0000000000015048
AUTHOR
Sebastian Fähler
Recent Progress in FSMA Microactuator Developments
The giant magneto-strain effect is particularly attractive for actuator applications in micro- and nanometer dimensions as it enables contact-less control of large deformations, which can hardly be achieved by other actuation principles in small space. Two different approaches are being pursued to develop ferromagnetic shape memory (FSMA) microactuators based on the magnetically induced reorientation of martensite variants: (1) the fabrication of free-standing epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga thin film actuators in a bottom-up manner by magnetron sputtering, substrate release and integration technologies and (2) the top-down approach of thickness reduction of bulk Ni-Mn-Ga single crystals to foil specime…
Electronic structure of the austenitic and martensitic state of magnetocaloric Ni-Mn-In Heusler alloy films
Changes of the electronic and magnetic structure near the martensitic phase transition of Ni-Mn-In Heusler alloys doped with Co are investigated by experiment and theory. The nonstoichiometric Ni${}_{48}$Co${}_{5}$Mn${}_{35}$In${}_{12}$ epitaxial film undergoes a transition from a weakly magnetic martensitic phase below ${T}_{m}=350$ K to a ferromagnetic austenitic phase above ${T}_{m}$. Element-specific magnetic moments and the unoccupied density of states function is investigated using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We find an antiparallel alignment of Mn and Ni/Co magnetic moments in both phases. The electronic structure is calculated using the SPR-KKR Green's function approach consi…
Full Tunability of Strain along the fcc-bcc Bain Path in Epitaxial Films and Consequences for Magnetic Properties
Strained coherent film growth is commonly either limited to ultrathin films or low strains. Here, we present an approach to achieve high strains in thicker films, by using materials with inherent structural instabilities. As an example, 50 nm thick epitaxial films of the ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{70}{\mathrm{Pd}}_{30}$ magnetic shape memory alloy are examined. Strained coherent growth on various substrates allows us to adjust the tetragonal distortion from $c/{a}_{\mathrm{bct}}=1.09$ to 1.39, covering most of the Bain transformation path from fcc to bcc crystal structure. Magnetometry and x-ray circular dichroism measurements show that the Curie temperature, orbital magnetic moment, and magnetocrysta…