Materials Science Forum, Vol.373-3, 35-39, 2001
Large magnetic-field-induced strains in Ni-Mn-Ga alloys due to redistribution of martensite variants
A polycrystalline and single-crystal samples of near-stoichiometric Ni2MnGa alloys have been investigated. It was confirmed that martensite short crystallographic axis (c-axis) is the easy axis of magnetization. The reversible reorientation of the easy magnetization direction of martensite samples after 5 % compression is found. The same reversible reorientation of the easy magnetization direction under applied magnetic field occurs in the single-crystal samples. The field-induced reorientation of the easy magnetization direction is accompanied with more than 4 % of sample's dimension change. About the same value of the field-induced strains can be obtained for polycrystalline samples after appropriate thermo-mechanical treatment.
Keywords:magnetic shape memory (MSM);martensite phase transformations;magnetization;magnetic anisotropy