AC field induced rotation of magnetostrictive nickel wires

AC field induced rotation is reported in polycrystalline nickel wires after its discovery few years ago in amorphous wires. The dependence with both frequency and amplitude of the AC exciting magnetic field has been measured for wires with different diameters. The results suggest that the phenomenon is general in magnetostrictive materials and not only related to amorphous wires. Additionally, the contribution of the eddy currents to this effect is suggested from the dependence of the rotation frequency with the exciting field frequency.