Polymorphic MnAs nanowires of a magnetic shape memory alloy

Abstract

We describe a magnetic shape memory alloy, in which it is the nanostructural confinement that influences both the crystal geometry and the electronic and magnetic properties. We use calculations from first-principles on shape memory MnAs nanowires to study the influence of strain on the resulting crystallographic phases, which arise at their surfaces. We show that MnAs nanowires as thin as two nanometers can be stable in a new crystal geometry which is induced by one-dimensionality and hence is unknown in the bulk, typically hexagonal. The changes between phases caused by differences in strain require the existence of twin domains. Our analysis suggests that the strain-induced structural transition – which is here described for MnAs compounds – could be applied to other (magnetic) shape memory nanowire systems for applications in a range of devices from mechanical to magneto-electronic.