Abstract: Method for obtaining a solid, magnetically anisotropic material, includes the steps of heating an alloy containing a rare earth element and at least one transition metal to a temperature higher than the melting temperature of the alloy and sufficient that alloy is completely liquid, and cooling the melted alloy at a rate at least equal to natural cooling in the presence of a continuous, static magnetic field to solidify the alloy and obtain the magnetically isotropic material.

Abstract: A method for preparing a sample of a magnetic susceptibility compound .chi. comprises the steps of providing a vertical magnetic induction B which has a magnetic induction gradient dB/dz and which is such that B.dB/dz has a sign opposite to that to the weight of the sample and such that the magnetic force (.chi..B.dB/dz)/.sub..mu.0 is higher than the weight and heating at a temperature close to the melting temperature.

Abstract: A method for preparing a textured polycrystalline material having, in the crystalline state, a magnetic anisotropy, comprises the following steps:preparing a compound such that, after being molten and solidified, it provides substantially only said material and that, at the melting temperature, crystallites of said material exist;slowly heating close to the melting temperature, up to some degrees above said temperautre, so that it remains crystallites of said material in a liquid phase;slowly cooling close to the melting temperature, up to solidification; andapplying, at least from the time at which the material begins to enter the liquid state up to the time at which it is fully solidified, a magnetic field having a sufficient strength to preferentially orient, despite the thermal agitation energy, crystallites having a sufficient size for constituting crystallization seeds.

Abstract: A method for preparing an oriented and textured magnetic compound, comprising the steps of preparing a composition at a temperature such that it comprises crystallites of the compound in the presence of a liquid; subjecting the composition to a magnetic force producing crystallite sedimentation; cooling down the composition in the presence of a magnetic force while applying a suitable temperature gradient for improving the development of a desired texture in the sedimentation area.

Abstract: Ceramic superconductor materials, e.g., of rare earth/alkaline earth metal/transition metal/oxygen type, contain an effective stabilizing amount of fluorine atoms distributed therein in a concentration gradient decreasing from the external face surface of the material to the core region thereof; advantageously the fluorine atoms are principally distributed in an external protective diffusion barrier layer.

Abstract: Ceramic superconductor materials, e.g., of rare earth/alkaline earth metal/transition metal/oxygen type, contain an effective stabilizing amount of fluorine atoms distributed therein in a concentration gradient decreasing from the external face surface of the material to the core region thereof; advantageously the fluorine atoms are principally distributed in an external protective diffusion barrier layer.