Tailoring volume magnetostriction of giant magnetostrictive materials by engineering magnetic domain morphology.

Volume conservation is usually considered for the classic magnetostrictive materials during technical magnetization process. The present work reports the forced volume magnetostriction prior to saturation magnetization in the rare-earth giant magnetostrictive materials by engineering the initial magnetic domain morphology. It is found that the volume magnetostriction can be manipulated with the changeable sign and magnitude from about -200×10-6 at the thermaldemagnetized state to 450×10-6 at the domain-aligned state. Such behavior arises from the different domain pathways. On the light of these observations, the exploration of materials design and applications based on the volume magnetostriction effect might be facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]