The effect of carbon on magnetostrictive properties of the Tb/sub 0.3/Dy/sub 0.7/Fe/sub 2/ alloy

The effect of carbon on magnetostrictive properties and microstructure of the quarternary Tb/sub 0.3/Dy/sub 0.7/Fe/sub 2/C/sub x/ alloys prepared by arc-melting and homogenization have been investigated. Magnetic properties, X-ray diffraction and magnetostriction studies were carried out. With increasing x, saturation magnetization decreases substantially, but the magnetostriction measured at a field of 2T(/spl lambda//sub 2T/) increases slightly with x<0.1 (0.43 wt.%). By further increasing x, /spl lambda//sub 2T/ decreases rapidly, and a second phase, (Dy,Tb)Fe/sub 3/C with Curie temperature 340/spl deg/C, appears, and it becomes the dominant phase at x/spl ges/0.2.