Beneficial effect of Gd substitution on magnetic properties of magnetically anisotropic SmCo5 ribbons

Abstract

Magnetically anisotropic Sm1-xGdxCo5 (x=0, 0.2, 0.5) ribbons are produced by conventional melt spinning. The coercivity Hc. increases from 5 kOe for x=0 to 11 kOe for x=0.5. Microstructure analyses show that this abnormal change of the coercivity is ascribed to the decrease of the quantity of the 2:7 phase, which serves as a center for a reverse domain. The remanence ratio also increases from 0.80 for x=0 to 0.95 for x=0.5. An energy product of 16 MGOe at room temperature for the Sm0.8Gd0.2Co5 ribbons has been achieved without the need of a complex heat treatment. The temperature characteristic of remanence is substantially improved due to the change of the microstructure arising from Gd substitution. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.