REMANENCE ENHANCEMENT IN NANOSTRUCTURED MELT-SPUN SM(FE0.209CU0.061ZR0.025CO0.704)7.61

Ribbons of an industrial, high coercivity grade of Sm2Co17 alloy have been produced by melt spinning at very high substrate velocities. X-ray diffraction has shown the resultant material to be single phase and nanostructured, with grain sizes ranging to below 30 nm. The remanence, J(r), is consequently enhanced due to ferromagnetic exchange coupling, with values up to 0.75 T being observed. This corresponds to J(r)/J(s) (where J(s) is the saturation polarisation) up to 0.7. Although the intrinsic coercivity is only moderate (up to 500 kA/m), it is still sufficiently high to give maximum energy product values up to 70 kJ/m3.