Shape-Memory Effect and the Topology of Minimal Surfaces

Martensitic transformations, viewed as continuous mappings between triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs), as suggested by Hyde and Andersson (Z. Kristallogr. 1986, 174, 225–236), are extended to include paths between the initial and final phases. Reversible transformations, which correspond to shape-memory materials, occur only if lattice points remain at flat points on a TPMS throughout a continuous transformation. For the shape-memory material NiTi, the density functional calculations by Hatcher et al. [Phys. Rev. B2009, 80, 144203] yield irreversible and reversible paths with and without energy barriers, respectively, in agreement with our theory. Although there are TPMSs for face-centered and body-centered cubic crystals for iron, the deformation between them is not reversible, in agreement with the non-vanishing energy barriers obtained from the density functional calculations of Zhang et al. (RSC Advances2021, 11, 3043–3048).