On the limits of coercivity in permanent magnets

The maximum coercivity that can be achieved for a given hard magnetic alloy is estimated by computing the energy barrier for the nucleation of a reversed domain in an idealized microstructure without any structural defects and without any soft magnetic secondary phases. For Sm1–zZrz(Fe1–yCoy)12–xTix based alloys, which are considered an alternative to Nd2Fe14B magnets with a lower rare-earth content, the coercive field of a small magnetic cube is reduced to 60% of the anisotropy field at room temperature and to 50% of the anisotropy field at elevated temperature (473 K). This decrease of the coercive field is caused by misorientation, demagnetizing fields, and thermal fluctuations.