Effects of etching on magnetization reversal in SmCo₅ particles

Abstract

Abstract A study has been made of the effects of etching on the magnetic properties of SmCo5 particles. It has been shown that the coercivities can be substantially increased by etching in 1 % HNOa for various times. By means of an intrinsic coercivity distribution analysis it appears that the reversal fields are not increased uniformly. The results suggest that the etching has a greater effect on particles which originally had relatively low intrinsic coercivities. An increase in the reversal fields was observed for all the specimens with particle diameters in the range <90 μm. The effect of various etching times has also been investigated and it has been shown that the coercivities H c and H R are approximately doubled after I min. No further change was observed for etching times up to 32 min.