Temperature-induced martensite in magnetic shape memory Fe2MnGa observed by photoemission electron microscopy

The magnetic domain structure in single crystals of a Heusler shape memory compound near the composition Fe2MnGa was observed during phase transition by photoelectron emission microscopy at Beamline 11.0.1.1 of the Advanced Light Source. The behavior is comparable with recent observations of an adaptive martensite phase in prototype Ni2MnGa, although the pinning in the recent work is an epitaxial interface and in this work the effective pinning plane is a boundary between martensitic variants that transform in a self-accommodating way from the single crystal austenite phase present at high temperatures. Temperature dependent observations of the twinning structure give information as to the coupling behavior between the magnetism and the structural evolution. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3677939]