Physical properties of lithium under extreme pressures continuously reveal unexpected features. These include a sequence of structural transitions to lower symmetry phases, metal-insulator-metal transition, superconductivity with one of the highest elemental transition temperatures, and a maximum followed by a minimum in its melting line. The instability of the bcc structure of lithium is well ...

This paper describes an experimental study of stress-induced martensitic phase transformation in the SMA Nickel-Titanium. The rich local thermo-mechanical interactions that underlie transformation are examined using three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (strain fields) and infrared imaging (thermal fields). We quantify the complex local interactions between released/absorbed latent heat a...

This work examines two major aspects of martensitic phase boundaries. The first part studies numerically the deformation of thin films of shape memory alloys by using subdivision surfaces for discretization. These films have gained interest for their possible use as actuators in microscale electro-mechanical systems, specifically in a pyramid-shaped configuration. The study of such configuratio...

In this paper, the finite volume method is developed to analyze coupled dynamic problems of nonlinear thermoelasticity. The major focus is given to the description of martensitic phase transformations essential in the modelling of shape memory alloys. Computational experiments are carried out to study the thermo-mechanical wave interactions in a shape memory alloy rod, and a patch. Both mechani...

The TA2 phonon dispersion curves of Ni-Mn-Ga alloys with different compositions which transform to different martensitic structures have been measured over a broad temperature range covering both paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases. The branches show an anomaly (dip) at a wave number that depends on the particular martensitic structure, and there is softening of these anomalous phonons with d...

Ti-Nb-based Gum Metals exhibit extraordinary superelasticity with ultralow elastic modulus, superior strength and ductility, and a peculiar dislocation-free deformation behavior, most of which challenge existing theories of crystal strength. Additionally, this kind of alloys actually displays even more anomalous mechanical properties, such as the non-linear superelastic behavior, accompanied by...

The (001)-oriented surface of epitaxial off-stoichiometric Ni–Mn–Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloys was studied in both austenitic and martensitic phases. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging of the austenitic surface reveals a well-ordered and reconstruction-free surface exhibiting predominantly Mn–Ga termination. We found that only one of the two atomic species (Ga or Mn) is visible ...

The electronic structure and magnetism of the Heusler alloy Mn2NiAl have been studied by firstprinciples calculations. It is found that the phase transformation from the cubic to the tetragonal structure lowers the total energy, indicating that the martensitic phase is more stable and that a phase transition from austenite to martensite may happen at a lower temperature. Thus, ferromagnetic sha...