Magnetic anisotropy of microwires and domain structure of microstripes of PrDyFeCoB

Microwires and microstrips extracted from a PrDyFeCoB melt have been investigated. The angular dependence of the magnetic moment of microwires qualitatively changes the form in a “strong” magnetic field, close to the saturation field of magnetization of 4–5 kOe. The appearance of an additional maximum of the magnetic moment on the angular dependence in strong fields is explained in the framework of the multidomain Stoner–Wohlfarth (SW) model. In the microstrips, the decomposition of the hysteresis loop into two components shows that the coercive force of the $\alpha$-FeСо phase (500–700 Oe) determines the width of the hysteresis loop near the zero field, while the coercive force of the 2-14-1 phase (10 kOe) corresponds to the lateral hysteresis loops. Stripe domains and their evolution upon magnetization of microstrips were revealed by Kerr magneto-optical microscopy.