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Research Outline

Shape deformation and internal degree of freedom of the ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) are manipulatable via magnetic field. Hence, FSMA is considered as a potential material for the high-speed actuators in robots and magnetic cooling applications. NiMnGa alloy is a promising FSMA; however, its high brittleness impedes the practicability. Therefore, in this study, the separators (i.e. S or Bi) were introduced into the polycrystalline NiMnGa alloy intentionally to separate the grains and make the alloy even brittle. The polycrystalline NiMnGa is thereafter mechanically crushed into single crystal powders at elevated temperature. The conventional difficulties such as high defect concentration and complicated procedures for single crystal preparation could be solved by the facile mechanical crushing. The NiMnGa single crystal powders are then utilized for the fabrications of the composites for realizing the high-speed actuators for robots and magnetic cooling applications.

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Hosoda & Tahara Lab（Advanced Materials Research Core）
http://www.mater.pi.titech.ac.jp/