ at room temperature. In particular, Fe-Co alloy with the equiatomic ratio of components at room temperature has the maximal σ value among all known ferromagnetic materials. Unfortunately, it is hard to reproduce the unique magnetic properties of these alloys (especially Fe-Co alloys) due to their high fragility caused mainly by the formation of far atomic ordering according to B2 type in the structure. Adding vanadium to the Fe-Co alloys increases plasticity, but it reduces basic magnetic characteristics. In this paper, using the X-ray structural analysis, transmission scanning microscopy, and magnetometry, the authors analyzed the influence of high-pressure torsion at the temperatures of 77 and 295 K on the structure and phase composition of soft magnetic alloys (Fe-Co)100-xVx (x=0–6.0). As the principal structural parameter before and after deformation, the authors analyzed the magnitude of γ-phase volume ratio in the BCC magnetic matrix. The study identified that plastic deformation causes the suppression of formation of excessive γ-phase in alloys containing (3.0–6.0) % V. The study shows that the loss of γ-phase is observed with the increase of high-pressure torsion deformation firstly in the alloys with the high vanadium proportion and at the deformation effect at higher temperature (295 K). The authors conclude that the detected effect is a consequence of γ→α martensite transformation caused by deformation by analogy to TRIP-effect. The study identified that the suppression of paramagnetic γ-phase leads to a noticeable increase in the specific saturation magnetization.