Electron irradiation-induced nanocrystallization of amorphous Fe85B15 alloy: Evidence for athermal nature

Abstract Nanocrystallization of amorphous alloys induced by electronic energy deposition has been frequently reported in recent years. In this paper, the crystallization of amorphous Fe 85 B 15 alloy was performed by electron irradiation with 2 MeV electrons up to a flux of 4.0 × 10 24 m −2 s −1 . It was found that at 298 K, nanocrystalline Fe–B intermetallic phases formed prior to α-Fe phase, while at 463 K, only the α-Fe phase was observed. This phenomenon cannot be interpreted in terms of the electron-beam heating, but may be attributed to the irradiation-induced increases in the short-range order and atomic diffusivity. Theoretical analysis also showed that the maximum-temperature rise driven by beam heating is much lower than that required for thermal crystallization. Our work offers strong evidence that the irradiation-induced crystallization in amorphous alloys is not a thermal activation process.