Investigation of polycrystalline Nd2Fe14B texturing by solidification in a magnetic field

A polycrystalline sample of Nd2Fe14B was prepared by induction melting and solidification in an intense applied magnetic field, to study the alignment due to residual magnetocrystalline anisotropy of this compound near the melting point. A well-defined direction of the thermal gradient perpendicular to the magnetic field was achieved by means of an appropriate experimental set-up. The results of measurements indicate that the sample is substantially textured, but not in parallel to the elaboration field. A numerical method is utilized for the determination of anisotropy parameters in Nd2Fe14B compound, involving the analysis of measured magnetization curves. The minimization of the free-energy density, expanded in terms of these constants, is performed to determine the sub-lattice terms which are necessary to calculate the polarization curves. A fitting of the measured magnetization curves obtained at room temperature is realized to obtain the anisotropy constants, texture parameters and saturation magnetization. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.