New Low Expansion Magnetic Materials-A Composite Approach

Abstract

A composite ceramic is fabricated by mixing and processing two or more phases which are supposed to be thermodynamically compatible with each other and thus controlling or tailoring a desired property in the composite by varying the amount of each component or by modifying the processing technique. The di/multiphasic concept permits the selection of both materials - both in terms of any special property each phase might have and quantity of each phase. While this concept opens the door wide for tailoring a special property, there are several problems that one may encounter - the intimacy of mixing, the strength of the sintered body, the reactivity of the constituents and the interplay of the elastic forces all combine to determine the effectiveness of the composite material.