Micromagnetic simulations of reversal magnetization in core ((Nd<sub>0.7</sub>, Ce<sub>0.3</sub>)<sub>2</sub>Fe<sub>14</sub>B)-shell (Nd<sub>2</sub>Fe<sub>14</sub>B) type

Abstract

The effects of core size, shell thickness and shell distribution on the coercivity of single-grain core ((Nd<sub>0.7</sub>,Ce<sub>0.3</sub>)<sub>2</sub>Fe<sub>14</sub>B)-shell (Nd<sub>2</sub>Fe<sub>14</sub>B) magnets are studied by programming and modeling them through using the C++ language. All the micromagnetic simulations are carried out via object oriented micro magnetic framework (OOMMF). The results show that the coercivity decreases with the increase of core size when the shell thickness is constant. It is considered that for the grain, the increase in the size of the core leads the average magnetocrystalline anisotropy field to increase and the total demagnetization energy to increase, thereby contributing to the magnetization reversal occurring under a smaller external field. When the core size is unchanged, as the shell thickness increases gradually, the coercivity first increases and then decreases. The analysis of the position of the nucleation point shows that the reason why the coercivity increases in the early period is mainly that the nucleation point is located at the core-shell junction and belongs to the core. As the thickness of the shell increases, the exchange interaction effect between the magnetic moment of the shell and the one of the nucleation point is strengthened, so a larger external field is needed in the nucleation process. As for the decrease of the coercivity in the later period, the main reason is that the nucleation points are exactly the vertices of the shell (also the vertices of the grain), and the increase of the shell thickness conduces to increasing the total demagnetization energy, so the nucleation points can be formed under a smaller external magnetic field. With core size and shell volume kept unchanged, when the shell is distributed on the two easy-axis planes (i.e. the planes perpendicular to the easy axis) of the core, the coercivity of the magnet reaches a largest value. It is because that the nucleation points are located at the vertices of the shell (also the vertices of the grain), of which the magnetocrystalline anisotropy field is larger, and the demagnetization field is smaller. Via magnetocrystalline anisotropy field, the demagnetization energy, nucleation point, etc, the changes of coercivity in above cases can be explained.