A magnetic, magnetostrictive and Mössbauer study of Tb0.3Dy0.7−xPrx(Fe0.9Al0.1)1.95 alloys

Abstract The effect of Pr substitution for Dy on the magnetization, magnetostriction, anisotropy and spin reorientation of a series of Tb 0.3 Dy 0.7− x Pr x (Fe 0.9 Al 0.1 ) 1.95 alloys ( x =0, 0.1, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35) at room temperature has been investigated. It was found that the magnetization and magnetostriction of the homogenized Tb 0.3 Dy 0.7− x Pr x (Fe 0.9 Al 0.1 ) 1.95 alloys decreases drastically with increasing x and the magnetostrictive effect disappears for x >0.2, but the spontaneous magnetostriction λ 111 increases approximately linearly with increasing x . Moreover, the magnetostriction exhibits slightly bigger value at x =0.1 than the free alloys and is saturated more easily with the magnetic field H , showing that a small amount of Pr substitution is beneficial to a decrease in the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The analysis of the Mossbauer spectra indicated that the easy magnetization direction in the {1 1 0} plane deviates slightly from the main axis of symmetry with Pr concentration x , namely spin reorientation. Comparing with the Al substitution, the effect of Pr substitution for Dy on the spin reorientation is smaller.