Analysis on deformation and texture formation mechanism of hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets based on heterogeneous structure evolution

Abstract

In this paper, microstructure, micromagnetic structure, texture, together with magnetic properties of the hot-deformed (HD) Nd-Fe-B magnets were systematically studied to understand the deformation process and the formation mechanism of c-axis texture. The results show that the platelet grains are formed in the fine-grain regions at the initial stage of the deformation. As the amount of deformation increases, the proportion of platelet grains increases and arranges gradually, causing the formation of c-axis texture, till the grain merging occurres when the deformation is excessive. It should be noted that the rare earth-rich phase in the fine-grained region slowly diffuses to the coarse-grained region where only grain growth can be observed during deformation. The deformation mechanism and formation of c-axis texture in HD Nd-Fe-B magnets can be deduced to be accomplished by the processes of dissolution-precipitation diffusion, grain rotation and grain arrangement, based on the characterization of microstructure and texture evolution. Also, approaches to optimize the preparation process and magnetic properties of the hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets were discussed.