Beneficial effect of Gd substitution on magnetic properties of magnetically anisotropic SmCo5 ribbons

Magnetically anisotropic Sm1-xGdxCo5 (x=0, 0.2, 0.5) ribbons are produced b y conventional melt spinning. The coercivity H-c increases from 5 kOe for x = 0 to 11 kOe for x = 0.5. Microstructure analyses show that this abnormal change of the coercivity is ascribed to the decrease of the quantity of th e 2:7 phase, which serves as a center for a reverse domain. The remanence r atio also increases from 0.80 for x=0 to 0.95 for x=0.5. An energy product of 16 MGOe at room temperature for the Sm0.8Gd0.2Co5 ribbons has been achie ved without the need of a complex heat treatment. The temperature character istic of remanence is substantially improved due to the change of the micro structure arising from Gd substitution. (C) 2001 American Institute of Phys ics.