Two kinds of phase stabilization mechanism are discussed and compared: the first is characteristic of the formation of bulk amorphous alloys, in which the high supercooling ability of multicomponent liquids is responsible for the glassy phase stabilization. Here the hindered nucleation of crystalline phases is the center phenomenon. The origin of this hindering is the slowing atomic mobility in the supercooling melt. In contrast the melt supercooling is negligible during the high entropy alloy formation. It is believed that stability of the crystalline single fcc phase is the consequence of the characteristic of high configurational entropy at high temperatures. However, the significance of this entropy-dominated stabilization is overestimated in several references. It has been concluded that transition metal contraction (arising from the d electron participation in the overall bonding state) does also contribute to the high temperature stability of fcc single phase in the high entropy alloys.

In the present work the comparison of the effect of traditional, pulse and stress annealing is made by monitoring the important mechanical and magnetic properties of FINEMET type amorphous precursor alloy. The magnetic properties were determined from the shape of magnetization curve (coercive force, anisotropy) during various heat treatments and the mechanical properties were measured using brittleness test. The traditional heat treatments were performed in resistance furnace and the magnetic measurements were performed in astatic magnetometer. The pulse and stress annealing (as well as their combinations) were carried out inside in the magnetometer. The temperature of pulse heat treatments is regulated with the length of current pulse flowing through the sample. After each pulses the magnetization curves were measured in-situ, in the magnetometer.