Abstract
We have found a complete thermoelastic intermartensitic transformation between modulated and unmodulated martensite in single-crystal Ni52Mn24.5Ga23.5. This intermartensitic transformation provides a much larger strain than that of the martensitic transformation. A giant switching-like strain of +/-5.0% can be achieved by a small magnetic field of 0.2 T upon the intermartensitic transformation. In the modulated martensite, a large recoverable magnetic-field-induced strain of up to 1.2% has been obtained. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.