Magnetostriction measurements with a low-cost magnetostrictive cantilever beam

The magnetostrictive effect is an important topic for scientific research as well as for technological applications. Since magnetostriction constitutes an important property of emerging smart materials, experimental investigations as well as theoretical discussions of the magnetostrictive effect are of great educational value. Quantitative measurements of the magnetostrictive effect are usually technically sophisticated or not related to real applications or everyday materials. The objective of this article is to describe a simple and low-cost experiment for the qualitative and quantitative investigation of magnetostrictive characteristics employing magnetostrictive laser deflection and optical amplification. Measurements are performed for precut magnetostrictive materials found in electronic article surveillance tags. Comparative theoretical calculations for magnetostrictive cantilever beams prove the quality of the experimental approach. The described method for magnetostriction measurements has been developed as a part of the Scientific Outreach Project within the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1261 “Magnetoelectric Sensors.”