Magnetic shape-memory effect in SrRuO3

As most perovskites, SrRuO3 exhibits structural phase transitions associated with rotations of the RuO6 octahedra. The application of moderate magnetic fields in the ferromagnetically ordered state allows one to control these structural distortions, although the ferromagnetic order occurs at six times lower temperature than the structural distortion. Our neutron-diffraction and macroscopic measurements unambiguously show that magnetic fields rearrange structural domains, and that for the field along a cubic [110](c) direction, a fully detwinned crystal is obtained. Subsequent heating above T-C into the paramagnetic phase causes a magnetic shape-memory effect, where the initial structural domains recover.