Effect of atomic order on the martensitic and magnetic transformations in Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloys

The influence of long-range L2(1) atomic order on the martensitic and magnetic transformations of Ni-Mn-Ga shape memory alloys has been investigated. In order to correlate the structural and magnetic transformation temperatures with the atomic order, calorimetric, magnetic and neutron diffraction measurements have been performed on polycrystalline and single-crystalline alloys subjected to different thermal treatments. It is found that both transformation temperatures increase with increasing atomic order, showing exactly the same linear dependence on the degree of L2(1) atomic order. A quantitative correlation between atomic order and transformation temperatures has been established, from which the effect of atomic order on the relative stability between the structural phases has been quantified. On the other hand, the kinetics of the post-quench ordering process taking place in these alloys has been studied. It is shown that the activation energy of the ordering process agrees quite well with the activation energy of the Mn self-diffusion process.