Structural changes during high-energy ball milling of iron-based amorphous alloys: Is high-energy ball milling equivalent to a thermal process?

We report the first study of the effect of high-energy mechanical deformation on amorphous iron-based metallic alloys. The structural changes happening in amorphous iron-based materials containing Co or Ni during mechanical deformation show that the structural stability of an amorphous alloy against a thermal and a mechanical process are not related. Therefore, the concept of a high local effective temperature during the milling process cannot be singled out as the only reason for the observed structural transformations.