Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol.388, 107-111, 2014
Undercooling growth and magnetic characterization of ferromagnetic shape memory alloy Ni2FeGa single crystals
Ni2FeGa single crystals have been grown in undercooling conditions provided by a glass-purification method. It has been found that trace amounts of gamma phase embededin the single crystalline matrix preferentially orients in the < 1 0 0 > orientation along the growth direction. This gamma phase generates directional residual stress and results in an anisotropic two-way shape memory effect. Large strains of -2.5% in the [0 0 1] and 1.5% in the [0 1 01 directions have been observed. This trace gamma phase also improves the ductility of the material, thus the crystals could be plastically deformed at room temperature in the parent phase. The < 1 1 0 > and < 1 1 1 > orientations in Ni2FeGa alloy were identified as the easy and hard magnetization directions, respectively, in the parent phase by using low field M-T measurements. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Characterization;Single crystal growth;Ferromagnetic shape memory alloys;Magnetic materials