The texture of Nd oxide grains in Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets studied by synchrotron radiation

Synchrotron pole figures have been recorded from the Nd2Fe14B, Nd2O3, and NdO grains in commercial Dy-free, Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets in the as-sintered and fully annealed states. In contrast to the well known <00l> fiber texture in the Nd2Fe14B grains, the Nd-oxide phases showed no preferred orientation in the as-sintered or annealed states. The random orientation of the Nd-oxide grains was confirmed from histograms of the pole density values. These showed only small deviations from the pole density of a non-textured material.