Relating residual stress and microstructure to mechanical and giant magneto-impedance properties in cold-drawn Co-based amorphous microwires

The effect of cold-drawing on the tensile property and giant magneto-impedance (GM!) effect of melt-extracted Co-based amorphous microwires was evaluated through detailed analyses of the distribution of residual stress and microstructural evolution. The tensile ductility and tensile strength increased gradually with cross-sectional area reduction ratio (R) until 51%, and decreased with further deformation. The microwire with R = 51% exhibits the highest tensile ductility of 1.09% and tensile strength of 4320 MPa. Structural and thermodynamic analyses reveal that it is the mechanical deformation rather than thermal activation that induces the precipitation of nanocrystals and arrests the quick extension of shear bands leading to the enhanced ductility. Interestingly, the GMI effect also attains the maximum value of 160% at 10 MHz when R = 51% (30% larger than that of the as-cast wires), before decreasing with further cold-drawing. Such an identical evolution trend of both tensile and GMI properties can be ascribed to two underlying mechanisms: the generation of longitudinal and circumferential residual stresses and the growth of deformation-induced nanocrystals during cold-drawing. The role of residual stress is established herein not only as a trigger to accelerate the amorphous-to-nanocrystalline phase transformation but also as a decisive contributor to the mechanical and GMI performance. The unique simultaneous improvement of both mechanical and GMT properties of cold-drawn Co-based microwires opens up new possibilities for a variety of engineering applications, such as high-performance magnetic, stress and biological sensors. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.