Electron back scattered diffraction study of SmCo magnets

The remanence and energy product of permanent magnets is a strong function of their crystallographic texture. Electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) is a tool for texture analysis providing information about the atomic layers up to 50 nm below the surface of the material. This paper discusses experimental requirements for performing EBSD measurements on rare-earth permanent magnets and presents results on commercial SmCo magnet material. EBSD measurements proved to be very sensitive to misaligned grains and were sensitive to texture in good agreement with information provided by X-ray diffraction scans. Results for nanostructured Sm(CoFeCuZr)_z magnets are also discussed.