Moment canting and structural anisotropy in amorphous alloys: experiments using synchrotron Mössbauer radiation

Abstract Moment canting, a phenomenon where the atomic moments in a soft magnet do not completely align with an applied field of substantial magnitude, has been measured in field annealed (FA) and stress relieved (SR) ribbons of the amorphous alloy Fe78Si9B13. Measurements were made using a synchrotron Mossbauer (SM) source, taking advantage of the fully polarised state of the source to simplify the analysis. Mean in-plane canting angles of order 12° were found for both sets of ribbons in an applied field of 1.1 T, in keeping with earlier results in smaller fields. The spectra were found to be dependent on the direction of the applied field in the ribbon plane, indicating structural anisotropy in all the samples, consistent with the presence of residual casting strains.