Nanocrystalline SmCo5 magnet synthesized by spark plasma sintering

The structure and magnetic properties were studied for bulk nanocrystalline SmCo5 sintered magnet produced by spark plasma sintering technique. X-ray diffraction patterns show that the sintered magnet exhibits CaCu5 crystal structures. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation indicates the average grain size of the magnet of about 40 nm. Magnetic measurement shows that the coercivity reaches as high as 2.85 T; the saturation magnetization and the remanence are 0.71 and 0.5 T, respectively. The magnet exhibits good thermal stability with a coercivity of 0.9 T at 773 K and a coercivity coefficient beta of -0.15%/K. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3334458]