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Polycrystalline CoFe2O4 was produced by a ceramic method. The heat-treated powder was pressed, varying the hydrostatic pressure between 87 and 278 MPa, and was heat-treated again at 1350 °C for 24 h. All magnetic parameters showed a clear dependence on this hydrostatic pressure. The saturation magnetization showed a minimum, and the coercivity, the anisotropy, and the magnetostriction showed a maximum at compaction pressures around 150 MPa. This pressure dependence of the magnetic parameters can be explained by a cation redistribution due to the hydrostatic pressure and heat treatment. Additionally, all samples were field-annealed in an external field of 10 T (at 300 °C for 3 h). The field-annealing process causes an induced uniaxial anisotropy, which results in a reduction of the coercivity (in the easy axis) as well as a dramatic increase in the magnitude of the magnetostriction along the hard axis. Maximum magnetostriction value of -400×10-6 was obtained. Additionally, dλ/dH is increased within a factor of three with magnetic heat treatment.

We present magnetostriction and magnetization measurements of a cobalt ferrite (Co0.8Fe2.2O4) single crystal. We observe unusual behaviour in the magnetic hard axis of the single crystal which manifests in a jump of the magnetization curve at a critical field. This first order magnetization process (FOMP) which is explained as an anisotropy driven transition is visible at temperatures lower than 150 K. By analyzing the anisotropy constants we found that the higher order anisotropy constant K2 dominates the anisotropy energy. In the magnetostriction measurements the FOMP is clearly visible as a huge jump in the [111] direction, which can be explained by means of a geometric model.

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When we investigated the magnetic structure of a variety of soft-magnetic amorphous ribbons by means of ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (USANSPOL) we were confronted with one particularly interesting Fe 65.7 Co 18 Si 0.8 B 15.5 ribbon, provided by VAC Hanau. Due to a special thermal treatment during production a field-and stress-induced transverse domain texture was expected. Although the USANSPOL technique encountered its resolution limits during the investigation of this specific sample ribbon, such a texture could indeed be verified.