R&D: Microstructure and Magnetic Behaviors of PrFeB/Fe7Co3 Dual Phase Nanowires as PMR Candidate

Materials Characterization has published an article written by Rouxiao Pang, Chunxiang Cui, Wei Yang, and Licong Kang, Key Laboratory for New Type of Functional Materials in Hebei Province, School of Materials Science and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Xiping, Road No. 5340, Beichen District, Tianjin 300401, China.

Abstract: “Cylindrical magnetic nanowires, possessing high aspect ratio and outstanding perpendicular shape anisotropy, have been an excellent candidate for next generation perpendicular magnetic recording. Due to the scarcity of heavy rare earth elements (HREs), it is of great scientific significance and potential application value to add trace HREs to improve the magnetism of nanowires and prepare new magnetic materials with special applications. Here, under the condition of saving the use of rare earth resources, a novel type of hard/soft Pr Fe B/Fe₇Co₃ magnetic nanowires was fabricated via electrodeposition method, which is not inferior to that of large amount of HREs doping. Present study reports the phase composition, phase transformation, microstructure and magnetic properties in highly-ordered arrays of Pr Fe B/Fe₇Co₃ nanowires embedded in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The results show that after 903 K-annealing process, Pr₂Co₁₇ and FeB phases preferentially nucleate, followed by Fe₇Co₃ + Pr₂Fe₁₄B + Pr₂Co₁₄B + PrB₄ phases, and finally Pr₂Fe₁₇ phase nucleate. It is found that the annealed Pr Fe B/Fe₇Co₃ nanowires have excellent magnetic properties, and the improvement of its magnetic properties is attributed to location pinning, special coherent interface and exchange coupling “