Critical state-induced emergence of superior magnetic performances in an iron-based amorphous soft magnetic composite

Abstract Soft magnetic composites (SMCs) play a pivotal role in the development of high-frequency, miniaturization and complex forming of modern electronics. However, they usually suffer from a trade-off between high magnetization and good magnetic softness (high permeability and low core loss). In this work, utilizing the order modulation strategy, a critical state in a FeSiBCCr amorphous soft magnetic composite (ASMC), consisting of massive crystal-like orders (CLOs, ~1 nm in size) with the feature of α-Fe, is designed. This critical-state structure endows the amorphous powder with the enhanced ferromagnetic exchange interactions and the optimized magnetic domains with uniform orientation and fewer micro-vortex dots. Superior comprehensive soft magnetic properties at high frequency emerge in the ASMC, such as a high saturation magnetization (Ms) of 170 emu/g and effective permeability (μe) of 65 combined with a core loss (Pcv) as low as 70 mW/cm3 (0.01 T, 1 MHz). This study provides a new strategy for the development of high-frequency ASMCs, possessing suitable comprehensive soft magnetic performance to match the requirements of the modern magnetic devices used in the third-generation semiconductors and new energy fields.