THEORETICAL CALCULATION ON THE MAGNETOCRYSTALLINE ANISOTROPY OF NDFE10.5V1.5NX

The NdFe10.5V1.5Nx compounds with different nitrogen content have been synthesized. The dependence of magnetic properties at room temperatur e on the nitrogen content was investigated in order to give evidence o f the importance of the nitrogen content on the magnetic anisotropy of the rare earth sublattice. In the meantime, the theoretical calculati ons were performed to analyze the nitrogen content dependence of the m agnetocrystalline anisotropy constants K-1,K-2, as well as the anisotr opy field H-a in the NdFe10.5V1.5Nx. The results confirmed that the se cond-order crystal-field parameter A(20) is dominant and, in the nitri des, the chief contribution to A(20) comes from nitrogen located at 2b sites. Finally, the increase of nitrogen content will first turn the easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the rare earth sublattice into easy-axis one and then enhance it linearly to a much larger value , which is in quite good agreement with experiment. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.