Phenomenology of giant magnetic-field-induced strain in ferromagnetic shape-memory materials (invited)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
Ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys have recently emerged as a new class of active materials showing very large magnetic-field-induced extensional strains. Recently, a single crystal of a tetragonally distorted Heusler alloy in the NiMnGa system has shown a 5% shear strain at room temperature in a field of 4 kOe. The magnetic and crystallographic aspects of the twin-boundary motion responsible for this effect are described. Ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys strain by virtue of the motion of the boundaries separating adjacent twin variants. The twin-boundary motion is driven by the Zeeman energy difference between the adjacent twins due to their nearly orthogonal magnetic easy axes and large magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The twin boundary constitutes a nearly 90 degree sign domain wall. Essentially, twin-boundary motion shorts out the more difficult magnetization rotation process. The field and stress dependence of the strain are reasonably well accounted for by minimization of a simple free energy expression including Zeeman energy, magnetic anisotropy energy, internal elastic energy, and external stress. Models indicate the limits to the magnitude of the field-induced strain and point to the material parameters that make the effect possible. The field-induced strain in ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys is contrasted with the more familiar phenomenon of magnetostriction. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.
- OSTI ID:
- 20216205
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 87, Issue 9; Other Information: PBD: 1 May 2000; ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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