Detection of the onset of nanocrystallization by calorimetric and magnetic measurements

Abstract

It is generally accepted that measurements of the magnetic properties are more sensitive than measurements of the enthalpy changes in the detection of the onset of crystallization of ferromagnetic phases emerging from a paramagnetic amorphous alloy. In this work, it is shown that the formation of a very fine nanocrystalline microstructure can make this assumption incorrect. Under some circumstances, the nanocrystallization onset temperature obtained from magnetic techniques is higher than the one obtained from enthalpy changes. The phenomenon is explained in terms of the superparamagnetic behavior of the uncoupled nanocrystals at the very early stages of nanocrystallization