FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF THE NANOSTRUCTURE OF A HETEROGENEOUS HIGH COERCITY ALLOY

The atomic force microscopy was used to obtain images of the nanostructure of components of a heterogeneous intermetallic SmCoCuFeZr compound in a highly coercive state. At the microlevel, two types of regions were distinguished in the alloys, differing in integral elemental composition and coercivity intervals. Based on the atomic force microscopy data, an analysis of the fractal characteristics of the surface is carried out on both of the above types of areas. It is shown that the fractal dimension of the nanostructure correlates with the local coercivity of the phase components. The phase component with a relatively low coercivity demonstrates the possibility of the existence of structures with fractal dimensions in the 2,396-2,475 range corresponding to a moderately developed fractal relief. In this case, the high-coercive component with a regular nanostructure is characterized by a higher fractal dimension of 2,452-2,508, and in some areas of the sample there were regions with a fractal dimension up to the value of 2,577.