We report on the effect of severe plastic deformation by torsion under the Bridgman anvil pressure (SPDT) on structure and physical properties of the Ni54Mn21Ga25 and Ni54Mn20Fe1Ga25 alloys. Two types of samples were studied: ordered (cast) samples and nanocrystalline samples disordered by SPDT. The thermal expansion, thermo EMF, electro- and magnetoresistivity, Hall effect, and magnetization were measured from 4.2 to 800 K and in magnetic fields of up to 15T. We show that the deviation from the stoichiometric Ni50Mn25Ga25 composition shifts the temperatures of the martensitic transition TM and the magnetic (Curie) transition TC to room temperature. Large changes in the physical properties near TM and TC were discovered. The alloys become amorphous and nanocrystalline after the SPDT treatment. This process is accompanied by the disappearance of the martensitic transformations and of the nanocrystalline modulated substructures and, consequently, by the suppression of the magnetic shape-memory effect. The physical properties of the disordered alloys are also strongly changed. Subsequent annealing at Т ≥ 700 K leads to a practically full restoration of the structure and all properties characteristic of the initial cast alloys.
Fabrication of a barrel-type modified bridgman anvil cell
