Abstract
The magnetic properties of granular Cu90Co10 alloy prepared by direct current joule heating in vacuum have been investigated. Direct current joule heating was originally designated for heat treatment of amorphous ribbons at higher temperature and for shorter time with respect to conventional annealing methods. Cu90Co10 granular alloy prepared by the melt-spinning technique and subsequently annealing the rapidly quenched ribbons by joule heating results in fine Co magnetic particles embedded in nonmagnetic Cu matrix. The preferred orientation of fcc matrix was gradually evolved from (200) to (111) with increasing annealing current. The saturation magnetization (Ms) is closely related to formation process of magnetic Co particles during Joule heating.