ARGONNE RESEARCHERS DISCOVER KEYS TO IMPROVING COMMERICAL MAGNET TECHNOLOGY

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ARGONNE RESEARCHERS DISCOVER KEYS TO IMPROVING COMMERICAL MAGNET TECHNOLOGY
18 November 2005 - DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have found new clues into ways to make those magnets longer-lasting and more powerful.

Permanent magnets are important in a broad variety of commercial technologies, from car starters to alternators for wind power generation to computer hard drives. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have found new clues into ways to make those magnets longer-lasting and more powerful.

Using the Western Hemisphere's most powerful X-rays at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, the researchers were able to see new details of rare-earth ions, a critical component of permanent magnets. The examination of the ions, probing their magnetism with unprecedented resolution, revealed that the presence of rare-earth ions in more than one atomic environment reduces the magnetic stability of the best-performing permanent magnets to date. This knowledge will enable manufacturers to manipulate the rare-earth ion atomic structure for optimization of future magnets.

Rare-earth ions come from metallic elements that share similar chemical properties; they are not especially rare, but they are used sparingly because of the high cost in preparation of the materials. Rare-earth ions play an important role in determining magnetic stability again demagnetizing fields, and therefore in magnet performance.

"The research found that rare-earth ions in dissimilar crystalline environments compete with one another, and undermine the magnetic performance of the highest performance magnets," said Argonne scientist Daniel Haskel, who led the research team. "These findings point to the need for specialized atomic engineering of the material – manipulating the rare-earth local atomic structure to fully utilize the rare-earth contribution in next generations of magnets."

Other authors on the paper are Jonathan C. Lang, Zahirul Islam, Andrew Cady and George Srajer, all of the Experimental Facilities Division of the Advanced Photon Source.

Catherine Foster
cfoster@anl.gov
630-252-5580
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

http://www.anl.gov

About: DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is one of the US Department of Energy's largest research centres. It is also the nation's first national laboratory, chartered in 1946.

Argonne is a direct descendant of the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory, part of the World War Two Manhattan Project. After the war, Argonne was given the mission of developing nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. Over the years, Argonne's research expanded to include many other areas of science, engineering and technology.

Today, the laboratory has about 4000 employees, including about 1200 scientists and engineers, of whom about 700 hold doctorate degrees.

Argonne occupies two sites. The Illinois site is surrounded by forest preserve about 25 miles southwest of Chicago's Loop. About 3200 of Argonne's 4000 employees work on the site's 1500 wooded acres. The site also houses the US Department of Energy's Chicago Operations Office.

Argonne-West occupies about 900 acres about 50 miles west of Idaho Falls in the Snake River Valley. It is the home of most of Argonne's major nuclear reactor research facilities. About 800 of Argonne's employees work there.

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