Temperature dependence of mechanical and magnetic curves in Ni/sub 2/MnGa single crystals

The temperature dependence of magnetoelastic properties of a Ni/sub 2/MnGa single crystal has been experimentally investigated through a set of magnetization versus field and stress-strain curves. The set of experimental results were analyzed using a phenomenological model which describes the twin-boundary motion as a collection of jumps affected by the magnetic field and statistically distributed pinning forces. In this framework, the observed temperature dependence of the magnetization curve shapes derives from the temperature dependence of the lattice parameters and the twin-boundary pinning force.