Determination of the saturation magnetization, anisotropy field, mean field interaction, and switching field distribution for nanocrystalline hard magnets

For a uniaxial nanocrystalline magnetic material, the determination of the saturation magnetization, Ms, requires measurements of the magnetization at fields which exceed the anisotropy field. For a typical RE-Tm compound, where RE=rare earth and Tm=transition metal, this may require fields above 7 T if the approach to saturation law is used. However for an isotropic material composed of a random distribution of non-interacting uniaxial grains, both Ms and the anisotropy filed, Ha, may be determined by fitting the Stoner-Wohlfarth (SW) model (Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. 240 (1948) 599) to the reversible part of the demagnetization curve in the first quadrant. Furthermore, using the mean field interaction model of Callen, Liu and Cullen [2], a quantitative measure of the interaction strength for interacting particles may be determined. In conjunction with an analytical fit to the first quadrant demagnetization curve of the SW model, this allows Ms, Ha and the mean field interaction constant of a nanocrystalline magnet to be determined from measurements below 5 T. Furthermore, comparison of the model solution for the reversible magnetization with experimental data in the 2nd and 3rd quadrants allows the accurate determination of the switching field distribution. In many cases the hysteresis loop may be accurately described by a normal distribution of switching fields.