Scattering Centers for Magnetoelastic Waves in Amorphous Wires

Scattered magnetoelastic waves were observed in as-quenched and annealed amorphous Fe-Si-B wires in order to clarify the nature of the scattering centers. Neither a magnetic field nor tensile stress applied to the wire changed the waveform of the scattered waves. According to observations of scattered waves in annealed wire, the annealing process has no significant effect on the properties of the scattering centers. These experimental results indicate that the scattering centers are caused by fluctuations of some elastic properties along the wire which are introduced by the quenching process, and that they are spaced a few millimeters apart on average.