Magnetic and structural properties of Nd2Fe17-xMx (M = Cu, Cr, V, Nb, and Zr) compounds

We report the structural and magnetic properties of Nd2Fe17-xMx (M = Cu, Cr , V, Nb and Zr), where x = 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and 4. X-ray diffract ion shows that these compounds form the rhombohedral Th2Zn17 structure with a small amount of alpha-Fe for some of the samples with small x values. Fo r some of these compounds the rhombohedral structure cannot be formed at la rge values of x. X-ray diffraction on magnetically aligned samples show tha t these samples have in-plane anisotropy. The unit cell volume is found to increase with x for M = V, Nb, and Zr and decrease with x for M = Cu and Cr . The saturation magnetization decreases with x for all M atoms both at 25 and 300 K with the decrease ranging from 5 to 15% for x = 1. The Curie temp erature increases with x for small values of x with the increase ranging fr om 10 to 20% for x = 1. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.