High mobility of twin boundaries in modulated martensites of Ni-Mn-Ga-based ferromagnetic shape memory alloys holds a promise for unique magnetomechanical applications. This feature has not been fully understood so far, and in particular it has yet not been unveiled what makes the lattice mechanics of modulated Ni-Mn-Ga specifically different from other martensitic alloys. Here, results of dedicated laser-ultrasonic measurements on hierarchically twinned five-layer modulated (10 M) crystals fill this gap. Using a combination of transient grating spectroscopy and laser-baser resonant ultrasound spectroscopy, it is confirmed that there is a shear elastic instability in the lattice, being significantly stronger than in any other martensitic material and also than what the first-principles calculations for Ni-Mn-Ga predict. The experimental results reveal that the instability is directly related to the lattice modulations. A lattice-scale mechanism of dynamic faulting of the modulation sequence that explains this behavior is proposed; this mechanism can explain the extraordinary mobility of twin boundaries in 10 M.
@article{arxiv.2407.15181,
title = {Compliant Lattice Modulations Enable Anomalous Elasticity in Ni-Mn-Ga Martensite},
author = {Kristýna Repček and Pavla Stoklasová and Tomáš Grabec and Petr Sedlák and Juraj Olejňák and Mariia Vinogradova and Alexei Sozinov and Petr Veřtát and Ladislav Straka and Oleg Heczko and Hanuš Seiner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.15181},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Manuscript accepted to Advanced Materials. Supplementary material (text and figures) is available as ancillary file