Rare-earth—gallium—iron glasses. II. Anomalous magnetic hysteresis in alloys based on Pr, Nd, and Sm

Authors

S.G. Cornelison, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
J.G. Zhao, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

September 1984

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. B 30, 2857 (1984). http://prb.aps.org. Copyright © 1984 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

Giant magnetic coercivity is reported in several metallic glasses of the form (R₈₀G₂₀)_100-xFe_x where R represents Pr, Nd, or Sm, G represents Ga or Au, and 15≤x≤30. An unusual temperature variation of the coercive field is observed showing peaks at intermediate temperatures (≃90 K). In contrast to similar glasses based on heavy rare-earth metals, these glasses exhibit significant chemical short-range order and even phase separation as is shown by the Mössbauer effect and other measurements. The results are consistent with a recent theory which predicts that large coercivity can result from the presence of site-to-site variations in magnetic properties.