Textured dysprosium and gadolinium poles for high-field, short-period hybrid undulators

Abstract

We discuss the feasibility of enhancement of the gap field in a short-period hybrid undulator by using pole inserts with the saturation inductance Bs, over that of iron, 2T. Dysprosium metal, with the saturation inductance of 3.4T below 90K, and Gadolinium with Bs=2.7T, appear as good candidates as the optimized pole material. However, due to the high magnetic anisotropy of Dy, such a high level of magnetization can only be realized when the external field lies in the basal plane. This implies that the pole has to be single-crystalline or highly textured. Considering that growing large, >10mm, Dy single crystals is difficult, we propose secondary recrystallization as a method to induce the required texture in thin Dy and Gd foils. The textured foils can be stacked to produce pole inserts of the desired geometry and orientation. Results of small-scale processing and magnetic measurements of thin (20–60μ) foils provide evidence that the required texture quality can be achieved by a relatively simple sequence of heat-treatments and cold rolling. The advantage of textured Dy and Gd poles is demonstrated in a several period test undulator.