Microstructure and magnetostriction of PrFe1.93Zr0.02 nanocrystalline synthesized under high pressure

Bulk nanocrystalline PrFe1.93Zr0.02 alloys were synthesized by annealing its melt-spinning ribbons under different pressure. It was demonstrated that cubic Laves phase become the main phase only when the annealing pressure is up to 3 GPa. Both the average grain size and volume fraction of cubic Laves crystallin phase decrease with increasing pressure from 3 GPa to 8 GPa. Magnetic measurement results indicated that the saturation magnetization and the absolute value of the effective first anisotropy constant decrease with increasing pressure from 3 GPa to 8 Gpa. A large linear magnetostriction of 590 ppm at 3 kOe is observed in the PrFe1.93Zr0.02 compound annealed under 6 GPa, which might make it potential material for magnetostrictive application. Based on our experimental results, a phenomenological approach was also proposed to theoretically demonstrate that the good magnetostrictive property of PrFe1.93Zr0.02 bulk nanocrystalline synthesized under 6 GPa might be the consequence of the competition of anisotropy and the volume fraction of cubic Laves crystallin phase.