Abstract
In order to investigate the effect of boron additions in the magnetostrictive behavior of Fe72Ga28 alloy, this alloy was doped with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 at.% of boron. The results have shown that boron additions of 0.5 and 1.0% improve significantly the magnetostriction, the values being about two-fold higher compared to the undoped alloy. Microstructural evaluations suggest that boron additions suppress partially the D0(3) phase ordering, retaining the alpha-phase. Furthermore, the increase of lattice parameters of the alpha and D0(3) phases indicates that boron enters interstitially in the cubic lattice of these phases. Both effects are considered to be responsible for the increased magnetostriction observed in the (Fe0.72Ga0.28)(99.5)B-0.5 and Fe0.72Ga0.28)(99.0)B-1.0 alloys. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3561782]