The effects of magnetic annealing of transition metal alloys deduced from ab initio electronic structure calculations

A theory is presented for describing the effects of annealing magnetic alloys in magnetic fields. It has an ab initio spin-polarized relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker coherent potential approximation (KKR-CPA) electronic structure basis and uses the framework of concentration waves. Alloys which would otherwise be soft magnets are found experimentally to develop directional chemical order and significant uniaxial anisotropy when annealed in magnetic fields. Our approach is able to provide a quantitative description of these effects together with the underlying electronic mechanisms. We describe applications to the soft magnetic alloys permalloy and FeCo.