Annealing effect of domain patterns of thel nearly non-magnetostrictive amorphous alloy Co58Ni10Fe5Si11B16

The influence of different annealing conditions on the domain patterns of the nearly non-magneto-strictive amorphous alloy Co58Ni10Fe5Si11B16, is investigated by means of the longitudinal magneto optical Kerr effect. In the as-quenched and in the stress relieved ribbon the domain patterns are composed of wide domains. A conventional annealing treatment at low temperature (Ta < T) gives rise to the appearance of patches of narrow laminae, whereas an annealing treatment in a magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of the ribbon results in extended fingerprint-like domain patterns. From the field dependence of the domain width an induced magnetic anisotropy energy of K1 = 0.42 × 102 J/m3 is derived, a specific Bloch wall energy of γB = 3 × 10−5 J/m2 (0.03 erg/cm2), and a domain wall width of δB = 0.6 μm.