Structural, Thermal and Magnetic Characterization of Ni-Mn-Ga Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys

Ni-Mn-Ga Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys (FSMA) are highly interested in industrial actuators and energy harvesters because of its uniqueness in microstructure and multiple phases of these materials at different temperatures. The type of crystal structure, lattice parameters and magnetic properties depend on the alloy composition. The transformation and crystallographic properties are usually mapped to average number of valence electrons per atom. The present work deals with the fundamental characterization of single crystal and polycrystalline nature of these alloys. Though, the polycrystal shows low magnetic field induced stain (MFIS), the easy preparation techniques and cost effective aspects compared with the single crystals makes an impressive interest in dealing with that. The structural, thermal and magnetic parameters are observed and compared for these single and polycrystals.