Analysis of the effect of gallium content on the magnetomechanical behavior of single-crystal FeGa alloys using an energy-based model

The magnetomechanical behavior of single-crystal iron-gallium alloys with varying gallium content was found to be strongly dependent on the Ga content (Atulasimha 2006 PhD Thesis). An energy-based model ( Atulasimha 2006 PhD Thesis, Armstrong and William 1997 J. Appl. Phys. 81 2321) is employed to simulate the strikingly different actuation behavior (lambda-H and B-H curves under different compressive stresses) and validated against experimental data for 19, 24.7 and 29 at.% Ga, [ 100] oriented, slow-cooled single-crystal FeGa alloys. The effect of gallium content on the model parameters, specifically the cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants and the Armstrong-smoothing factor Omega, their physical significance and ultimately their effect on the magnetomechanical behavior are analyzed and explained.