https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1191-1136
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Abstract
We report the effect of grain boundary diffusion of the Nd-Cu eutectic phase and the influence of Nb on the microstructure and magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B melt-spun ribbons. The Atom probe tomography analysis indicated the presence of Nb clusters (∼10 nm), which possibly restricts grain growth during diffusion annealing while facilitating Nd-Cu grain boundary decoration. Correspondingly, the coercivity was enhanced from the initial 1.2 T of the as-prepared to 2.1 T for the 20 wt.% Nd-Cu diffusion annealed (600°C, 2 h). Incidentally, the as-diffused sample exhibited a high coercivity of ∼1 T at 150°C, making it suitable for high-temperature applications.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Technical Research Centre (TRC), Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) (REPM project: IR/SB/EF/07/2021-C), Government of India, for the completion of this work. They also thank Dr. G. Padmanabham, former Director, and Dr. T. N. Rao, Director (Additional Charge) ARCI. The authors thank Dr. S. Kavita for magnetic measurements. They acknowledge the support of the National Facility for Atom Probe Tomography for performing APT measurements. MS and KGP acknowledge the funding support from the Ministry of Education through the Institute of Eminence (IoE) initiative for establishing the Center of Excellence in Correlative Microscopy. KGP is grateful for the funding support from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under project No. ECR/2018/002938.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).