# Nucleation and growth of hierarchical martensite in epitaxial shape memory films

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation of complex hierarchical martensitic microstructures in epitaxial shape memory films, revealing how nucleation and anisotropic growth of twinned nuclei create the observed twin-within-twins patterns.

## Contribution

It introduces a new model explaining hierarchical microstructure formation through internally twinned nuclei, contrasting previous theories.

## Key findings

- Nucleation of diamond or parallelogram-shaped martensitic nuclei explains microstructure geometry.
- Growth of these nuclei leads to the observed hierarchical twin patterns.
- The model aligns with in-situ SEM observations of twinning patterns.

## Abstract

Shape memory alloys often show a complex hierarchical morphology in the martensitic state. To understand the formation of this twin-within-twins microstructure, we examine epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga films as a model system. In-situ scanning electron microscopy experiments show beautiful complex twinning patterns with a number of different mesoscopic twin boundaries and macroscopic twin boundaries between already twinned regions. We explain the appearance and geometry of these patterns by constructing an internally twinned martensitic nucleus, which can take the shape of a diamond or a parallelogram, within the basic phenomenological theory of martensite. These nucleus contains already the seeds of different possible mesoscopic twin boundaries. Nucleation and growth of these nuclei determines the creation of the hierarchical space-filling martensitic microstructure. This is in contrast to previous approaches to explain a hierarchical martensitic microstructure. This new picture of creation and anisotropic, well-oriented growth of twinned martensitic nuclei explains the morphology and exact geometrical features of our experimentally observed twins-within-twins microstructure on the meso- and macroscopic scale.