Journal of Materials Science, Vol.46, No.8, 2733-2740, 2011
Martensitic transition and structural modulations in Ni51Fe24Ga25 ferromagnetic shape-memory alloy
The structure of near-stoichiometric Ni51Fe24Ga25 Heusler alloy synthesized by a melt-spinning technique has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The main phase possessed a local, well-defined L2(1) high-atomic order structure, and some fcc structural gamma phase and lamellar twin structures were also present. At room temperature, a rich variety of micro-modulated domains in the parent phase was observed. The domain structures were aligned along the aOE (c) 110 >, aOE (c) 100 >, aOE (c) 211 >, and similar to 14A degrees off aOE (c) 110 > directions, resulting in a complex tweed contrast. These are possibly the precursors of martensitic transformation (MT). Below the MT temperature, Ms, the cubic parent phase transformed into modulated martensitic variants, which were composed of lamellar structures with predominantly 10 and 14 M modulated structures along the aOE (c) 110 > directions.