Temperature dependence of the coercivity in Nd60Fe30−xCoxAl10, x=0 or 10, and Pr58Fe24Al18 bulk amorphous ferromagnets

Bulk amorphous ferromagnet alloys of composition Nd60Fe30Al10, Nd60Fe20Co10Al10 and Pr58Fe24Al18 have been prepared by argon arc melting and quenching into a copper mould. General insight into the magnetic behaviour of the alloys was gained from measurement of the major hysteresis loop at room temperature, and from zero-field cooled and field-cooled magnetisation measurements in the range 10–400 K. Measurements of the coercivity were made from 10 to 400 K, and for all alloys, the coercivity is seen to increase steeply with decreasing temperature to a peak at a temperature in the range 25–50 K, before decreasing. For all alloys, the temperature dependence of the coercivity between 50 and 400 K is well explained by the strong pinning model of domain walls of Gaunt [Philos. Mag. B 48 (1983) 261]. Quantities deduced from the Gaunt model, along with other relevant magnetic parameters, are used to estimate values for the exchange and anisotropy constants.