2020, Sakai, N., Oka, T., Yamanaka, K., Dadiel, L., Oki, H., Ogawa, J., Fukui, S., Scheiter, J., Häßler, W., Yokoyama, K, Noudem, J., Miryala, M., Murakami, M.

The magnetic flux capturing of MgB2 bulk magnets made by spark plasma sintering process has been precisely investigated to clarify the mechanism of flux motions during the pulse-field magnetization processes. The field trapping ratio B T/B P was evaluated as a key parameter of field trapping ability which strongly relates to the heat generation due to the rapid flux motion in the samples. The time dependence of magnetic flux density revealed the actual flux motion which penetrated the samples. The trapped fields B T and field trapping ratios B T/B P of various samples were classified into three regions of 'no flux flow', 'fast flux flow' and 'flux jump' according to the generation of heat and its propagation. A flux jump was observed late at 280 ms from the beginning of PFM process, while the field penetration B P showed its peak at 10 ms. Considering the heat propagation speed, the long-delayed flux jump should be attributed to the macroscopic barriers against the heat propagation to the surface centre of bulk magnet. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

2020, Nichterwitz, Martin, Neitsch, Sabine, Röher, Stefan, Wolf, Daniel, Nielsch, Kornelius, Leistner, Karin

Redox-based metal/metal oxide transformations achieved via electrolytic gating recently emerged as a novel, magneto-ionic route for voltage control of magnetism. So far, mainly metal or oxide thin films and nanoporous metal alloy structures are used as starting materials. The present study demonstrates a magneto-ionic transformation starting from a stable electrodeposited FeOOH nanoplatelet structure. The application of a low voltage in a Li-based electrolyte results in the reduction of the virtually non-magnetic FeOOH into ferromagnetic Fe, yielding an ON switching of magnetization. The magnetization can be tuned in a large range by the time of voltage application and remains stable after voltage-switch off. A reversible magneto-ionic change of magnetization of up to 15% is achieved in the resulting iron films with a thickness of about 30 nm. This large magneto-ionic effect is attributed to the enhanced roughness of the iron films obtained from the nanoplatelet structure. The robust, voltage-controlled, and non-volatile ON switching of magnetism starting from a stable oxide structure is promising for the development of energy-efficient magnetic switches, magnetic actuation and may offer new avenues in magnetoelectronic devices. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.

2021, Kulbakov, Anton A., Avdoshenko, Stanislav M., Puente-Orench, Inés, Deeb, Mahmoud, Doerr, Mathias, Schlender, Philipp, Doert, Thomas, Inosov, Dmytro S.

Yb- and Ce-based delafossites were recently identified as effective spin-1/2 antiferromagnets on the triangular lattice. Several Yb-based systems, such as NaYbO2, NaYbS2, and NaYbSe2, exhibit no long-range order down to the lowest measured temperatures and therefore serve as putative candidates for the realization of a quantum spin liquid. However, their isostructural Ce-based counterpart KCeS2 exhibits magnetic order below TN = 400 mK, which was so far identified only in thermodynamic measurements. Here we reveal the magnetic structure of this long-range ordered phase using magnetic neutron diffraction. We show that it represents the so-called 'stripe-yz' type of antiferromagnetic order with spins lying approximately in the triangular-lattice planes orthogonal to the nearest-neighbor Ce–Ce bonds. No structural lattice distortions are revealed below TN, indicating that the triangular lattice of Ce3+ ions remains geometrically perfect down to the lowest temperatures. We propose an effective Hamiltonian for KCeS2, based on a fit to the results of ab initio calculations, and demonstrate that its magnetic ground state matches the experimental spin structure.

2021, Oka, T., Yamanaka, K., Sudo, K., Dadiel, L., Ogawa, J., Yokoyama, K., Häßler, W., Noudem, J., Berger, K., Sakai, N., Miryala, M., Murakami, M.

MgB2 superconducting bulk materials are characterized as simple and uniform metallic compounds, and capable of trapping field of non-distorted conical shapes. Although pulsed-field magnetization technique (PFM) is expected to be a cheap and an easy way to activate them, the heat generation due to the magnetic flux motion causes serious degradation of captured fields. The authors precisely estimated the flux trapping property of the bulk samples, found that the flux-shielding effect closely attributed to the sample dimensions. The magnetic field capturing of Ti-5.0wt% sample reached the highest value of 0.76 T. The applied field which reached the centre of the sample surface shifted from 1.0 T to 1.2 T with increasing sample thickness from 3.67 mm to 5.80 mm. This means that the shielding effect was enhanced with increasing the sample thickness. Moreover, Ti-addition affected the frequency of flux jump happenings. The occurrence of flux jumps was suppressed in 5.0wt%Ti-added sample. This means that the heat capacity of the compounds was promoted by Ti addition.

2020, Oka, T., Takeda, A., Oki, H., Yamanaka, K., Dadiel, L., Yokoyama, K., Häßler, W., Scheiter, J., Sakai, N., Murakami, M.

Pulsed-field magnetization technique (PFM) is expected as a cheap and an easy way for HTS bulk materials for utilizing as intense magnets. As the generation of heat due to magnetic flux motion in bulk magnets causes serious degradation of captured fields, it is important to investigate the flux motions during PFM in various field applications. The authors precisely measured the magnetic flux motion in the cryocooled MgB2 bulk magnets containing various amount of Ti. We classified the motions to "no flux flow (NFF)", "fast flux flow (FFF)", and "flux jump (FJ)" regions. The results showed that addition of Ti shifts the field invasion area to high field areas, and expands the NFF regions. The highest field-trapping appears at the upper end of the NFF region. Since the heat generation and its propagation should attribute to the dissipation of magnetic flux, FFF leads to FJ. Compared with MgB2, we referred to GdBCO as for the flux motion. A flux jump was observed at 30 K when the pulse field of 7 T was applied to the preactivated sample, showing its stability against FJ. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

2020, Kirchner, A., Nielsch, K., Hühne, R.

REBa2Cu3O7-x (REBCO; RE = Y, Gd) coated conductor wires are commercially available up to a length of about 1 km. However, for large-scale devices like superconducting coils for high-field magnets several kilometres of a coated conductors are required. Therefore, it is desirable to use joints, which exhibit similar superconducting properties as the coated conductor itself. In this study, we jointed commercial REBCO coated conductors by a two-step procedure. At first, a superconducting soldering solution was developed and deposited on unstabilized coated conductors via chemical solution deposition. The soldering precursor is based on a Cu-rich solution with a metal cation ratio Y:Ba:Cu of 1:2:4. Secondly, a piece of the coated conductor was delaminated between the superconducting and the buffer layer and used as bridge between two other conductors covered with the soldering layer. Annealing the resulting bridge joint under pressure results in a mechanical stable configuration. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

2021, Ćwik, J., Koshkid’ko, Yu, Nenkov, K., Kolchugina, N.

Heat capacity measurements have been performed for multicomponent (Ho0.9Er0.1)1-xGdxCo2 compounds with x = 0.05, 0.1, and 0.15. The isothermal magnetic entropy change, ΔSmag, allowing the estimation of the magnetocaloric effect, was determined based on the heat capacity measurements in magnetic fields up to 2 T. A numerical method, with the magnetic entropy change of individual (Ho0.9Er0.1)1-xGdxCo2 compounds, was used to calculate the optimal molar composition of the constituents and the resulting change of the isothermal magnetic entropy of composite, ΔScomp. The results show that proposed composite can be considered as a refrigerant material in magnetic refrigerators performing an Ericsson cycle in a temperature range of 90-130 K.

2020, Melzer, M., Makarov, D., Schmidt, O.G.

The current establishment of stretchable electronics to form a seamless link between soft or even living materials and the digital world is at the forefront of multidisciplinary research efforts, bridging physics, engineering and materials science. Magnetic functionalities can provide a sense of displacement, orientation or proximity to this novel formulation of electronics. This work reviews the recent development of stretchable magnetic field sensorics relying on the combination of metallic thin films revealing a giant magnetoresistance effect with elastomeric materials. Stretchability of the magnetic nanomembranes is achieved by specific morphologic features (e.g. wrinkles or microcracks), which accommodate the applied tensile deformation while maintaining the electrical and magnetic integrity of the sensor device. The entire development, from the demonstration of the world's first elastically stretchable magnetic sensor to the realization of a technology platform for robust, ready-to-use elastic magnetosensorics is described. Soft giant magnetoresistive elements exhibiting the same sensing performance as on conventional rigid supports, but with fully strain invariant properties up to 270% stretching have been demonstrated. With their unique mechanical properties, these sensor elements readily conform to ubiquitous objects of arbitrary shapes including the human skin. Stretchable magnetoelectronic sensors can equip soft and epidermal electronic systems with navigation, orientation, motion tracking and touchless control capabilities. A variety of novel technologies, like electronic skins, smart textiles, soft robotics and actuators, active medical implants and soft consumer electronics will benefit from these new magnetic functionalities. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.

2020, Espenhahn, Tilo, Wunderwald, Florian, Möller, Marcel, Sparing, Maria, Hossain, Mahmud, Fuchs, Günter, Abdkader, Anwar, Cherif, Chokri, Nielsch, Kornelius, Hühne, Ruben

Rotating superconducting bearings promise great potential in applications due to their frictionless operation. However, these bearings show a lower dynamic stiffness and damping coefficient compared to ball bearings. In this paper we studied a bearing consisting of a fixed YBCO ring and a rotating magnet above the superconductor. The influence of the magnet aspect ratio on the dynamic stiffness of the bearing was investigated in order to find an optimized size. To change the aspect ratio, we kept the inner diameter of the ring constant and reduced the outer diameter while increasing the ring height. In addition to these magnets, one magnet with a reduced cross-sectional area was studied. The aspect ratio selection was based on preliminary magnetic flux density simulations, which compared the magnetic flux density distribution and the potential radial force for different aspect ratios. To conduct the measurements, the field-cooled magnets were displaced in a lateral direction and then released, resulting in a damped oscillation. The dynamic stiffness constants were calculated for each bearing from the relation of three axis acceleration measurements for different field cooling heights. The comparison of the stiffness constants for the different bearings revealed an optimal aspect ratio for the given YBCO ring. This optimum is almost independent from the cooling height. The comparison between the two magnet rings with similar diameters and different heights was similar for the bearing characteristics at a low cooling height, whereas a significant reduction of stiffness was observed with a larger cooling distance. The difference is bigger for the magnet with a reduced height. The optimal aspect ratio as well as the stiffness dependence on the cross-sectional area was confirmed by simulations of the magnetic flux density distribution. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.

2020, Hornung, J., Gottschall, T., Opherden, L., Antlauf, M., Schwarz, M., Kroke, E., Herrmannsdörfer, T., Wosnitza, J.

The thermodynamics in spin-ice systems are governed by emergent magnetic monopole excitations and, until now, the creation of a pair of these topological defects was associated with one specific pair-creation energy. Here, we show that the electric dipole moments inherent to the magnetic monopoles lift the degeneracy of their creation process and lead to a splitting of the pair-creation energy. We consider this finding to extend the model of magnetic relaxation in spin-ice systems and show that an electric dipole interaction in the theoretically estimated order of magnitude leads to a splitting which can explain the controversially discussed discrepancies between the measured temperature dependence of the magnetic relaxation times and previous theory. By applying our extended model to experimental data of, various spin-ice systems, we show its universal applicability and determine a dependence of the electric dipole interaction on the system parameters, which is in accordance with the theoretical model of electric dipole formation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.