Using a variety of thermodynamic measurements made in magnetic fields, we show evidence that the diffusionless transition (DT) in many shape-memory alloys is related to significant changes in the electronic structure. We investigate three alloys that show the shape-memory effect (In-24 at.% Tl, AuZn, and U-26 at.% Nb). We observe that the DT is significantly altered in these alloys by the application of a magnetic field. Specifically, the DT in InTl-24 at.% shows a decrease in the DT temperature with increasing magnetic field. Further investigations of AuZn were performed using an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique in magnetic fields up to 45 T. Quantum oscillations in the speed of the longitudinal sound waves propagating in the [110] direction indicated a strong acoustic de Haas-van Alphen-type effect and give information about part of the Fermi surface.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0607275,
title = {Electronic Instabilities in Shape-Memory Alloys},
author = {J. C. Lashley and R. K. Schulze and B. Mihaila and W. L. Hults and J. L. Smith and P. S. Risenborogh and C. P. Opeil and R. A. Fisher and O. Svietelskiy and A. Suslov and A. Planes and L. Manosa and T. R. Finlayson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0607275},
year = {2009}
}