Phase structure evolution and coercivity mechanism of high-Co containing permanent magnets

The phase structure and magnetic properties of high-Co containing permanent magnets with high thermal stability have been systematically studied in this work.It is abnormal that the coercivity of annealed samples was slightly lower than that of sintered samples,while the coercivity was usually enhanced after annealing in conventional Nd–Fe–B samples.Further analysis showed that in addition to RE2(Fe,Co)14B main phase and RE-rich grain boundary phase,there were also new Co-rich magnetic phases located in the grain boundary.During annealing,the phase structures of high-Co containing magnets were readjusted,especially the increasing Co-rich magnetic phase and emerging RE-rich particles precipitated from the main phase.Eventually,the isolated RE-rich particles would act as the pinning center of the domain wall movement in demagnetization process.It was confirmed that the coercivity of annealed high-Co containing magnets was controlled by both nucleation and pinning.Pinning mechanism can partially compensate for the weakening of magnetic isolation due to increased Co-rich magnetic phase,which explained the moderate decrease in coercivity of annealed high-Co containing magnets.The discovery of new coercivity mechanism contributed to in-depth understanding of high-Co containing magnets.

Coercivity mechanism of La-Nd-Fe-B films with Y spacer layer

The effect of the Y spacer layer on the phase composition,coercivity,and magnetization reversal processes of La-Nd-Fe-B films has been investigated.The addition of a 10 nm Y spacer layer increases the coercivity of the film to 1.36 T at 300 K and remains 0.938 T at 380 K.As the thickness of the Y spacer layer increases,Y participates in the formation of the main phase in the film,and further regulates the formation of La-B phases.The results of the first-order reversal curve(FORC)and micromagnetic fitting show that the coercivity of all the films is dominated by nucleation mechanism.The c-axis preferred orientation,good magnetic microstructure parameters and the largest dipole interaction enhance the coercivity.Therefore,the introduction of the Y spacer layer can be an effective way to improve the coercivity of La-Nd-Fe-B film over a wide temperature range of 150 K-380 K.

Coercivity mechanisms in nanostructured permanent magnets

Coercivity mechanism in permanent magnets has been debated for many years.In this paper, various models of the coercivity mechanism are classified and re-examined by the comparison and contrast.Coherent rotation and curling models can reveal the underlying reversal mechanism clearly based on isolated grains with elliptic shapes.By contrast, the numerical methods consider inter-grain interactions while simulating the evolution of the spins and hysteresis loops with complicated shapes.However, an exact simulation of magnetic reversal in permanent nanomagnets requires many meshes to mimic the thin domain wall well.Nucleation and pinning are the two main coercivity mechanisms in permanent magnets.The former signifies the beginning of the magnetic reversal, whilst the latter completes it.Recently, it is proposed that the large difference between the intrinsic magnetic properties of the nucleation centers and those of the main phase can result in a large pinning field(self-pinning), which has the attributes of both traditional nucleation and pinning.Such a pinning explains the experimental data of permanent magnets very well, including the enhancement of the coercivity by the grain boundary pinning.

Temperature stability and microstructure of ultra-high intrinsic coercivity Nd-Fe-B magnets

The variations of intrinsic coercivity and remanence of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets with ultra-high intrinsic coercivity were investigated. The results showed that the intrinsic coercivity and remanence declined simultaneously with increasing temperature, but the squareness of the magnets has hardly been changed. The temperature coefficients of remanence （α） and coercivity （β） for the magnets were calculated by two different methods, and the variations of the temperature coefficients and the microstructure of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets were analyzed. The temperature coefficients of remanence （α） and coercivity （β） for the sintered magnets are very small, and the existence of fine microstructure is necessary to obtain sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets with ultra-high intrinsic coercivity.

Reduction of Coercivity of Fe-N Soft Magnetic Film by Heat Treatment

200 nm thick Fe-N magnetic thin films were deposited on glass substrates by RF sputtering. The as-deposited films have high saturation magnetization but their coercivity is also higher than what is needed Therefore it is very important to reduce coercivity. The samples were vacuum annealed at 250℃ under 12000 A/m magnetic field. When the N content was in the range of 5-7 at. pct, the thin films consisted of α' +α' after heat treatment and had excellent soft magnetic properties of 4πMs=2.4 T, HC <80 A/m. However, the thickness of a recording head was 2μm, and Hc increased as thickness increased. In order to reduce the Hc, the sputtering power was raised from 200 W to 1000 W to reduce the grain size. 2μm Fe-N thin films were vacuum annealed under the same condition, when the N content was in the range of 5.9-8.5 at. pct, the thin films kept its excellent magnetic properties of 4πMs=2.2 T, HC <80 A/m. The properties of the films meet the need of a recording head material used in the dual-element GMR/inductive heads.

Crystallization behaviour and high coercivity of (Nd,Pr)_(13)Fe_(80)Nb_1B_6 melt-spun ribbons

Amorphous （Nd,Pr）13Fe80Nb1B6 ribbons were crystallized at 670-730°C for 5-25 min to study the effects of isothermal crystallization on their behavior and magnetic properties. XRD results indicate that the isothermal incubation time is 12, 5, and less than 5 min at 670, 700, and 730°C, respectively. High coercivities, with the maximum value of iHc = 1616 kA/m at 700°C for 19 min, measured by a physical property measurement system, are obtained in the crystallized ribbons. This is mainly attributed to the addition of Pr and Nb, because Pr2Fe14B has a higher anisotropic field than Nd2Fe14B, and Nb enriched in the grain boundary regions can not only reduce the exchange-coupling effects among hard grains, but also impede grain growth during the crystallization process. In addition, it should also be related to the characteristics of the furnace that the authors designed.

Improvement in coercivity,thermal stability,and corrosion resistance of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets with Dy_(80)Ga_(20) intergranular addition

To investigate the coercivity,corrosion resistance,and thermal stability of Nd-Fe-B magnets,their properties were investigated at room and high temperature before and after doping with Dy（80）Ga（20）（at.%） powder.The coercivity of the magnets increased from the undoped value of 12.72 kOe to a doped value of 21.44 kOe.A micro-structural analysis indicates that a well-developed core-shell structure forms in the magnets doped with Dy（80）Ga（20） powder.The improvement in magnetic properties is believed to be related to the refined and uniform matrix grains,continuous grain boundaries,and a hardened（Nd,Dy）2Fe（14）B shell surrounding the matrix grains.Additionally,the doped magnets exhibit an obvious improvement in thermal stability.For the magnets with added Dy（80）Ga（20） powder,the temperature coefficients of remanence（α） and coercivity（β） increased to-0.106%℃-（-1） and-0.60%℃-（-1） over the range 20-100 ℃,compared to temperature coefficients of-0.117%℃-（-1）（α） and-0.74%℃-（-1）（β） in the regular magnets without Dy（80）Ga（20） powder.The irreversible loss of magnetic flux（Hirr） was investigated at different temperatures.After being exposed to 150 ℃ for 2 h,the Hirr of magnets with 4 wt.%Dy（80）Ga（20） decreased by -95%compared to that of the undoped magnets.The enhanced temperature coefficients and Hirr indicate improved thermal stability in the doped Nd-Fe-B magnets.The intergranular addition of Dy（80）Ga（20） also improved the corrosion resistance of the magnets because of the enhanced intergranular phase.In a corrosive atmosphere for 96 h,the mass loss of the sintered magnets with 4 wt.%Dy（80）Ga（20） was 2.68 mg/cm-2,less than 10%of that suffered by the undoped magnets（28.1 mg/cm-2）.

High Energy and High Coercivity Sintered NdFeB Magnets by Low Oxygen Process

Using ball milling and single direction pressing, we can produce high performance NdFeB sintered magnets. The oxygen content of sintered magnets can be controlled under 1500xl0^-6 and the magnetic performance can be improved by using low oxygen processing. The high preformance NdFeB sintered magnets with Br=(1.4 ± 0.2)T, iHc>796 kA/m and (BH)max=(390± 16) kJ/m^3, have been batch produced.

Coercivity and microstructure of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets diffused with Pr-Co,Pr-Al,and Pr-Co-Al alloys

The commercial 42 M Nd-Fe-B magnet was treated by grain boundary diffusion(GBD)with Pr_(70)Co_(30)(PC),Pr_(70)Al_(30)(PA)and Pr_(70)Co_(15)Al_(15)(PCA)alloys,respectively.The mechanism of coercivity enhancement in the GBD magnets was investigated.The coercivity was enhanced from 1.63 T to 2.15 T in the PCA GBD magnet,higher than the 1.81 T of the PC GBD magnet and the 2.01 T of the PA GBD magnet.This indicates that the joint addition of Co and Al in the diffusion source can further improve the coercivity.Microstructural investigations show that the coercivity enhancement is mainly attributed to the exchange-decoupling of the GB phases.In the PCA GBD magnet,the wider thin GB phases can be formed and the thin GB phases can still be observed at the diffusion depth of 1500μm due to the combined action of Co and Al.At the same time,the formation of the Pr-rich shell can also be observed,which is helpful for the coercivity enhancement.

Mechanisms of High Coercivity in Ni/NiO Composite Films by Post Annealing

A coercivity as large as 2.4 kOe has been achieved in the Ni/NiO composite film after an annealing under a magnetic field of 10 kOe and an O_2 partial pressure of 0.001 torr.The coercivity was attributed to the strong exchange coupling of Ni and NiO.Small grain size of Ni and NiO was observed after the post-annealing.The enhanced coercivity is probably associated with the domain wall pinning by local energy minima,the distribution of Ni and NiO,and the domain structure in the interface of Ni/NiO generated under the presence of the magnetic field during the post-annealing.

Texture analysis of ultra-high coercivity Sm_(2)Co_(7) hot deformation magnets

Bulk anisotropic Sm_(2)Co_(7) nanocrystalline magnets were successfully prepared by hot deformation process using spark plasma sintering technology.The coercivity of the isotropic Sm_(2)Co_(7) nanocrystalline magnet is 34.76 kOe,further,the ultra-high coercivity of 50.68 kOe is obtained in the anisotropic hot deformed Sm_(2)Co_(7) magnet when the height reduction is70%,which is much higher than those of the ordinarily produced hot deformed Sm_(2)Co_(7) magnet.X-ray diffraction(XRD)analysis shows that all the samples are Sm_(2)Co_(7) single phase.The investigation by electron backscatter diffraction indicates that increasing the amount of deformation is beneficial to the improvement of the(001) texture of Sm_(2)Co_(7) magnets.The Sm_(2)Co_(7) nanocrystalline magnet generates a strong c-axis crystallographic texture during large deformation process.

THE INFLUENCES OF SOLUTION PH AND CURRENT DENSITY ON COERCIVITY OF ELECTROPLATING CoNdNiMnP PERMANENT MAGNETIC ALLOY FILM ARRAYS

The influences of plating bath solution PH and current density on coercivity of electroplating CoNdNiMnP permanent magnetic film arrays were studied. The experiment results show that both for solution PH and current density there were the best depositing parameters. Too high and too low plating bath solution PH or current density both result in decreasing of the film array coercivity. When solution PH is 3.5 and current density is 5mA/cm2, the prepared film array coercivity can reach the maximum.

Investigation of the coercivity mechanism for Nd-Fe-B based magnets prepared by a new technique of strip casting

The coercivity mechanism of Nd-Fe-B based magnets prepared by a new techniqueof strip casting was investigated. Different from the traditional magnets, α-Fe phases aredifficult to be found in Nd-Fe-B magnets prepared by strip casting. Meanwhile, the rich-Nd phasesoccur not only near the grain boundaries of main phases, but also within the main-phase grains.Investigation on the magnetizing field dependence of the coercivity for the(Nd_(0.935)Dy_(0.065))_(14.5)Fe_(79.4)B_(6.1) magnet and the temperature dependence of thecoercivity for the Nd_(14.5)Fe_(79.4)B_(6.1) magnet hav been done. Results show that coercivitiesfor strip casting magnets are controlled by the nucleation mechanism.

THE EFFECT OF Mo ADDITION ON COERCIVITY OF NdFeB SINTERED MAGNET PREPARED BY BLENDING METHOD

Alloy modification, accompanying with proper heat treatment, is commonly used to improve the thermal stability of NdFeB magnet. Traditional alloy modification is performed through melting process with alloy elements to form the multi-alloy. In doing so, these alloy elements not only are introduced into the inter-ranular boundaries, but partly into the main phase, thus decreasing to some extent the magnetism of the main phase. In this paper, the blending method is used to prepare the Nd22Fe71B7/Mo sintered magnet, and its magnetic properties and microstractures are investigated. The results show that by adding 1.5% （mass fraction） Mo, the intrinsic coercivity 24, of the magnet reaches the maximum value of 1719.36KA/m, while continually increasing the amount of Mo has a less effect on iHc Microstructures analysis indicates that Mo-free Nd-Fe-B magnet has not uniform grains in size, while that with Mo element has uniform grains in size and smooth grain boundaries. Experiments show that after the NdFeB magnet is sintered at 1273K and annealed at 873K, the added Mo element could prevent the equilibrium transformation between the main phase and Nd-rich phase, thus resulting in the precipitation of fine second main phase （Nd2Fe14-xMoxB） from the main phase boundaries, preventing the nucleation and expansion of anti-magnetic domain, and enhancing the coercivity.

COERCIVITY AND ITS GRAIN SIZE DEPENDENCE IN CAST-HOT PRESSED Pr-Fe-B MAGNETS

Characteristics of magnetic hardening in cast-hot pressed magnet Pr_(19)Fe_(74.5)B_5Cu_(1.5)were stu- died.The microstructure features and virgin magnetization curve reveal a nucleation control- led coercivity mechanism.Regression analysis shows that the intrinsic coercivity varies inversely as the logarithm of the average grain size: _iH_c(MA/m)=1.7312-0.48161nd(μm) which confirms the randomness of nucleation of reversed domains and the statistical nature of coercivity,indicating that the decrease of grain size would reduce the average number of de- fects on its surface and lower the probability of magnetization reversal of a grain and the cu- mulative fraction of the grains that have reversed their magnetization.Coercivity is thus en- hanced.

High coercivity in large exchange-bias Co/CoO-MgO nano-granular films

We present a detailed study on the magnetic coercivity of Co/CoO-MgO core-shell systems, which exhibits a large exchange bias due to an increase of the uncompensated spin density at the interface between the CoO shell and the metallic Co core by replacing Co by Mg within the CoO shell. We find a large magnetic coercivity of 7120 Oe around the electrical percolation threshold of the Co/CoO core/shell particles, while samples with a smaller or larger Co metal volume fraction show a considerably smaller coercivity. Thus, this study may lead to a route to improving the magnetic properties of artificial magnetic material in view of potential applications.

Microstructure and Coercivity in High H_c Sm(Co, Cu, Fe, Zr)_(7.4) and Nd-Fe-B Alloys

1. Introduction So far the microstructure and coercivityof Sm（Co, Cu, Fe, Zr）;alloy have beenstudied in detail by various authors. The effect of Zr-rich laminar phasestructure on the high coecivity of alloyis more attractive. The changes of magnetic

INFLECTION OF COERCIVITY DURING LOCAL CRYSTALLIZATION OF Fe-Si-B AMORPHOUS ALLOYS

An inflection hehaviour was revealed during isothermal annealing under the observation of transition of the coercivity of Fe-Si-B amorphous alloys during local crystallization.It may be interpreted by the transition of α-Fe grain precipitated from single to multiple domain, Thus,the theoretical expression of H_0-t_a may be derived.The plot of expression H_0-t_a calcu- lated well represents the feature of the experimental curve.

Coercivity Mechanism of Melt-spun Nd-Fe-B Bonded Magnet

The microstructures of melt-spun Nd_135- Fe_81.74B4.76 ribbons have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction,Mossbauer spectroscopy and HREM.Experimental results show that optimal magnetic properties of the bond- ed magnet can be obtained by melt-spun alloys at wheel velocity of 24m/s,the microstructure of which was single phase Nd_2Fe_(14)B crystallites,and no other phases,such as Nd-rich,B-rich or x-Fe phase,were present.It is considered that the high intrinsic coercivity ~iH_c can be attributed to the sin- gle-domain behaviour of Nd_2Fe_(14)B crystallite phase.

Enhanced coercivity and remanence of PrCo_5 nanoflakes prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling with heat-treated starting powder

PrCo5 nanoflakes with strong texture and high coercivity of 8.15 kOe were prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling with heat-treated starting powder. The thickness and length of the as-milled nanoflakes are mainly in the ranges of 50–100 nm and 0.5–3 μm, respectively. The x-ray diffraction patterns demonstrate that the heat treatment can increase the single phase and crystallinity of the PrCo5 compound, and combined with the demagnetization curves, indicate that the single phase and crystallinity are important for preparing high-coercivity and strong-textured rare earth permanent magnetic nanoflakes. In addition, the coercivity mechanism of the as-milled PrCo5 nanoflakes is studied by the angle dependence of coercivity for an aligned sample and the field dependence of coercivity, isothermal（IRM） and dc demagnetizing（DCD）remanence curves for an unaligned sample. The results indicate that the coercivity is dominated by co-existing mechanisms of pinning and nucleation. Furthermore, exchange coupling and dipolar coupling also co-exist in the sample.