Annealing Effects on the Coercivity of SmCo5 Nanoparticles

Published

June 1, 1999

Author(s)

K Chowdary, A K. Giri, K Pellerin, S. A. Majetich, J H. Scott

Abstract

The enhanced coercivity of ball milled nanoparticles of SmCo₅ has been attributed to the reduced particle size, but the milling process introduces additional strain which can also affect the coercivity. Here the effects of size and strain are decoupled from each other using a combination of x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and coercivity measurements. Ball milled SmCo₅ nanoparticles were annealed under different temperature, time, and atmospheric conditions to minimize the strain without chemically altering the sample, and with minimum grain growth and sintering. X-ray diffraction was used to determine if phase changes had occurred, and to monitor the average grain size and strain. From scanning electron microscopy log-normal size distributions were found and no evidence of sintering was revealed. The sample coercivities were measured by SQUID magnetometry following annealing.

Citation

Applied Physics

Volume

85

Issue

No. 8B

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

fine particle magnetism, magnetic nanoparticles, strain broadening, x-ray diffraction

Citation

Chowdary, K. , Giri, A. , Pellerin, K. , Majetich, S. and Scott, J. (1999), Annealing Effects on the Coercivity of SmCo₅ Nanoparticles, Applied Physics (Accessed July 27, 2024)