Paper

Our latest paper has just been published in the journal Acta Materialia. In it, we compare finite element micromagnetics simulations to experimental evidence in order to investigate the role of twin and anti-phase defects in the reduction of performance in MnAl permanent magnets. Figure: Room temperature (BH) max as a function of approximate raw material costs for the theoretical MnAl permanent magnet and experimental values for a selection of common commercial permanent magnets. The raw material costs are a good indication of the relative cost of the manufactured magnets. ...

New paper The reprint of our Journal of Applied Physics (JAP) paper “Grain-size dependent demagnetizing factors in permanent magnets” has been updated since the old version was not being discovered by the Google Scholar crawler. It is also available on arXiv.org. Full reference S. Bance, B. Seebacher, T. Schrefl, L. Exl, M. Winklhofer, G. Hrkac, G. Zimanyi, T. Shoji, M. Yano, N. Sakuma, M. Ito, A. Kato and A. Manabe, “Grain-size dependent demagnetizing factors in permanent magnets”, J. Appl. Phys. 116, 233903 (2014)

New paper Our latest paper has been published in JOM (Springer). It is a summary of the achievements (so far) of the ROMEO fp7 project. ROMEO is a project that aims to research and develop novel microstructural-engineering strategies that will dramatically improve the properties of magnets based purely on light rare earth elements, especially the coercivity, which will enable them to be used for applications above 100 degrees C. ...

This week our new paper titled “Thermal Activation in Permanent Magnets” has been published in JOM (Springer). The invited paper is under a special topic, “Permanent Magnets beyond Nd-Dy-Fe-B”. An author manuscript (reprint) is available here. Fig 1: Explanation of method for calculating the thermally activated coercivity of using micromagnetics. In the paper we provide a more detailed overview of the micromagnetic methods we have developed to model the thermal activation of permanent magnets. These methods allow us to simulate and understand the behaviour of permanent magnets at finite temperatures, which is important since the generators in wind turbines and electric motors in green cars operate at higher temperatures. For example, in electric cars the typical operation temperature of the motors can be around 450ºK (177º C). ...

Our new paper “Thermally activated coercivity in core-shell permanent magnets” has been published today as J. Appl. Phys. 117, 17A733 (2015); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4916542 . In the paper we use numerical miromagnetics to calculate the performance of nanostructured core-shell-like permanent magnets, like the type that can now be produced by grain boundary diffusion of granular hot-deformed or sintered rare earth permanent magnets. FIG. 3. Reversal processes in the sin- gle grain models with (i) a pure NdFeB grain, (ii) a NdFeB grain with a soft outer defect, and (iii) NdFeB core, (Dy, Nd)FeB shell and an outer soft defect. Thermally activated coercive field values are indicated with the field direction (red arrows). The saddle point image is the configuration with the highest total energy, forming the peak of the energy barrier. ...

Our paper titled “Micromagnetics for the coercivity of nanocomposite permanent magnets” has been published in the proceedings of the 23rd International Workshop on Rare Earth and Future Permanent Magnets and Their Applications (REPM2014). The proceedings were not made available to the public but we are providing a PDF reprint here. Fig. 1. Switching field of Nd 2 Fe 14 B cubes and spheres with volume V The work was presented by Johann Fischbacher on 19th August 2014 in Annapolis, Maryland. ...

Our new paper “Grain-size dependent demagnetizing factors in permanent magnets” has been published in Journal of Applied Physics (JAP). Abstract: The coercive field of permanent magnets decreases with increasing grain size. The grain size dependence of coercivity is explained by a size dependent demagnetizing factor. In Dy free Nd2Fe14B magnets, the size dependent demagnetizing factor ranges from 0.2 for a grain size of 55 nm to 1.22 for a grain size of 8300 nm. The comparison of experimental data with micromagnetic simulations suggests that the grain size dependence of the coercive field in hard magnets is due to the non-uniform magnetostatic field in polyhedral grains. ...

This August Prof. Dominique Givord of Institut Néel CNRS presented our paper titled “Hard Magnet Coercivity” during the 23rd International Workshop on Rare earth and Future Permanent Magnets and Their Applications (REPM2014) in Annapolis, Maryland. The manuscript was included in the conference proceedings and we would now like to make the reprint available to the wider public: Please click here for the PDF file. Abstract: Based on a critical analysis of the experimental coercive properties, general considerations on the reversal mechanisms in RFeB magnets are recalled. By plotting together the experimental parameters obtained in various magnets, common features of the reversal processes are demonstrated. Modeling provides an almost quantitative description of coercivity in these materials and permits connecting the defect characteristic properties to reversal mechanisms. ...

Our new, cake-themed paper on nanostructured permanent magnets has now been published in Applied Physics Letters. In the paper we present results from micromagnetic simulations that assess the performance of multi-phase nanostructured permanent magnets, whose cross-section resemble that of a Battenberg cake. By including a super-hard outer shell we are able to counteract the effects of thermal fluctuations and surface defects, both of which are detrimental to the performance of such permanent magnets. Such magnets are important for the motors in electric vehicles and for the generators in wind turbines, and these machines usually operate at elevated temperatures. ...

Our new paper titled “Thermally-activated coercivity in core-shell permanent magnets” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics. Click here to download the paper as a PDF file. In the paper we describe recent micromagnetics simulations on NdFeB grains that have undergone a dysprosium (Dy) grain boundary diffusion process (GBDP). The super hard (Dy,Nd)FeB shell that is formed during this process stabilizes the grains against thermal fluctuations that can be detrimental to the coercivity of the magnet in high-temperature situations. NdFeB permanent magnets are usually doped with Dy to increase their performance at high temperatures but the GBDP allows us to target the Dy at the most important locations i.e. the grain surface, thus reducing the overall required amount of Dy, which is expensive and in short supply. ...