Multi-scale simulations of metamagnetic martensite transition in NiCoMnIn

A multi-scale theoretical model is performed to investigate magnetic field-induced metamagnetic martensite transition in NiCoMnIn alloys. First, the total energy is calculated to demonstrate antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition from first principle calculation. Second, the transition temperature from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic can be tuned by the external magnetic field and hydrostatic pressure in thermodynamic calculation, which is consistent with experimental results. Third, phase field simulation found that martensite variant boundaries are superposed with the 90 degrees antiferromagnetic magnetic domain walls, revealing magneto-structural coupling between structural and magnetic domain structures. It is demonstrated that this multi-scale model is very effective for describing antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic accompanied with martensite-austenite transitions with magnetostructural coupling. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.