Peculiarities of magnetoelastic coupling in Ni–Fe–Ga–Co ferromagnetic martensite

International audience; The reversible stress-induced magnetization (inverse magnetostriction or Villari effect) has been measured in a polycrystalline Ni-Fe-Ga-Co ferromagnetic martensite. The samples were mechanically excited using longitudinal resonant oscillations at frequencies close to 100 kHz, and experiments were performed over the temperature range 170 - 350 K under variable polarizing fields. It has been found that the reversible inverse magnetostriction changes its sign under low polarizing fields over a certain temperature range with its upper limit close to the Curie temperature. We argue that the variations of sign of the reversible inverse magnetostriction effect are related in the present experiments with the change of the sign of magnetostriction, as has additionally been verified in test measurements performed for pure Ni and Fe. The observed peculiarity of magnetoelastic coupling is also reflected in the temperature dependence of electrical resistance and even produces a minor effect in calorimetry scans. Possible origins of these features of magnetoelastic coupling are discussed.