High coercivity in Fe-Nb-B-Dy bulk nanocrystalline magnets

Abstract

The paper refers to structural and magnetic properties of the (Fe80Nb6B14)1−xDyx (x = 0.08, 0.10, 0.12, 0.16) bulk nanocrystalline alloys prepared by making use of the vacuum suction casting technique. The samples are in a form of rods with different diameters d = 1.5, 1, and 0.5 mm. The phase structure was investigated by XRD technique and reveals an occurrence of magnetically hard Dy2Fe14B as well as other relatively soft Dy–Fe, Fe–B, and Fe phases dependently on the Dy content. The alloys show hard magnetic properties with high coercive field up to 5.5 T (for x = 0.12 and d = 0.5 mm). The observed magnetic hardening effect with the increase of cooling rate (decrease of sample diameter d) can be attributed to a formation of ultra-hard magnetic objects as well as increasing role of low dimensional microstructure.