The material is the machine
by
K. Bhattacharya and R.D. James
in
Science, 307, pp. 53–54., 2005.
Category: Journal Article
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Abstract:
For more than a century, materials scientists have studied the micrometer-scale needles and platelets that occur in many materials. In martensitic materials— which undergo a reversible, diffusionless solid-to-solid phase transformation in which the underlying crystal lattice spontaneously distorts—the patterns of microstructure resemble a jigsaw puzzle (see the first figure). Recent studies suggest that the characteristic distortions of such martensitic materials can be exploited to create tiny machines.
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