Energy barriers and hysteresis in martensitic phase transformations

Abstract We report results from a systematic program of alloy development in the system TiNiX, X = Cu, Pt, Pd, Au, to pursue certain special lattice parameters that have been identified previously with low hysteresis. We achieve λ 2 = 1 , where λ 2 is the middle eigenvalue of the transformation stretch matrix, for alloys with X = Pt, Pd, Au. In all cases there is a sharp drop in the graph of hysteresis vs. composition at the composition where λ 2 = 1 . When the size of the hysteresis is replotted vs. λ 2 we obtain a universal graph for these alloys. Motivated by these experimental results, we present a new theory for the size of the hysteresis based on the growth from a small scale of fully developed austenite martensite needles. The energy of the transition layer plays a critical role in this theory. Overall, the results point to a simple systematic method of achieving low hysteresis and a high degree of reversibility in transforming materials.