ANISOTROPIC CHARACTERISTICS OF DEMAGNETIZATION CURVE FOR NANOCRYSTALLINE Nd-Fe-B MAGNET CALCULATED BY MICROMAGNETICS

The demagnetization curves for nanocrystalline Nd-Fe-B magnets of a stoichiometric composition were calculated by making use of the finite element technique of micromagnetics. The curve, especially _iH_c, varies in a wide range with the direction of applied field if the grain number N is taken to be small. With the increase of N, the range becomes smaller and the average of _iH_c decreases and approaches a limit _iH_c(N = ∞). _iH_c for finite N is larger than, or at least equal to, _iH_c(N = ∞). J_r/J_s is weakly affected by N and the field direction. J_r/J_s(N = ∞) decreases with the increase of grain size L. These are larger than the experimental values for the Nd-rich Nd_2.33Fe₁₄B_1.06Si_0.21 magnets by ～0.05. _iH_c(N = ∞) increases with the increase of L, and is close to or somewhat smaller than the experimental values of the Nd-rich magnet, as would be expected. In contrast, the curve calculated for the non-interacting grain system (Stoner-Wohlfarth model) of N ≥ 30 depends neither on the field direction nor on N.