title: Large magnetostriction from morphotropic phase boundary in ferromagnets.
abstract: For more than half of a century, morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in ferroelectric materials has drawn constant interest because it can significantly enhance the piezoelectric properties. However, MPB has been studied merely in ferroelectric systems, not in another large class of ferroic systems, the ferromagnets. In this Letter, we report the existence of an MPB in a ferromagnetic system TbCo2-DyCo2. Such a magnetic MPB involves a first-order magnetoelastic transition, at which both magnetization direction and crystal structure change simultaneously. The MPB composition demonstrates a 3-6 times larger "figure of merit" of magnetostrictive response compared with that of the off-MPB compositions. The finding of MPB in ferromagnets may help to discover novel high-performance magnetostrictive and even magnetoelectric materials.
authors.affiliation: Multi-disciplinary Materials Research Center, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Huixin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaobing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsushita
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katsuya
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jianrong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao