Education:

1. Domain Walls and Twin Boundaries in Ferromagnetic Shape Memory AlloysMarc De Graef, Carnegie Mellon University, DMR 0404836 Ferromagnetic shape memory alloys are metallic materials that can change their shape upon application of a magnetic field. We study these materials by means of Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, and we have discovered that anti-phase boundaries in Ni2MnGa are important pinning sites for magnetic domain walls. The figure shows Fresnel images (left column) in which the domain walls are bright or dark, for two different annealing heat treatments (short on the top, long at the bottom). The right column shows the magnetization state, with each color indicating the local direction of the magnetic induction in the thin foil (see arrows on color wheel). We have also discovered that these magnetic domain configurations are fully reversible through both the austenite to martensite and paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transformations. For more information, see: Acta Materialia, vol. 55, pp. 2621-2636 (2007) Acta Materialia, vol. 55, pp. 5419-5427 (2007)

2. Domain Walls and Twin Boundaries in Ferromagnetic Shape Memory AlloysMarc De Graef, Carnegie Mellon University, DMR 0404836 Education: One graduate student, Sai Prasanth Venkateswaran, has graduated in May of 2007; a second student, Abhijeet Budruk, is currently working on this award. The educational activities have centered on the development of two websites: http://ctem.web.cmu.edu, which accompanies a graduate level textbook written by the PI on the operation of a transmission electron microscope, and http://som.web.cmu.edu, which accompanies a new undergraduate textbook on crystallography and diffraction, written along with M. McHenry (CMU Materials Department). Both books were published by Cambridge University Press and were written with NSF financial support. Undergraduate students have helped out with both the websites and the book’s illustrations. The new Structure of Materials book has 876 pages, 430 illustrations, and 400 problems; the book is directed towards undergraduates in MSE, geology, chemistry and physics. Outreach: The PI is a Research Associate with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh (Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems). When unknown minerals need to be identified, the PI and under-graduates of the Materials Department carry out the necessary observations, using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods. Front cover of the undergraduate textbook written by the PI and M. McHenry (Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0521651514)