Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
A comprehensive and systematic study has been made on Sm(CobalFevCuyZrx)zmagnets to completely understand the effects of composition and processing on their magnetic properties. The homogenized Sm(Co,Fe,Cu,Zr)z magnets have a featureless microstructure. A cellular/lamellar microstructure develops after 2-3 hours of aging at 800-850°C, but the coercivity increases only after a subsequent slow cooling to 400°C. During cooling, diffusion takes place and Cu is concentrated in the 1:5 cell boundaries and Fe in the 2:17R cells. This dilutes the magnetic properties of the 1:5 phase and causes domain wall pinning/nucleation at the cell boundaries. Higher ratio z leads to larger cells as expected due to the larger amount of the 2:17 phase. For a fixed Cu content, this translates to a larger amount of Cu in the 1:5 cell boundaries, and therefore, to a higher coercivity. Magnets without Cu but with Zr have a lamellar and a cellular like microstructure. In Zr free samples, however, a larger amount of Cu is needed to form the cellular microstructure. This cellular microstructure is unstable with prolonged isothermal aging. A uniform and stable cellular/lamellar microstructure is only observed in alloys containing both Cu and Zr. A higher aging temperature Tag leads to larger cells and higher coercivity as explained above. The results of all these studies clearly show that the amount of Cu in the 1:5 cell boundaries controls both the coercivity and its temperature dependence leading to positive and negative temperature coefficients of coercivity in low and high Cu content alloys, respectively.