Single-crystal alloys exhibit superior microstrain, but are vulnerable to yielding due to the anisotropic mechanical properties of most metals. It has been observed that for polycrystalline alloys with a high area coverage of preferential grains for microstrain, the mechanical properties (ductility) of magnetostrictive alloys can be significantly improved. Targeted metallurgical processing steps promote abnormal grain growth of {011} grains in galfenol and alfenol thin sheets, which contain two easy axes for magnetic domain alignment during magnetostriction. This can be accomplished by adding particles such as boride species  and niobium carbide ()  during initial chill casting of the ingot.
For a polycrystalline alloy, an established formula for the magnetostriction, λ, from known directional microstrain measurements is:
λ = 1/5(2λ+3λ)
During subsequent hot rolling and recrystallization steps, particle strengthening occurs in which the particles introduce a “pinning” force at grain boundaries that hinders normal (stochastic) grain growth in an annealing step assisted by a  atmosphere. Thus, single-crystal-like texture (~90% {011} grain coverage) is attainable, reducing the interference with magnetic domain alignment and increasing microstrain attainable for polycrystalline alloys as measured by semiconducting strain gauges. These surface textures can be visualized using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) or related diffraction techniques.