Relation of remanence and coercivity of Nd,(Dy)-Fe,(Co)-B sintered permanent magnets to crystallite orientation

For sintered permanent magnets based on Nd2Fe14B having magnetically oriented crystallites, a simple method of measuring the degree of alignment by x-ray diffraction is described, using the inverse pole figure technique. The results are related to a distribution function for the easy axis which is a direct measure of remanence. The fraction of the ideal [001] texture component in both Nd-Fe-B and Nd,Dy-Fe,Co-B magnets is enhanced by doping with oxygen, resulting in a measurable increase in remanence and improved loop squareness. The observed increase of the intrinsic coercivity iHc with better crystallite orientation is also discussed.