Precision analysis of magnetization process in Nd/sub 2/Fe/sub 14B/ sintered magnets

In a previous study, the authors studied the magnetization and demagnetization of Sm/sub 12/Fe/sub 17/N/sub 3/ magnet particles, and found three categories of particles; (1) multi-domain particles (MDP), (2) single-domain particles (SDP) and (3) saturable multi-domain particles (SMDP) that can be magnetized under a certain applied field and behave as SDP after. In this paper, the authors explored this categorization to the Nd/sub 2/Fe/sub 14/B sintered magnets in which the strong interactions are expected among the crystal grains. The behavior of SMDP in the sintered magnets, and the origin of enhancement of coercivity with the optimization of annealing temperature are studied using the method of analysis applied to the Sm/sub 2/Fe/sub 17/N/sub 3/ magnet particles.