Magnetic small-angle neutron scattering by nanocrystalline terbium

We present an experimental study of the magnetic microstructure in the nanocrystalline hard magnet Tb. Field-dependent SANS data are analyzed quantitatively in terms of the correlation function of the spin misalignment. We find that up to applied fields of several Tesla the magnetization remains ‘locked in’ to the basal planes of the hcp crystal lattice of each individual crystallite; But that the in-plane orientation of the spins is highly nonuniform within each particle. This internal structure can be suppressed by the applied field