Influence of microstructural defects on the martensitic transformation and on the magnetic properties of ni-based heusler alloys

Abstract

The thesis deals with the effect that microstructural defects have on the magneticproperties and martensitic transformation in Ni-Mn-Z (Z = Ga, In, Sn)and Ni-Fe-Ga alloys. For this purpose, along with the standard characterizationtechniques, two additional specific nuclear techniques have been employed; 119SnMössbauer Spectroscopy and Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy, PALS.For the consecution of this thesis one PALS spectrometer has been designed, builtand optimized. For offline emission Mössbuauer experiments, a setup has been alsobuilt for measuring ion implanted samples. Finally, a high temperature annealingfurnace has been designed and built to carry out the annealing of powdered samplesunder controllable atmosphere.