Nd2Fe14B/Fe3B nanocomposite film fabricated by aerosol deposition method

Abstract This paper describes magnetic properties of the Fe 3 B/Nd 2 Fe 14 B nanocomposite films prepared by aerosol deposition (AD) method. The composition of host powder was Nd 4.5 Fe 73 Co 2 Cr 2 B 18.5 , which was produced by the combination of strip casting and jet milling. The powder showed the remanence ( B r ) of 82.7 emu/g and the coercivity ( H cJ ) of 4.4 kOe. From the hysteresis loop and XRD pattern, the powder was considered as a nanocomposite powder consisted of Fe 3 B and Nd 2 Fe 14 B phases. The particle size analysis revealed that the average powder size was around 12.45 μm. This powder size was larger than that of Sm–Fe–N powder used for the preparation of AD films in our previous papers, which influenced the deposition rate and film thickness. The as-deposited AD film exhibited high remanence ( B r  = 85.1 emu/g) but low coercivity ( H cJ  = 0.84 kOe), though the film consisted of the Fe 3 B and Nd 2 Fe 14 B phases. In addition, the coercivity further decreased to 0.28–0.73 kOe by the annealing at 450–700 °C for 1–6 min in Ar. These low coercivities were considered to be related to the relatively low anisotropy field of Nd 2 Fe 14 B phase, the defects induced during the AD method and the presence of α-Fe phase.