High energy electron irradiation in Ni₄₁Mn₄₃Co₆Sn₁₀ for obtaining large magnetostrain under a relatively low magnetic field

Promising magnetostrain effect endows the Ni-(Co)-Mn-X (X = Sn, In, Sb) based Heusler alloys large potential for the application on intelligent-drive field. However, the over high driving magnetic field always requires cumbersome attaching devices, which restricts the further promotion of such materials. In this work, a large number of point defects are formed in Ni₄₁Mn₄₃Co₆Sn₁₀ alloys by high energy electron irradiation, which could simultaneously increase the structural and magnetic difference between the parent phase and martensite phase. As a result, a high reversible magnetostrain of 0.22% is accordingly obtained in the transformation process only under a relatively low magnetic field of 4 T, which are comparable to the maximum values obtained under high fields in other Ni-Mn-based alloys.