Quantifying the relationship between crystallographic texture and magnetic properties is highly desirable for engineering high-energy-product magnets. Such an undertaking is a challenge for melt-quenched magnets formed from Nd2Fe14B-based alloys because they possess a nanoscale microstructure complicated by the presence of multiple phases, both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic. Procedures for the evaluation of texture in permanent magnets often rely upon magnetic remanence measurements; however, such determinations are based on the use of the Stoner–Wohlfarth model, and are applicable only to assemblies of noninteracting particles, which nullifies their use in texture determinations of “exchange-spring” magnets. To overcome these inherent experimental difficulties, alternative techniques for the measurement of the bulk texture of permanent magnets are explored in this work. Crystallographic alignment was investigated in both neutron and hard x-ray diffraction experiments. Transmission synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements of the rocking curve width as a function of both the vertical and horizontal positions were performed on a series of thermomechanically processed, melt-quenched magnets based on the Nd2Fe14B composition. The results of the hard x-ray diffraction experiments were verified by neutron diffraction work. A simple model based on a squared-Lorentzian distribution is used to obtain a quantitative estimation of the population of misoriented grains for a given rocking curve half-width. It is deduced that even the most deformed magnets still possess a significant degree of particle misalignment; over 50% of the constituent grains have a misorientation of at least 15° from the overall axial direction at the center of the magnet. The spatial distribution of the rocking curve widths indicates that the development of the c-axis texture is initiated in the center region of the magnet and progresses to the perimeter with increasing deformation. Samples with lower deformation levels possess more uneven texture distributions than do those with higher deformation levels, and the degree of orientation seems to develop rapidly near a deformation level of 50%. The results of this work are utilized to produce a phenomenological model, consistent with the findings of past researchers, of deformation based on mass transport under applied stress via a liquid grain-boundary phase. It is proposed that the micromagnetic structure consists primarily of relatively large clusters of exchange-coupled grains that result in lower-coercivity areas within the magnet. Recommendations are included for improving the production and processing of thermomechanically deformed melt-quenched magnets.
