I found some etchant for Cu and their alloys in Metals handbook No. 9.
I hope that one of those 4 etchants will help you to reveal microsructure in your SMA
Table 1 Etchants for macroscopic examination of coppers and copper alloys
Procedure for use: immerse at room temperature, rinse in warm water, dry
Composition Copper or copper alloy Comments
50 mL HNO3, Produces a brilliant, deep etch
0.5 g AgNO3 (silver nitrate), All coppers and copper alloys
50 mLH2O
10 mL HNO3 and
90 mL H2O Coppers and all brasses Grains; cracks and other defects
50 mL HNO3 Same as above; reveals grain contrast
50 mL H2O Coppers, all brasses,aluminum bronze(b)
30 mL HCl,
10 mL FeCl3, Coppers and all brasses Same as etchant above
120 mL H2O or methanol
GOOD LUCK
You may want to consider Keller's etch, i.e., 2ml HF (conc.) + 5ml HNO3 (conc.) + 3 ml HCl (conc.) + H2O (190 ml), for the intended application. Moreover, the following etchants may also be found suitable, aiming at reveal aspects of Cu─Al intermetallics: (i) Fe(NO3)3 (5 wt%) in dil. aq. HCl (9 wt%), (ii) FeCl3 in dil. aq. HCl, (iii) H3PO4 + H2O2 aq., (iv) K3Fe(CN)6 aq. (10 wt%), (v) NH4OH + H2O2 aq.
In order to determine the micro-structure and the phases in the mechanically polished alloy system, the alloys were kept in 5g Fe2Cl-H2O-96 ml ethanol-20 ml HCl acid etching solution
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