Spatiotemporal nonlinear dynamics of a magnetoelastic ribbon - art. no. 056205

Magnetoelastic materials have a strong coupling between strain and magnetiz ation, so applying a magnetic field to a magnetoelastic material can change its shape. This coupling leads to interesting dynamics. We have studied th e dynamics of a wide ribbon of Metglass 2605sc which was driven by a magnet ic field. The ribbon was suspended as a pendulum in a set of Helmholtz coil s, which provided both de and ac magnetic fields. Laser light was reflected off the ribbon to measure its angular displacement. Two points on the ribb on could be simultaneously illuminated, and one of the laser beams could be scanned over the ribbon. We observed quasiperiodic bifurcations in the mot ion of the ribbon, and characterized the spatial aspect of the motion with some recently developed statistics.