Radiation Damage Studies of Materials and Electronic Devices Using Hadrons

We have irradiated NdFeB permanent magnet samples from different manufacturers and with differing values of coercivity and remanence using stepped doses of 1 MeV equivalent neutrons up to a fluence of 0:64 1015n=cm2 to evaluate effects on magnetization and B field distributions. The samples with high coercivity, irradiated in open circuit configurations, showed no or minimal effects when compared with unirradiated samples, whereas the lower coercivity magnets suffered significant losses of magnetization and changes in the shapes of their field patterns. One such magnet underwent a fractional magnetization loss of 13.1% after a fluence of 0:59 1015 n=cm2. This demagnetization was not uniform. With increasing fluence, B field scans along the centerlines of the pole faces revealed that the normal component of B decreased more near the midpoint of the scan than near the ends. In addition, a fit to the curve of overall magnetization loss with fluence showed a significant deviation from linearity. The results are discussed in light of other measurements and theory. The high coercivity materials appear suitable for use in accelerator applications subject to irradiation by fast neutrons such as dipoles where the internal demagnetizing field is comparable to or less than that of the openmore » circuit samples tested in this study.« less