Patent ID: 7670443

Claim:
A rapidly solidified magnetic alloy made by a method comprising the steps of: preparing a melt of an alloy material having a predetermined composition; rapidly cooling and solidifying the melt of the alloy material by a melt quenching process to immediately produce a rapidly solidified alloy that includes fine particulate structures with sizes of about 1 μm or less, includes a compound phase having a NaZn 13 -type crystal structure, and has a composition represented by the general formula: Fe 100-a-b-c RE a A b TM c where RE is at least one rare-earth element that is selected from the group consisting of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er and Tm and that includes at least about 90 at % of La; A is at least one element that is selected from the group consisting of Al, Si, Ga, Ge and Sn; TM is at least one transition metal element that is selected from the group consisting of Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn; and mole fractions a, b and c satisfy 5 at %≦a≦10 at %, 4.7 at %≦b≦18 at % and 0 at %≦c≦9 at %, respectively; wherein the rapidly solidified magnetic alloy has not been subjected to thermal treating.