Polarized small-angle neutron scattering measurements of averaged internal structure in Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets

Takeda, Masayasu  ; Suzuki, Junichi; Yamaguchi, Daisuke; Akiya, Takahiro*; Kato, Hiroaki*; Sagawa, Masato*; Koyama, Keiichi*

Nd-Fe-B magnets are now widely used because of the highest BH of them in the commercially available magnets. At the present, Dy, which is one of the rare metals, has to be added to maintain the coercivity especially in the operational temperatures higher than the room temperature. The key to achieve the Dy-free Nd-Fe-B magnets is how to control the grain size and the structure near the grain boundary. We have performed the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements of the sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets using unpolarized and polarized neutrons to obtain the averaged internal structures of samples with the different coercivity introduced by applying different high magnetic fields during the annealing. We found that inhomogeneity was induced by the magnetic fields applied parallel to . The relation between the inhomogeneity and the coercivity force is unclear at the moment, but we will present possible interpretation.