Rearrangement of crystallographic domains driven by magnetic field in antiferromagnetic CoO

The rearrangement was investigated of crystallographic domains in the antiferromagnetic pseudo-tetragonal phase in CoO (Néel temperature: 293 K) when the domains were driven by a magnetic field. A rearrangement is generally observed in ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys. The rearrangement was found to occur at temperatures between 170 K and 293 K, but not at temperatures below 170 K. In order to determine the reason for such a difference, the shear stress driven by a magnetic field, τ _mag, was calculated and compared with the shear stress required for twinning plane movement, τ _req. It was found that τ _mag is equal to or larger than τ _req whenever the rearrangement of crystallographic domains occurs due to the application of a magnetic field, and vice versa. This observation is similar to past observations in the case of many ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys.