Abstract
Fe–Pd (Fe
55.5Pd
44.5 and Fe
50Pd
50) nanostructured multilayered foils with average individual layer thicknesses decreased to 30
nm were fabricated by a sheath repetitive cold-rolling process. Fe and Pd have {0
0
1}
Fe//{0
1
1}
Pd out-of-plane texture in the as-rolled foils. With increasing the cold-rolling cycles up to nine, the intensities of {0
0
1}
Fe//{0
1
1}
Pd textures basically increase while the individual Fe/Pd layer thicknesses monotonically decrease. Textured anisotropic FePd/α-Fe nanocomposite foils were formed after being annealed at 450–600
°C for 2
h in a 19
T in-plane or out-of-plane magnetic field. It is suggested the nucleation adopts an orientation relationship of {0
0
1}
Fe//{0
1
1}
Pd//{0
0
1}
FePd in the annealed samples. Magnetic anisotropy behavior was observed in the annealed FePd/α-Fe nanocomposites due to the textured nanostructure. A combination of higher intensity of (0
0
1) out-of-plane texture, finer nanoscaled grain sizes and more sufficient solid-state phase transformation resulted in higher values of both coercivity
μ
0
H
c and maximum energy product (
BH)
max in the FePd/α-Fe nanocomposites. The texture and magnetic anisotropy behaviors were similar in both Fe–Pt and Fe–Pd alloys. Due to the textured nanostructures, (
BH)
max of Fe
50Pt
50 foil is higher by 8.5% than that of the theoretical limit of non-exchange-coupled isotropic FePt.