Structural and physical properties of Fe-Nb-B-RE type of bulk magnetic nanocrystalline alloys

Abstract

The subject of hard magnetic materials is important from the both practical as well as scientific point of view. Researches in this field are focused on new materials with strong enough hard magnetic properties but with lower rare earth content than for the classical Nd rich alloys. The presented PhD thesis refers to preparation, structural and magnetic properties of the Fe-Nb-B-RE type of bulk nanocrystalline alloys. As the preparation technology of the bulk alloys, the so-called vacuum suction casting was chosen. The chemical compositions of the examined alloys is originated from the Fe-Nb-B (NANOPERM) amorphous melt spun ribbons in which niobium, as an alloying addition, slows down crystallization of iron leading to some optimization of magnetic properties. The PhD thesis is focused on: i) magnetic interactions in multi-phase magnetic materials, ii) magnetism in TM-RE disordered structure, iii) influence of microstructure on selected physical properties and iv) numerical modeling and characterization of the nanomagnetic structures. From application point of view, especially important is a combination of chemical compositions and technology parameters (cooling rate, melting current) of the studied alloys, in order to improve hard magnetic characteristics and / or decrease the RE content without deterioration of their desired properties. The performed investigations consist of fabrication of about 80 different alloys characterized by several structural and magnetic measurement techniques like X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, DSC, SEM, AFM / MFM, Kerr microscopy, magnetic balance as well as SQUID magnetometer. It was shown that the phase structure, microstructure and magnetic properties strongly depends on the chemical composition (the RE and Nb content) as well as technology parameters (the sample diameter and the melting current). The optimal parameters were established as: i) Tb as the RE element with the content of 10-12 at. %, ii) Nb content of 6-8 at. %, iii) sample diameter ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 mm and iv) melting current I = 35 A. The alloys reveal hard magnetic properties with a high and ultra-high coercivity depending on the niobium content. Particularly, for the field-annealed (Fe80Nb6B14)0.88Tb0.12 alloy, the coercive field measured at room temperature exceeds 7 T which is a unique feature in the case of bulks. The observed magnetic hardening effect is controlled by the niobium content in the combination with the specific solidification rate (during casting). The observed phase segregation leads to the formation of grain microstructure with the irregularly shaped dendrites separated by inter-dendritic regions. This structure is responsible for an additional shape as well as surface anisotropy and thereby it is a source of some ultra-hard magnetic objects. The carried out simulations proved the proposed micro-magnetic picture of the alloys and indicate a significant role of the ultra-hard magnetic objects in the magnetization processes. Generally, as was shown in the presented thesis, the examined alloys can be considered as high and ultra-high coercive materials with application potential in the fields of permanent magnets where increasing resistance to external magnetic field is required.