Abstract
The HDDR process can be used as an effective means of processing of the coercive Nd-Fe-B-type or the Sm2Fe17Nx materials. The HDDR (hydrogenation, disproportionation, desorption, recombination) processed materials are feartured with a very fine microstructure. The thermomagnetic characteristics of the Nd-Fe-B-type or the Sm2Fe17Nx materials with fine microstructure due to the HDDR process were investigated. It has been found that the fine-microstructured hard magnetic materials showed an unusual TMA (Thermomagnetic analysis) tracting featured with a low and constant magnetization at lower temperature range and a peak just below their Curie temperatures when a low external field is applied. This thermomagnetic characteristic was immediate particularly in the TMA with a low applied field. This thermomagnetic characteristic was interpreted in terms of the competition between two counteracting effects; the decrease in magnetication due to the thermal agitation at an elevated temperature and the increase in magnetization resulting from the rotation of magnetization of the fine grains comparable to a critical single domain size due to the decreased magnetocrystalline anisotropy at an elevated temperature.
