The magnetic shape memory alloy Ni-Mn-Sn in thin films

In this chapter the theoretical basics important to understand all aspects of this work are presented. Theoretical concepts that are import for single chapters only are presented accordingly. In the first section, fundamental properties of the martensitic transformation are introduced. The concept of phase compatibility is introduced in the following section. In the last section, the influences of defects and the thin film geometry on the martensitic transformation are discussed. Note that not all details that are required for understanding can be presented in this thesis. It is assumed that the reader is accustomed to basic linear elasticity and continuum mechanics. A good introduction about both topics can be found in e.g. [16]. Further reading about martensitic transformations can be found in e.g. [8] and [17].