Atomic force microscopy study of stacking modes of martensitic transformation in Fe-Mn-Si based shape memory alloys

Stacking modes of thermally induced and stress-induced martensitic transformation in Fe-28Mn-6Si-5Cr shape memory alloys have been studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). It has been found that thermally induced martensite plates appear with the self-accommodated stacking form, in which all the three possible variants with different [112] shear directions in a {111} plane are activated and formed in parallel but at separate places; i.e. each plate corresponds to one variant. In addition, a plastic deformation band is always induced in austenite between two different variants. On the other hand, stress-induced martensite plates appear with the mono-partial stacking form, i.e. only single variant is activated in a {111} plane in a grain. The difference between stacking modes of thermally induced and stress-induced martensites makes them play a different role in contributing to shape memory effect in Fe-Mn-Si based shape memory alloys.