Disorder-order transformation in Fe-50 %Co fabricated via laser powder bed fusion

Fe-Co alloys are an important class of soft magnetic materials that often pose challenges in their fabrication because of the brittle B2-ordered phase. We show that laser beam powder bed fusion (PBF-LB), owing to its rapid cooling rates, offers an avenue for the fabrication of these alloys by suppressing the disorder →order phase transformation at room temperature. We use neutron diffraction to understand the phase transformations in a Fe-50 %Co alloy fabricated via PBF-LB. We report that the disorder→order phase transformation in this alloy occurs concurrently via homogeneous ordering and classical nucleation and growth.