A unified approach to describe the thermal and magnetic hysteresis in Heusler alloys

Abstract

Different excitations, like temperature, magnetic field, or pressure, can drive a martensitic transition in Heusler alloys. Coupled phenomena in these materials lead to interesting magnetocaloric and barocaloric effects ascribed to this transition. In this work, we demonstrate that isothermal transformations induced by a magnetic field and isofield transformations induced by the temperature can be described using the same framework. By defining an effective temperature that relates field and temperature through the properties of the system (magnetic moment and entropy of the transition), both kinds of loops can be transformed into the other kind, therefore providing a more effective way of characterizing hysteretic samples. The validity of this effective temperature approach to describe the transition holds for martensite to austenite transformations as well as reversal ones, and thus, the hysteresis phenomena can be described using this single general excitation.