Theoretical evaluation on the temperature dependence of magnetic anisotropy constants of Nd2Fe14B - Effects of exchange field and crystal field strength -

To identify the possible mechanism of coercivity (Hc) degradation of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets, we study the roles of the exchange field acting on the 4f electrons in Nd ions and theoretically investigate how the variation of the exchange field affects the values of the magnetic anisotropy constants K1 and K2. We find that, with decreasing exchange field strength, both values decrease as a result of the lower asphericity of the 4f electron cloud, indicating that the local anisotropy constants might become small around the grain boundaries where the exchange fields are decreased owing to the smaller coordination number.