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Co38Ni35Al27 and Co35Zn10Ni32Al23 ferromagnetic shape memory alloys were prepared via facile powder metallurgy and vacuum sintering technique. The influence of sintering temperature on phase transformation behaviour, microstructure and magnetic properties were investigated. The rise in peak intensity of A2-phase shows that the alloy is rich in martensitic-phase in the polycrystalline cubic B2-phase structure and Zn incorporation leads to the reduction in austenite-phase. The needle-shaped cobalt precipitates on predominant martensite A2-phase, shows Widmanstatten-like structure in the samples sintered at 673 K. The saturation magnetization was found to be 87.92 and 96.2 emu/g for Co38Ni35Al27 and Co35Zn10Ni32Al23 alloy. The existence of non-interacting single-domain particles were observed and proved using Stoner-Wohlfarth model.

Co-Ni-Al alloy samples were prepared by compacting the powdered alloy at various pressures in proper stoichiometric ratio and the high density compacted alloy was sintered at 673 K. The magnetic, mechanical properties, microstructure and phase analysis were studied and compared with that of spark plasma sintered (SPS) alloy. The sintered alloy exhibit martensitic twin variants with ? phase structure. Along with the diffused particle, few agglomerated clusters were observed on the topographic images. The magnetic and the mechanical studies of the test specimens were investigated using the vibrating sample magnetometer, pin on disk tribometer and universal testing machine respectively. The coercivity value and the ductility of the SPS alloy are higher than the same of the as-sintered alloy.

Co–Ni–Al is considered as a suitable ferromagnetic shape-memory alloy and has significant control over structural transformation temperature, magnetic parameters, and ductility. In this paper, the fabrication of Co–Ni–Al alloy thin films on Si (1 0 0) substrate was achieved via pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The developed films annealing was done at 573, 673, and 773 K temperatures and inveterate their crystalline structure, phase analysis, and magnetic nature of the annealed Co38Ni35Al27 films. X-ray diffraction analysis at 773 K annealing temperature reveals that, the Co38Ni35Al27 film shows high crystallinity, and all annealed films have a body-centered cubic phase structure. The crystallite size estimated from Scherrer rule is noticed to increase from 10 to 22 nm when the annealing temperature raised to 773 K. From the SEM images, we infer that there is an increase in grain size when the annealing temperature increases and the grains shape looks spherical. The magnetic study of the samples shows that the film possesses highest magnetic saturation and lowest coercivity at 773 K annealing temperature. Also, the film annealed at 773 K exhibits a wide range of transformation temperatures and has a curie temperature of 180 K.

The CoNiAl alloys are prepared by using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The present study investigates the crystalline structure , Phase analyses, Physical and mechanical properties of the stoichiometric Co38Ni35Al27 alloys. The significant control over the magnetic and structural transformation temperature and high ductility of CoNiAl makes it a potential high-temperature Ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA). The test specimens were prepared at SPS temperature of 1000 °C at a sintering pressure of 50 MPa. The microstructural identification and the phase analyses of the mechanically alloyed powders and the SPS sintered specimens were investigated using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The room temperature XRD results revealed that the sintered samples have body centred cubic β phase. A comparison of the room temperature XRD results for alloy powders and that of the sintered alloys has been studied. From the SEM images, we observe that the sintered alloys have martensitic twin variants. Also in the optical microscope, we observe the martensitic variants in the β phase structure. From the thermal studies, we analysed the phase transformation behaviour of the sample from β’ martensite to β martensite at 120°.