The influence of heat treatment on the magnetic and phase transformation properties of quaternary heusler alloy Ni50Mn8Fe17Ga25 ribbons

Abstract Quaternary Heusler alloy Ni 50 Mn 8 Fe 17 Ga 25 has been synthesized by melt-spinning method. Pole figure examination suggested that the ribbon samples have a strong preferentially orientation in [4 0 0] about 5–10° tilted from the ribbon normal. The effect of heat treatment on the magnetic and phase transformation properties of Ni 50 Mn 8 Fe 17 Ga 25 ribbon has been investigated. Annealing increased the martensitic transformation temperature, Curie temperature and decreased the transformation hysteresis and magnetic hysteresis due to the change of atomic chemical ordering. Thermoelastic transformation strain was decreased from −0.19% to −0.17% after annealing. At the same time, a slighter decrease of transformation strain by adding external bias field was observed in the as-annealed ribbons, which has not been found in the as-spun ribbons. These can be attributed to the relaxation of the internal stress through annealing.