Journal of

ALItDYS
ANDCOM?OUNDS
ELSEVIER Journal of Alloys and Compounds 216 (1994) 85-87

The effects of boron on the magnetostrictive properties of

Yb0.zvDy0.v3Fe2
Lei Wu, Wenshan Zhan, Xicheng Chen, Xishen Chen
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People's Republic of China
Received 1 April 1994

Abstract

The magnetostrictive properties and microstructure of Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2Bx (x=0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) have been investigated.
Measurement of magnetic properties, X-ray diffraction and magnetostriction were made on Tbo.27Dyo.y3Fe2Bx polycrystalline
samples prepared by the are melting technique. With the increase of boron context x, the iron-rich phase which leads to the
detriment of magnetostrictive properties decreases obviously. The matrix phase of these alloys also has an MgCu2 structure
type. The lattice constant and Curie transition temperature change only slightly. Doping of boron in the Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2 alloy
can restrain the emergence of an iron-rich phase. The peritectic action point either shifts slightly or the peritectic action is
promoted by boron.

Keywords: Magnetostrictive properties; Boron; X-ray diffraction; Arc melting

1. Introduction especially at low magnetic field. The brittleness of

Ybo.zvDy0.73Fex is a strong function of Fe stoichiometry.
When x=2, the sample became more brittle and less
In recent years various studies have been made on
magnetostrictive, because of the residue of RFe3. Pre-
the material Tbo.27Dyo.v3Fe2. The cubic laves phase
viously, attempts were made to improve the strength
(MgCu2) compounds for rare-earth with iron (RFe2)
and the toughness of the material by control of the
are well known for their giant magnetostriction [1]. As
stoichiometry. If x is reduced to values of less than
a result of the strong exchange interactions, coupled
2.0, it is found that increasing volume fraction of the
with the large concentration of rare-earth ion, these
rare-earth metal phase is produced in the Terfenol-D
compounds have the interesting magnetostrictive and
matrix by the solidification process at lower Fe con-
anisotropic properties of the rare earth element, which
centrations. In the course of this work, we used boron
were available previously only at cryogenic temperature,
dopes in Tbo.zTDyo.73Fez in order to develop a new
to room temperature. The huge magnetostriction was
intermetallic compound system and to improve the
attributed to the large spin orbit interaction between
strength and magnetostrictive properties.
the electron spin and the specially anisotropic 4f charge
cloud. In the effects to decrease the anisotropy energy
many pseudobinary compounds with compensated an-
isotropy have been reported [2]. One of these com-
2. Experimental details
pounds, Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2, exhibits a maximum proportion
of magnetostriction to anisotropy, A/K1, which is ideal
for use in many transducer applications. The ternary The reagents used in these preparations were 99.9%
alloy of Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2 is expected to melt peritectically rare-earth ingot, 99.9% iron rod and FeB alloy (14
because both DyFe2 and TbFe2 are reported [3,4] to wt.% for B, 86 wt.% for Fe). During our work, melts
melt peritectically. For this reason, it has proven difficult of initial composition Tbo.z7Dyo.73FezBx for the values
to prepare large defect free single crystals of Terfenol- x = 0 , 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 were prepared. The rare-
D. Any deviation from these compositions will result earths, Fe and FeB alloy were weighted in the desired
in the appearance of intergrain rare-earth phase or ratio in amounts sufficient to yield a melt of 15 to 20
intragrain RFe3. The existence of such second phases grams total mass. As a result of the volatility of rare-
is detrimental to the magnetostriction of the materials, earth, the starting compositions were taken at 1% richer

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86 Lei Wu et al. / Journal of Alloys and Compounds 216 (1994) 85-87

in rare-earth in order to obtain the correct stoichiometry. 2000 I I I

The metals were initially alloyed together by arc melting
in a water cooled copper crucible under a purified ,, ,,-,,-::FFF=FFL:~
v'*=g =~=6" - o-O-O
- o
v: ~e ~ 0-0 -O-u- -
argon atmosphere, and the button produced was turned 1500 v...Z. ~ ~ _ o - O -

over and remelted three times in order to ensure v#. ~ o

homogenization. The ingots obtained after melting were

sealed in quartz tube at about 10 -5 Pa, and annealed
1000
at 1000 °C for a week.
The samples were cut into slips of about 6 mm X 6
mm ×3 mm and examined by scanning electron mi-
croscopy (SEM). Vilella's reagent (1 g picric acid in 500
5 ml HC1 plus 95 ml methanol) was used to determine
grain size and distribution. The magnetostrictive mea-
0 ..... I .... I .... I ....
surement was made by the strain gauge method in an
applied field of up to 2 × 104 Oe at room temperature. 0 5 10 15 20
H(KOe)
Phase analysis was carried out by means of X-ray powder
Fig. 2. M a g n e t o s t r i c t i o n of Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2B x. O, x = 0 ; O, x = 0 . 1 ; ~ ,
diffraction techniques with Co Ka radiation. The Curies
x = 0 . 1 5 ; V, x=0.2.
point shift was examined by means of a Faraday balance.

90 I I I I I

3. Results and discussion 80

° ~ °
70
Polished samples were examined by SEM. Fig. 1 60
shows the SEM image of Tbo.z7Dyo.73Fe2B x (x = 0, 0.05, 50
0.1, 0.15, 0.2). Where the dark microconstituent is the
40
rich-iron phase. It is obvious that the iron-rich phase
(RFe3) decreases with increase of boron content x. 30
When x = 0.2, almost no iron-rich phase appears. These 20
results were also confirmed by X-ray diffraction. 10
Figure 2 shows the results of magnetostrictive mea- , I . . . . I . . . . I . . . . I ",~"? "'-'''1"
surements by means of the strain gauge method. The 0
300 400 500 600 700
magnetostriction of Tbo.27Dyo.73FezBx increases with in-
creasing x content firstly, then decreases slightly. The T (K)
whole magnetostriction change is rather modest. Fig. 3. M - T curves of Tbo.27Dy0.73Fe2B x m e a s u r e d in a field of 1.2
T. O, x = 0 ; O, x = 0 . 0 5 ; V, x = 0 . 1 ; V, x = 0 . 2 .

Figure 3 shows the M - T curves of Tbo.27Dy0.73FezB x

measured in a field of 1.2 T. The ordering temperature
Tc decreases slightly. Because the lattice constant varied
slightly after boron doping, the distance between the
Fe ion changed slightly. This can be affirmed by (422)
power diffraction peak datum. The ordering temperature
(a) (b)
is affected by the lattice constant changing.

4. Conclusion

We believe that boron doping in Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2 can

restrain the emergence of the iron-rich phase. It is
possible that boron leads to a substantial increase of
(c) (d) (e) the peritectic temperature so that Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2B x is
Fig. 1. S E M image of Tbo.27Dyo.73Fe2Bx. ( a ) x = 0 , (b)x=0.05, (c) formed directly. It is a significant result for obtaining
x=0.1, (d) x=0.15, (e) x=0.2. the single phase Terfenol material.
 Lei Wu et al. / Journal o f ,41loys and Compounds 216 (1994) 8 5 ~ 7 87

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2 (1979) 231.
[3] A.S. Van der Goot and K.H.J. Buschow, J. Less-Common Met.,
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