MAGNETIC-ANISOTROPY AND MAGNETIC PHASE-TRANSITIONS IN R2FE17 WITH R =Y, CE, PR, ND, SM, GD, TB, DY, HO, ER, TM AND LU

Finely powdered single crystallites (< 20 mu m) of R2Fe17 compounds, h aving the easy magnetization direction within the basal plane at room temperature, are magnetically aligned almost perfectly with respect to the magnetic hard c-axis by using the sample-rotation magnetic alignm ent technique. The magnetization has been measured at various temperat ures in static fields as well as in pulsed fields. A first-order magne tization process was detected at low temperature in the [0 0 1] direct ion in R2Fe17 compounds with R = Pr, Nd, Sm, Tb and Er. (C) 1998 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.