Direct evidence on magnetic-field-induced phase transition in a NiCoMnIn ferromagnetic shape memory alloy under a stress field

The magnetoelasticity and magnetoplasticity behaviors of a Ni–Co–Mn–In ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) induced by the reverse phase transformation interplayed under multiple (temperature, magnetic, and stress) fields were captured directly by high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction technique. The experiments showed the direct experimental evidence of that a stress (∼50 MPa) applied to this material made a complete recovery of the original orientations of the martensite variants, showing a full shape memory effect. This finding offers the in-depth understanding the fundamental properties and applications of the Ni–Co–Mn–In FSMA with the magnetic-field-induced reverse transformation.