Effect of Sm content on energy product of rapidly quenched and oriented SmCo5 ribbons

The Sm-content dependence of phase composition, anisotropy, and other magnetic properties of Sm1+δCo5 (δ ≤ 0.12) ribbons melt spun at 10 m/s has been studied. The samples consist of hexagonal SmCo5 grains whose c axes are preferentially aligned along the long direction of the ribbon. The lattice parameter a and the cell volume (V) increase with increasing Sm content δ, whereas c decreases. Sm addition appears to improve the degree of the preferred orientation of the c-axis and to increase the mean grain size, which weakens the effective intergranular exchange coupling. Therefore, the remanence ratio, coercivity, and squareness of the hysteresis loops are significantly enhanced. The remanence ratio of 0.91 and the maximum energy product of 21.2 MGOe, which is the highest value reported so far for Sm–Co ribbons, are achieved for δ = 0.06. High performance in combination with simple processing may facilitate high-temperature applications for anisotropic Sm1+δCo5 ribbons.