The twinning behavior during cubic-to-monoclinic transitions was considered. It was noted that not all of the twins were of conventional type. If the lattice parameters of the monoclinic phase satisfied certain relationships, many more twins existed than in the usual case. Such an abundance of novel twins implied that the material could form, in conjunction with the phase change, a greater variety of microstructures that could accommodate imposed displacements or loads. This, in turn, was expected to affect noticeably the macroscopic behavior of the crystal; such as enhancing its memory characteristics.

Generic and Non-Generic Cubic-to-Monoclinic Transitions and their Twins M.Pitteri, G.Zanzotto: Acta Materialia, 1998, 46[1], 225-37