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Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

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Crystal structure of 7M modulated NiMnGa martensitic phase

L. Righi a,*, F. Albertini b, E. Villa c, A. Paoluzi b, G. Calestani a, V. Chernenko c,
S. Besseghini c, C. Ritter d, F. Passaretti c
a

Dipartimento di Chimica Generale ed Inorganica, Chimica Analitica, Chimica Fisica, Universita` di Parma, Viale G. Usberti 17/A, I-43100 Parma, Italy
b
IMEM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, I-43010 Parma, Italy
c
IENI, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Corso Promessi Sposi, 23900 Lecco, Italy
d
Intitut Laue-Langevin, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
Received 28 March 2008; received in revised form 16 May 2008; accepted 19 May 2008
Available online 21 June 2008

Abstract
For the rst time, the 7M modulated structure, frequently observed in ferromagnetic shape memory NiMnGa martensitic phases, is
solved by powder diraction analysis. Two polycrystalline samples with composition Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 and Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga, respectively,
showing a 7M martensitic state stable at room temperature, were studied. The determination of the modulated crystal structure of
Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensite was achieved by rening the X-ray powder diraction pattern by the Rietveld method. The basic structure
belongs to monoclinic symmetry. The crystal structure, solved within the superspace approach, is found to show an incommensurate
7M modulation with q = 0.308c*. The Rietveld renement for Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga martensite on the basis of neutron powder data surprisingly provides a very similar incommensurate 7M structure with the same periodicity and analogous modulation function. The incommensurate structure presents typical displacive modulation with several analogies with the Zhdanov (5, 
2)2 stacking sequence.
2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ni2MnGa; Martensitic phase; Diraction; Structural modulation; Crystal structure

1. Introduction
Ferromagnetic shape memory materials such as Ni
MnGa Heusler alloys attract much attention because they
exhibit the giant magnetic-eld-induced-strain (MFIS)
eect (see, e.g., Refs. [1,2] and references therein) and
remarkable magnetocaloric properties [3,4]. These ferromagnetic alloys are characterized by a martensitic transformation below or above the Curie temperature TC. They are
also characterized by the unusual combination of strong
magnetoelastic coupling and extremely mechanically soft
crystal lattice [1]. The observed MFIS is due to the magnetic eld-induced twin rearrangement in the martensitic
phase.
A number of martensitic structures have been found in
the NiMnGa system [5,6]. The basic martensitic struc*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0521 905448; fax: +39 0521 905556.
E-mail address: lara.righi@unipr.it (L. Righi).

ture is a result of the spontaneous uniform lattice distortion

of the parent cubic phase with a L21 structure type. The
distorted lattice can be tetragonal, orthorhombic or monoclinic, depending on the composition of NiMnGa alloy
and the temperature [5]. In addition, evidenced by the presence of satellites in diraction experiments, lattice modulations (periodic shuing of nearly close-packed planes) can
appear [5,6].
Despite the intense research dedicated to this important
material, the role of the martensitic structure in dening
the MFIS mechanism and the magnetic properties is not
completely understood. In particular, the giant magnetostrain eect is observed only for NiMnGa modulated
martensites [7,8]. As MFIS is strongly dependent on magnetostress value and twin boundary mobility [1,2,7], the
crystal structure determination of these modulated martensites is of fundamental importance.
The most frequently observed modulated NiMnGa
martensitic structures have been indicated as 5M and

1359-6454/$34.00 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2008.05.010

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L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

7M, depending on the number of unit cells of basic

structure involved in the related superstructure [6]. The
description of the displacive modulation of atomic layers
at the basis of these complex structures has been the object
of several structural investigations [5,6,9]. Recently, accurate determination of the 5M crystal structure of stoichiometric martensite Ni2MnGa has been achieved by the
application of superspace theory on powder diraction
data [10]. These studies have demonstrated that the
5M modulation in NiMnGa alloys can be commensurate or incommensurate [11].
However, the crystal structure of 7M martensite in Ni
MnGa (known also as 14M-type [5]) is still not well established. The 7M martensitic structure is characterized by a
diraction pattern with six satellites between the main
reections associated with the distorted basic structure
[5,6,12]. The lattice distortion with respect to the original
parent L21 structure has been generally described in terms
of the orthorhombic structure with a > b > c [6,8,11,12].
The rst observation of this type of structure was reported
in an experiment where a stoichiometric Ni2MnGa single
crystal was subjected to external tensile or compression
loads along the cubic h1 0 0i or h1 1 0i crystallographic
directions, respectively, at room temperature [6]. Furthermore, investigations devoted to the composition dependence of structural and magnetic properties evidenced the
presence of temperature-induced 7M modulated martensite
in Mn-rich [13,14] and Ni-rich [15] NiMnGa alloys. Such
a NiMnGa martensite displays some analogies with the
NiAl layered martensitic structure [16]. The Ni-rich binary NiAl alloys show a martensitic phase, called 7R or,
more recently, 7M [5], with a monoclinic structure with
seven-layered modulation. Elastic neutron scattering experiments revealed the periodicity of the modulation to be
consistent with a modulation vector q close to 1/7[1 1 0]c
(subscript c indicates the B2-ordered parent cubic lattice)
[17]. This structure has been described in terms of a (5, 2)
stacking sequence (related to Zhdanovs notation) of the
(1 1 0)c nearly close-packed atomic planes. The same model
has been applied to the Ni-rich NiMnGa martensitic
phase showing 7M modulation. This composition has been
investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
analysis [14], and the reported high resolution electron
microscopy (HREM) images along [2 1 0] and [0 1 0] monoclinic zone axes were compared with a model consisting of
a (5, 2)2 stacking arrangement of (1 1 0)c atomic planes.
Although this structural model is considered the most similar to the martensitic structure shown by HREM projections, the authors reported non-perfect periodicity of the
stacking sequence.
The main object of the present study is a precise determination of the crystal structure of the 7M-type modulated NiMnGa martensitic phase. For this purpose, a
powdered sample of Mn-rich composition was investigated by X-ray diraction (XRD). The structure was
found to show an incommensurate 7M modulation
which has been solved by the superspace approach. The

Rietveld renement achieved the convergence, giving a

structure comparable with a (5, 2)2 layers stacking. Moreover, the crystal structure obtained by this procedure has
also been applied to a martensitic phase of Ni-rich composition investigated in the present work by powder neutron diraction (PND).
2. Experimental
Polycrystalline ingots with nominal composition Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 and Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga were prepared by melting the
pure elements of electrolytic Ni 99.97 at.%, electrolytic
Mn 99.5 at.% and Ga 99.9 at.% in a non-consumable-electrode arc furnace in Ar atmosphere. Several re-melts were
performed to ensure good homogeneity. The samples were
thermally treated in Ar ow at 800 C for 5 h. Energy dispersion spectrometry (EDS) was used to check the sample
composition. Both martensitic and Curie transition temperatures were determined in the 280420 K range, with a rate
of 1 K min1 by thermomagnetic analysis (TMA). In
Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8, magnetic and martensitic transitions were
found to co-occur at T = 370 C (on heating) [3]. In contrast, in Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga the two transitions are well separated: the martensiteaustenite transformation is observed
at TMA = 320 K (on heating), while the Curie transition
occurs at TC = 335 K. Thermal hysteresis DT = 15 K is
observed at the martensitic transformation.
Powder X-ray diraction (PXRD) patterns were collected with Cu Ka radiation, using a Thermo ARL Xtra
diractometer equipped with a Thermo Electron solid-state
detector. A PND experiment was carried out on the sample
with composition Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga at the high resolution
D2B beamline of the Institute Laue-Langevin Institute
(Grenoble, France). The parameters of the pattern acquisitions are summarized in Table 1. The Rietveld structural
renement and the analysis of the resulting crystal structures were carried out using JANA2000 software [18].
3. Results
The powder diraction pattern of Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensite, collected at room temperature and shown in Fig. 1,
was analyzed in order to determine the unit cell parameters
of the fundamental lattice. The system is found to belong to
a monoclinic symmetry with unit cell parameters: a =
, b = 5.507 A
, c = 4.267 A
and b = 93.3. As already
4.222 A
remarked, the 7M martensite is frequently associated with a
pseudo-orthorhombic lattice based on the parent L21 structure, whose unit cell parameters are derived from the former
lattice with the following relationship:
0
1 0
10 1
aL21
1 0
1
am
B
C B
CB C
3:1
@ bL21 A @ 1 0 1 A@ bm A
0 1 0
cL21
cm
, b = 5.828 A
, c = 5.507 A
with angles
where a = 6.174 A
approximated to 90 [5]. However, this unit cell is redun-

L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

Table 1
Experimental details and rened crystallographic data for the two samples
with compositions of Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 and Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga, respectively
Sample

Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8
(Mn-rich)

Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga
(Ni-rich)

Radiation type
Wavelength
2h range ()
Step/degrees
Temperature (K)
Superspace group
Modulation vector q
)
a (A
)
b (A
)
c (A
b ()
3)
Volume (A
Z
Calculated density (g cm3)
Calculated formula

X-ray
Cu Ka
10.00100.00
0.050
RT
I2/m(a0c)00
0.3081(4)c*
4.2672(4)
5.5074(4)
4.2228(6)
93.31(1)
99.07(1)
2
7.964(3)
Ni2Mn1.28Ga0.72

Neutron
1.594
15.00150.00
0.050
RT
I2/m(a0c)00
0.307(4)c*
4.2201(6)
5.5388(4)
4.1974(3)
92.74(1)
98.00(1)
2
8.221(1)

Agreement factors
RwF (main reections)
RwF (rst-order satellites)
RwF (second-order satellites)
Rp/Rwp

0.0546
0.0717
0.0808
0.1029/0.1513

0.0845/0.1115

dant, and the most appropriate martensitic fundamental

structure is monoclinic with the I2/m space group (see
Table 2).

4531

Alongside the main reections, additional peaks indicating the presence of structural modulation are observed
(Fig. 1). Commonly, the 7M modulation is represented
by a superstructure with seven adjacent unit cells along
one of the crystallographic axes. The structural modulation
was assumed to be commensurate, and the corresponding
modulation vector q was sought from the observed 2h
angular positions of satellites. In the commensurate case,
the q vector should be, in the monoclinic reference, 2/7a*
or alternatively 2/7c*. This alternative was found not to
be the case, because either of these two options is appropriate for indexing the diraction pattern.
Dierent authors have suggested that 7M martensite
might show incommensurate modulation. Both single crystal [12] and powder XRD [19] investigations have revealed,
in Mn-rich compositions, some displacement of satellites
from their positions, corresponding to perfect periodic
7M modulation. Taking this information as reliable, the
authors considered the structural distortion incommensurate and applied the same procedure adopted for the solution of Ni2MnGa martensitic structure [10]. Hence, the
superspace theory suitably formulated by Janssen and Janner [20] was introduced to solve incommensurately modulated structures.
First, the q vector is taken as roughly 2/7c*, corresponding to the resultant calculated satellites closest to those
observed. The symmetry of the system is supposed to be

Fig. 1. Rietveld renement of 7M incommensurate modulated structure of Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensitic phase. The arrow indicates the bump corresponding
to 2h position of the second-order satellite with respect to the 1 2 1 main reection.

Table 2
Atomic positions (x, y, z), ADP (Uiso), site occupancy factors (s.o.f.), and rst- and second-order amplitudes Ai of the Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensitic
modulated structure
Name

Wych.

Mn1
2a
Ga1
2d
Mn2
2d
Ni1
4h
Modulation function parameters

A1
A2

s.o.f.

Uiso

0
0
0

0.090(1)
0.003(1)

0
0
0
0
0.033(1)
0.002(2)

1
0.72(4)
0.28(4)
1

0.018(6)
0.022(9)
0.022(9)
0.017(7)

1=

0
0

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L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

described by the superspace group I2/m(a0c)00. Following

the procedure reported by Martinov and Kokorin [6], the
modulation function is dened by the expansion
3
X
ui x4
Ani sin2pnx4
3:2
n1

where ui represents the spatial i component of the modulation function, which depends on the additional x4 superspace coordinate, and the n index indicates the order of
the Fourier series.
To determine the components Ani of the modulation
function, the following assumptions were made:
(1) The lattice modulation in NiMnGa martensitic alloys
is related to the shuing of atomic layers along the
[0 0 1] crystallographic direction of monoclinic setting
[4,5]. Therefore, it was imposed that the y component
of the modulation function for all the atomic sites
was zero.
(2) Because the modulation involves the periodic transversal shift of the (0 0 l) atomic layers, the Ani amplitudes are constrained to assume the same value for
all the atomic sites. This procedure is also supported
by previous results concerning the determination of
incommensurate and commensurate modulated
5M structures [10]. In this way, the number of
rened parameters is considerably reduced.
Starting from this (3 + 1)-dimensional model, a structural
renement was performed by the Rietveld method (Fig.
1) on the PXRD data collected as illustrated in Section 2.
The rst important result concerns the modulation vector q with, in the present monoclinic symmetry, components (a and c in the superspace symbol, see Table 1)
along the a* and c* vectors of reciprocal space. Both
parameters were rened, and the resulting vector is
q = 0.003a* + 0.3087c*. As a is very close to zero, this
parameter was neglected, and only the c* component of
the q vector was considered. The c variable signicantly differs from 2/7, so the Rietveld renement conrms that this
modulated structure is not commensurate with a sevenfold
superstructure.
The full prole renement presented some diculties
related to the particular microstructure characterizing such
martensitic phase. Anisotropic broadening of the peak prole related to an hkl dependence of full width at half maximum (FWHM) was recovered. Reections with larger
FWHM are associated with lattice planes, which are largely distorted during martensitic transition. In particular,
a bump corresponding to the 2h position related to the
rst-order satellite of 
1 2 1 reection is observed (see Fig.
1), indicating, for this specic crystallographic direction,
a strong structural disorder. The occurrence of anisotropic
broadening is always associated with the microstructure of
the sample under investigation. In order to t the diraction pattern of Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensite, it is necessary
to adopt a peak prole function which is able to reproduce

the strain eect. Application of the phenomenological Stephenss function [21] expressly intended for this purpose
and implemented into JANA2000 software [18] considerably improved the prole tting.
The crystallographic data related to the nal convergence of the structural renement are shown in Table 1.
To dene the composition of the o-stoichiometric
NiMnGa alloy, the occupancy factors of the dierent
atomic sites were rened. As expected, an excess of Mn
was found in the Ga site, but the amount of Mn obtained
is slightly higher with respect to the nominal composition,
and the calculated formula is actually Ni2Mn1.28Ga0.72.
This result is in agreement with EDX analysis which conrmed a composition closely related to the nominal one.
Furthermore, the Rietveld renement involved the rst
and second-order of modulation function, whose nal values of Ani amplitudes are reported in Table 2.
A polycrystalline sample with nominal composition
Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga was also investigated by PND. A rst-step
analysis of the room temperature diraction data was performed, resulting in the determination of the fundamental
structural characteristics of this second 7M martensitic
phase shown in Table 1. Despite this, the analysis was hindered by diculties related to simultaneous nuclear and
magnetic scattering, the most important result was the
value of the modulation vector which appeared to be very
similar to that found for Mn-rich 7M martensite (Table 1).
Thus, the 7M martensitic phase in Ni-rich alloy composition studied in this work is also incommensurate. Concerning the nuclear structure, the Rietveld renement indicates
a modulation function with the same characteristics
(smoothed zigzag shape) found for the rst structure.
4. Structural analysis
This section is dedicated to the crystal structure analysis
in comparison with the models previously proposed to
explain the structural characteristic of the 7M martensitic
phase.
The values of A1i and A2i parameters shown in Table 2 evidence that the major atomic displacement from the basic
positions corresponds to the x-coordinate. Fig. 2 shows a
graphical representation of the modulation function superimposed onto a two-dimensional projection (with y = 0.5
and z = 0) of the fourth-dimensional Fourier map calculated on the basis of the observed structure factors Fobs.
The modulation function, which is in a good agreement
with the observed electron density, is more similar to a zigzag chain than to a perfect sinusoidal modulation characterizing 5M martensitic structures [11]. Conversely, the
structural determination indicates that the present 7M modulation is not commensurate with a sevenfold superstructure and, consequently, the simple (5, 2)2 sequence cannot
be applied to the present crystal structure. The interatomic
distances (see Supplementary material) are in agreement
with the typical bond lengths encountered in such a type
of intermetallic compounds. The distances are also consis-

L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

Fig. 2. A3A4 Fourier map representing a two-dimensional section of

electron density function along the x4-axis, while considering y and
z-components to be constant, in comparison with the modulation function
depicted by a solid black curve.

tent with those recently obtained by extended X-ray absorption ne structure measurements of the o-stoichiometric
NiMnGa martensitic phases [22].
In 2002, Brown et al. [23] suggested a structural model,
based on PND, for the Ni2MnGa martensitic phase. This
structure is based on a sevenfold superstructure and is
called 7M by the authors, but, as discussed in Ref. [10], this
indication generated confusion. In dening modulated
martensitic NiMnGa phases, it is important to keep in
mind the number of satellites appearing between main
reections. Because Ni2MnGa martensite generates four
and not six satellites, it has been more properly classied
as 5M incommensurate [10]. The new incommensurate
7M crystal structure conrms this formulation and demonstrates that 7M modulation assumes completely dierent
structural features with respect Ni2MnGa martensite.

4533

In order to illustrate in a simple way the structural characteristics of the incommensurate 7M martensite, consider the modulation vector q approximately equal to 3/
10c*. With this assumption, it is possible to generate a simple 3D model from a (3 + 1)-dimensional structure. It is
important to bear in mind that this model is an approximation of the real incommensurate structure. If one renes the
structure by taking the q vector exactly equal to 3/10c*, one
would observe a slight shift (0.1 of 2h) of calculated satellites. However, the diraction pattern corresponding to this
superstructure is characterized by six satellites. This is
shown in Fig. 4, where the [h 0 2]* row of the calculated
reciprocal space reects the typical peak sequence associated with 7M modulation [12], conrming the correctness
of the proposed crystal structure.
The new three-dimensional structure, consisting of 10
unit cells along the c-axis, belongs to the monoclinic space
, b=
group P2/m with unit cell parameters a = 4.267 A
*

5.507 A, c = 10 cm = 42.223 A and b = 93.3. Each atom

type, Ni, Mn and Ga, possesses 11 independent atomic
sites (for fractional coordinates, see the Supplementary
material). The zigzag-like displacement of the (0 0 l) layers
is clearly visible in the b projection of the present model
shown in Fig. 3. This three-dimensional representation
reveals that the periodic shifting of the atomic planes is
not related to ideal zigzag behaviour with a sudden change
in the shear direction, but it is rather smoothed. This particular characteristic was also referred to in a structural
study devoted to the incommensurate seven-layered structure of the NiAl martensitic phase [24]. During analysis
of dierent models with intent to establish the best solution
for the observed intensities, the authors indicated a soft
modulation function, very similar to that determined in the
present work, as the most appropriate.
However, if the historical Zhdanovs notation is applied
to this crystal structure, note that the incommensurate
modulation breaks down the ideal periodic stacking
(5, 2)2. In the present case, the sequence comprising the tenfold superstructure is (4 2 5 2 4 3) for a total of 20 layers, as
schematically shown in Fig. 3.
The actual structure is compared with the earlier structural model supported by HREM investigations on samples with Mn-rich composition [9,15]. The classical (5, 
2)2
stacking was interpreted by Pons et al. [5,15] by a sequence

Fig. 3. View of the tenfold superstructure along the b-axis. The numbers on the top of the picture refer to Zhdanovs sequence of blocks.

4534

L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

of nano-twinned domains (the two blocks with two and ve

atomic planes, respectively) correlated by mirror planes.
This original interpretation has been introduced by Khachaturyan et al. [25], where a NiAl 7M monoclinic martensite was treated as a nano-twinned adaptive phase.
Martensitic transformation is a diusionless process
involving large strains. Alongside the invariant plane, in
addition to the Bain strain generating the martensitic lattice, a further invariant lattice deformation process involving multivariant twinning takes place [25]. Khachaturyan
et al. also extended these processes to the interpretation
of the modulated martensitic structures characterizing different alloys. In particular for 7M modulation, in order to
preserve the structural constraint of the invariant plane
strain, the mesoscale martensitic twinning develops into
an adaptive nanostructure where the size of the individual twin variants is comparable with interatomic distances.
This interpretation was favoured by the classical (5, 2)2
expansion of the periodic stacking of the crystallographic
planes. The 7M crystal structure determined in the present
study suggests further considerations. The monoclinic dis-

Fig. 4. Calculated diraction pattern based on the tenfold superstructure

along the [h 0 
2]* row, where the typical sequence of six satellites (three of
them are related to 2 0 
2; the other three to 4 0 2 main reections) is clearly
visible. The 2 0 
2 intensity has been cut in order to magnify the satellites.

tortion, showing a b angle of 93, implies a systematic

shift of the (0 0 l) planes (see Fig. 5). After ten unit cells,
a total shear of 1/2a is noted. The 7M structural modulation can therefore be considered a further distortion, which
tends to oppose the progressive layer displacement. This
mechanism possesses many analogies with the lattice
invariant deformation provoking the tweed martensitic
microstructure. In general, the microstructural properties
of a material cannot be directly related to the intrinsic crystal structure. In the special case of martensite, crystal structure and microstructure are mutually related (see, e.g., Ref.
[26]).
5. Concluding remarks
For the rst time, a NiMnGa 7M modulated structure has been solved by XRD analysis. The crystal
structure presented in this work represents the rst crystallographic model of this type of modulated NiMn
Ga martensitic phase provided by a structural renement.
Several new insights emerge from the determination of the
7M crystal structure found for Ni2Mn1.2Ga0.8 martensite
stable at room temperature. The modulation is not commensurate with a sevenfold superstructure but, on the
contrary, is incommensurate. The structure solution was
achieved by adopting the superspace theory, as is already
successfully done for Ni2MnGa martensite [10,11]. The
rst-step results concerning the structure determination
of Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga martensite by PDN reveal a complete
correspondence of the modulated structure of Ni-rich
with respect to Mn-rich martensite, indicating that, independently from the composition, for polycrystalline
samples the 7M structure seems to be always incommensurate. It is therefore necessary to remark that the 7M
notation is not adequate to represent correctly the type
of modulated structure characterized by six satellites
between the main reections. For this reason, the notation
7M(IC) is introduced, indicating the family of the
modulated structure and the incommensurateness of the
periodic length. This new notation follows from what
has already been armed for incommensurate Ni2MnGa
martensitic structure, known as 5M(IC).

Fig. 5. View of ten adjacent unit cells of the monoclinic basic structure. The total shear of (0 0 l) atomic planes is evidenced by the dashed line.

L. Righi et al. / Acta Materialia 56 (2008) 45294535

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Institute Laue-Langevin
(Grenoble, France) for providing technical and nancial
support. VAC is grateful to Fondazione Cariplo (Project
2004.1819-A10.9251) for nancial support.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found,
in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2008. 05.010.
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