Local strains, calorimetry, and magnetoresistance in adaptive martensite transition in multiple nanostrips of Ni39+xMn50Sn11−x(x ⩽ 2) alloys

Ni39+x Mn50Sn11-x (x = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2) alloys comprise multiple martensite nanostrips of nanocrystallites when cast in small discs, for example, ∼15 mm diameter and 8 mm width. A single martensite phase with a L10 tetragonal crystal structure at room temperature can be formed at a critical Sn content of 9.0 at.% (x = 2), whereas an austenite cubic L21 phase turns up at smaller x ⩽ 1.5. The decrease in the Sn content from x = 2 to 0.5 also results in a gradual increase in the crystallite size from 11 to 17 nm. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal arrays of regularly displaced multiple martensite strips (x ≽ 1.5) with an average thickness of 20 nm. As forced oscillators, these strips carry over the local strains, magnetic dipoles, and thermions simultaneously in a martensite-austenite (or reverse) phase transition. A net residual enthalpy change ΔHM↔A = -0.12 J g-1 arises in the process that lacks reversibility between the cooling and heating cycles. A large magnetoresistance of (-)26% at 10 T is observed together with a large entropy change of 11.8 mJ g-1 K-1, nearly twice the value ever reported in such alloys, in the isothermal magnetization at 311 K. The ΔHM↔A irreversibility accounts for a thermal hysteresis in the electrical resistivity. Strain induced in the martensite strips leads them to have a higher electrical resistivity than that of the higher-temperature austenite phase. A model considering time-dependent enthalpy relaxation explains the irreversibility features.