  The processing of binary alloys consisting of ferromagnetic Fe and
antiferromagnetic Cr by severe plastic deformation (SPD) with different
chemical compositions has been investigated. Although the phase diagram
exhibits a large gap in the thermodynamical equilibrium at lower temperatures,
it is shown that techniques based on SPD help to overcome common processing
limits. Different processing routes including initial ball milling (BM) and arc
melting (AM) and a concatenation with annealing treatments prior to
high-pressure torsion (HPT) deformation are compared in this work.
Investigation of the deformed microstructures by electron microscopy and
synchrotron X-ray diffraction reveal homogeneous, nanocrystalline
microstructures for HPT deformed AM alloys. HPT deformation of powder blends
and BM powders leads to an exorbitant increase in hardness or an unusual fast
formation of a $\sigma$-phase and therefore impede successful processing.
