Magnetic nanostructures by adaptive twinning in strained epitaxial films

Abstract

We exploit the intrinsic structural instability of the Fe70Pd30 magnetic shape memory alloy to obtain functional epitaxial films exhibiting a self-organized nanostructure. We demonstrate that coherent epitaxial straining by 54% is possible. The combination of thin film experiments and large-scale first-principles calculations enables us to establish a lattice relaxation mechanism, which is not expected for stable materials. We identify a low twin boundary energy compared to a high elastic energy as key prerequisite for the adaptive nanotwinning. Our approach is versatile as it allows to control both, nanostructure and intrinsic properties for ferromagnetic, ferroelastic and ferroelectric materials.

Final version. Supplementary information available on request or at the publisher's website