Permalloy is a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

–

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

magnetic

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

, with about 80% nickel and 20% iron content. Invented in 1914 by physicist Gustav Elmen at

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mul ...

, it is notable for its very high

magnetic permeability In electromagnetism, permeability is the measure of magnetization that a material obtains in response to an applied magnetic field. Permeability is typically represented by the (italicized) Greek letter ''μ''. The term was coined by William ...

, which makes it useful as a

magnetic core A magnetic core is a piece of magnetic material with a high magnetic permeability used to confine and guide magnetic fields in electrical, electromechanical and magnetic devices such as electromagnets, transformers, electric motors, generators, in ...

material in electrical and electronic equipment, and also in

magnetic shielding In electrical engineering, electromagnetic shielding is the practice of reducing or blocking the electromagnetic field (EMF) in a space with barriers made of conductive or magnetic materials. It is typically applied to enclosures, for isolatin ...

to block

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

s. Commercial permalloy alloys typically have

relative permeability In multiphase flow in porous media, the relative permeability of a phase is a dimensionless measure of the effective permeability of that phase. It is the ratio of the effective permeability of that phase to the absolute permeability. It can be ...

of around 100,000, compared to several thousand for ordinary steel. In addition to high permeability, its other magnetic properties are low

coercivity Coercivity, also called the magnetic coercivity, coercive field or coercive force, is a measure of the ability of a ferromagnetic material to withstand an external magnetic field without becoming demagnetized. Coercivity is usually measured in ...

, near zero

magnetostriction Magnetostriction (cf. electrostriction) is a property of magnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of materials' magnetization due to the applied magnetic field change ...

, and significant

anisotropic Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...

magnetoresistance Magnetoresistance is the tendency of a material (often ferromagnetic) to change the value of its electrical resistance in an externally-applied magnetic field. There are a variety of effects that can be called magnetoresistance. Some occur in bulk ...

. The low magnetostriction is critical for industrial applications, allowing it to be used in thin films where variable stresses would otherwise cause a ruinously large variation in magnetic properties. Permalloy's electrical

resistivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows ...

can vary as much as 5% depending on the strength and the direction of an applied

. Permalloys typically have the

face-centered cubic In crystallography, the cubic (or isometric) crystal system is a crystal system where the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. This is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals. There are three main varieties of ...

crystal structure with a lattice constant of approximately 0.355 nm in the vicinity of a nickel concentration of 80%. A disadvantage of permalloy is that it is not very

ductile Ductility is a mechanical property commonly described as a material's amenability to drawing (e.g. into wire). In materials science, ductility is defined by the degree to which a material can sustain plastic deformation under tensile stres ...

or workable, so applications requiring elaborate shapes, such as magnetic shields, are made of other high permeability alloys such as

mu metal Mu-metal is a nickel–iron soft ferromagnetic alloy with very high permeability, which is used for shielding sensitive electronic equipment against static or low-frequency magnetic fields. It has several compositions. One such composition ...

. Permalloy is used in

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

laminations and magnetic recording heads.

Development

Permalloy was initially developed in the early 20th century for inductive compensation of

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

cables. When the first transatlantic

submarine telegraph cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...

s were laid in the 1860s, it was found that the long conductors caused distortion which reduced the maximum signalling speed to only 10–12 words per minute. The right conditions for transmitting signals through cables without distortion were first worked out mathematically in 1885 by

Oliver Heaviside Oliver Heaviside FRS (; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was an English self-taught mathematician and physicist who invented a new technique for solving differential equations (equivalent to the Laplace transform), independently developed vec ...

.Bragg, L. ''Electricity'' (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1943) pp. 212–213. It was proposed by

Carl Emil Krarup Carl Emil Krarup (12 October 1872 – 29/30 December 1909) was a Danish telegraph engineer who is chiefly known for the invention of a kind of loaded cable, eponymously called Krarup cable, which made improvements in the transmission of telephon ...

in 1902 in Denmark that the cable could be compensated by wrapping it with iron wire, increasing the

inductance Inductance is the tendency of an electrical conductor to oppose a change in the electric current flowing through it. The flow of electric current creates a magnetic field around the conductor. The field strength depends on the magnitude of the ...

and making it a

loaded line A loading coil or load coil is an inductor that is inserted into an electronic circuit to increase its inductance. The term originated in the 19th century for inductors used to prevent signal distortion in long-distance telegraph transmissio ...

to reduce distortion. However, iron did not have high enough permeability to compensate a transatlantic-length cable. After a prolonged search, permalloy was discovered in 1914 by

Gustav Elmen Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, who found it had higher permeability than

silicon steel Electrical steel (E-steel, lamination steel, silicon electrical steel, silicon steel, relay steel, transformer steel) is an iron alloy tailored to produce specific magnetic properties: small hysteresis area resulting in low power loss per cycle ...

. Later, in 1923, he found its permeability could be greatly enhanced by

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also ...

. A wrapping of permalloy tape could reportedly increase the signalling speed of a telegraph cable fourfold. This method of cable compensation declined in the 1930s, but by World War II many other uses for Permalloy were found in the electronics industry.

Other compositions

Other compositions of permalloy are available, designated by a numerical prefix denoting the percentage of

in the

, for example "45 permalloy" means an alloy containing 45%

, and 55%

. "Molybdenum permalloy" is an

of 81%

, 17%

and 2%

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

. The latter was invented at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

in 1940. At the time, when used in long distance copper telegraph lines, it allowed a tenfold increase in maximum line working speed. Supermalloy, at 79% Ni, 16% Fe, and 5% Mo, is also well known for its high performance as a "soft" magnetic material, characterized by high permeability and low

Notes

References

* Richard M. Bozorth, ''Ferromagnetism,'' Wiley-IEEE Press (1993 reissue), . * P. Ciureanu and S. Middelhoek, eds., ''Thin Film Resistive Sensors,'' Institute of Physics Publishing (1992), {{ISBN, 0-7503-0173-2. Nickel alloys Magnetic alloys Ferromagnetic materials

Development

Other compositions

See also

Notes

References