Patent ID: 7578892

Claim:
A method of making a magnetic alloy material, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a melt of an alloy material having a predetermined composition; and rapidly quenching and solidifying the melt of the alloy material such that an average quenching rate is 2×10 4 ° C./s to 2×10 6 ° C./s within the temperature range of 1,500° C. to 600° C., thereby obtaining a rapidly solidified alloy in which each particle of the magnetic alloy material has a composition represented by the formula: Fe 100-a-b-c RE a A b Co c , where RE is a rare-earth element that always includes La, A is either Si or Al, 6 at %≦a≦11 at %, 8 at %≦b≦18 at %, and 0 at %≦c≦9 at %, and has either a two phase structure consisting essentially of an α-Fe phase and an (RE, Fe, A) phase including 30 at % to 90 at % of RE or a three phase structure consisting essentially of the α-Fe phase, the (RE, Fe, A) phase including 30 at % to 90 at % of RE and an RE(Fe, A) 13 compound phase with an NaZn 13 -type crystal structure, the respective phases having an average minor-axis size of 40 nm to 2 μm.