Extended and local effects of cold work in Heusler alloys

The authors find from NMR (spin-echo) and X-ray diffraction that plastic deformations during cold work introduce many dislocations and associated lattice deformations in a number of Heusler alloys: Pd 2 MnSn, Pd 2 MnSb, Cu 2 MnIn, Cu 2 MnAl, Ni 2 MnIn, Pd 2 MnIn and NiMnSb. In Pd 2 MnSn these effects are very important and result in atomic disorder. In other alloys cold work produces distortions but apparently no atomic disorder. The strong effects of cold work on Heusler alloys (L2 1 structure) contrast with almost unobservable effects in the Cl b structure alloy NiMnSb.