Hot-pressed (SmFe)–(FeAlPCBSiGa) composites: Influence of preparation conditions

Ball-milling of amorphous ribbons and crystalline ingots and subsequent hot pressing of the resulting powders were used to prepare disc-shaped (rare earth–iron)–(soft magnetic material) composites (diameter of 10 mm and thickness of 1 mm). Amorphous FeAlPCBSiGa was used as a soft magnetic material and SmFe2 as the (rare earths–iron)-phase. We investigated the influence of different ball-milling conditions and different ratios of the high magnetostrictive (SmFe2) and the soft magnetic components (FeAlPCBSiGa) on the magnetic properties of ball-milled powders as well as the final disc-shaped samples. In the case of compacted samples we found a variation of the magnetostriction ranging from 50 to more than 430 ppm, coercivity changed from 9 to 16 kA m−1 and saturation magnetization from 88 to 130 A m2 kg−1. A maximum magnetostrictive susceptibility of 930 ppm T−1 at a field of 0.1 T was found.