title: Role of nanoscale precipitates on the enhanced magnetostriction of heat-treated galfenol (Fe1-xGax) alloys.
abstract: We report neutron diffuse scattering measurements on highly magnetostrictive Fe1-xGax alloys (0.14<x<0.20) with different thermal treatments. This diffuse scattering scales with magnetostriction and exhibits asymmetric peaks at the (100) and (300) reciprocal lattice positions that are consistent with the coexistence of short-range ordered, coherent nanometer-scale precipitates embedded in a long-range ordered, body-centered cubic matrix. A large peak splitting is observed at (300) for x=0.19, which indicates that the nanoprecipitates are not cubic and have a large elastic strain. This implies a structural origin for the enhanced magnetostriction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gehring
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Devreugd
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Rivera
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Viehland