Rare Earth Magnet Basics / Glossary of Magnet Terms / Magneto crystalline anisotropy
- Magneto crystalline anisotropy
- It is said that the magnetic characteristics of a material, in particular the stability of the magnetization of that material, depends on the crystalline anisotropy The reason for this is that the electron structure depends not only on the type of elements the magnet is composed of but also on its crystalline anisotropy. Fundamentally, this means that the ease of orientation for spontaneous magnetization depends on the crystalline anisotropy, but there are also cases in which it means that the secured coercive force, magnetization characteristics, etc. depend on the direction of the crystal. With iron single crystals, the [100] direction is easier to magnetize than the [110] and [111] directions and with nickel, the [111] direction is easier to magnetize than the [110] and [100] directions. The crystal direction that is easy to magnetize is called the easy magnetization axis (direction) and on the other hand the crystal direction that is difficult to magnetize is called the difficult magnetization axis (direction).