Structure and Composition of Magnetocaloric Ni–Mn–In–Co Thin Films on the Nanoscale—A TEM Study

Abstract

Abstract A complementary set of electron microscopy techniques is applied for the determination of structural and chemical segregation phenomena within a 300 nm thick metamagnetic Ni–Mn–In–Co thin film. The structure is predominantly composed of distinct modulated martensites of the 5M‐, 6M‐, 7M‐, and 8M‐type. Additionally these modulated structures exhibit twinning and stacking disordering. The nature of the disordering and the structural misfit at the twin interface were analyzed via high resolution micrographs. Next to an adhesion layer of Cr interdiffusion on the nanoscale was observed producing a penternary chemically and structurally homogeneous precipitate. The structure can be assigned to a twinned non‐modulated pseudocubic model.