Structural and magnetic studies of the nanocrystalline Nd-Fe-B-Nb alloy ribbons

A detailed studies of the phase constitution, microstructure and magnetic properties of the nanocrystalline Nd9.2Fe61.64B21.16Nb8 alloy ribbons, are reported. It was shown that the rapidly solidified ribbons have partially amorphous structure and soft magnetic properties in the as-cast state. The heat treatment at temperatures higher than 923 K led to the growth of the hard magnetic Nd2Fe14B phase and the metastable Nd2Fe23B3 phase. The Mössbauer confirmed that during annealing of the samples at temperature higher than 923 K the paramagnetic Nd1+εFe4B4 phase was also formed. The microstructure consisting of mixture of constituent phases was observed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, with increasing annealing temperature the decrease of the saturation polarization Js was observed. The maximum values of coercivity JHc = 1175 kA/m was obtained for a sample annealed at 1023K. However, annealing at 1003 K resulted in the improvement of remanence polarization Jr = 0.35 T and the maximum energy product (BH)max = 21 kJ/m3