Mossbauer studies of melt-spun Pr2Fe14B ribbons

Melt-spun ribbons of tetragonal Pr2Fe14B exhibit favorable hard magnet characteristics. Technically relevant materials based on this compound, however, generally contain a certain amount of soft magnetic alpha -Fe or Fe3-xBx for remanence enhancement through exchange coupling. The nominal off-stoichiometric compositions lead to metallurgical complications, which are not easily resolvable by standard phase identification techniques such as x-ray diffraction and thermal magnetic analysis. As a viable alternative, Fe-57-Mossbauer spectroscopy can be used to delineate individual Fe sites. To provide a basis for such an approach, this report gives Mossbauer parameters including hyperfine magnetic field, isomer shift, and quadrupole splitting as obtained from a single-phase melt-spun Pr2Fe14B ribbon. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.