材料期刊网

Pseudo-1-3 magnetostrictive particulate composites consisting of light rare earth (Sm and Nd)-based magnetostrictive Sm(1-x)Nd(x)Fe(1.55) particles with the Nd content x of 0-0.56 and randomly distributed sizes of 10-180 mu m membedded and aligned in a passive epoxy matrix are fabricated using the particulate volume fraction of 0.5. The quasistatic magnetomechanical properties of the composites are investigated and the results are compared with their monolithic alloys for various x. The composites exhibit similar qualitative trends in properties with the alloys for all x. The Sm(0.92)Nd(0.08)Fe(1.55) composite shows a large unsaturated magnetostriction lambda of -530ppm at 500 kA/m and a high piezomagnetic coefficient d(33) of -2.0 nm/A at 100 kA/m as a result of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy compensation between Sm(3+) and Nd(3+) ions in the Sm(0.92)Nd(0.08)Fe(1.55) alloy. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.