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    Engineering new limits to magnetostriction through metastability in iron-gallium alloys
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2021) Meisenheimer, P.B.; Steinhardt, R.A.; Sung, S.H.; Williams, L.D.; Zhuang, S.; Nowakowski, M.E.; Novakov, S.; Torunbalci, M.M.; Prasad, B.; Zollner, C. J.; Wang, Z.; Dawley, N.M.; Schubert, J.; Hunter, A.H.; Manipatruni, S.; Nikonov, D.E.; Young, I.A.; Chen, L.Q.; Bokor, J.; Bhave, S.A.; Ramesh, R.; Hu, J.-M.; Kioupakis, E.; Hovden, R.; Schlom, D.G.; Heron, J.T.
    Magnetostrictive materials transduce magnetic and mechanical energies and when combined with piezoelectric elements, evoke magnetoelectric transduction for high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors and energy-efficient beyond-CMOS technologies. The dearth of ductile, rare-earth-free materials with high magnetostrictive coefficients motivates the discovery of superior materials. Fe1−xGax alloys are amongst the highest performing rare-earth-free magnetostrictive materials; however, magnetostriction becomes sharply suppressed beyond x = 19% due to the formation of a parasitic ordered intermetallic phase. Here, we harness epitaxy to extend the stability of the BCC Fe1−xGax alloy to gallium compositions as high as x = 30% and in so doing dramatically boost the magnetostriction by as much as 10x relative to the bulk and 2x larger than canonical rare-earth based magnetostrictors. A Fe1−xGax − [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.7−[PbTiO3]0.3 (PMN-PT) composite magnetoelectric shows robust 90° electrical switching of magnetic anisotropy and a converse magnetoelectric coefficient of 2.0 × 10−5 s m−1. When optimally scaled, this high coefficient implies stable switching at ~80 aJ per bit.
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    Amorphous martensite in β-Ti alloys
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2018) Zhang, L.; Zhang, H.; Ren, X.; Eckert, J.; Wang, Y.; Zhu, Z.; Gemming, T.; Pauly, S.
    Martensitic transformations originate from a rigidity instability, which causes a crystal to change its lattice in a displacive manner. Here, we report that the martensitic transformation on cooling in Ti-Zr-Cu-Fe alloys yields an amorphous phase instead. Metastable β-Ti partially transforms into an intragranular amorphous phase due to local lattice shear and distortion. The lenticular amorphous plates, which very much resemble α′/α″ martensite in conventional Ti alloys, have a well-defined orientation relationship with the surrounding β-Ti crystal. The present solid-state amorphization process is reversible, largely cooling rate independent and constitutes a rare case of congruent inverse melting. The observed combination of elastic softening and local lattice shear, thus, is the unifying mechanism underlying both martensitic transformations and catastrophic (inverse) melting. Not only do we reveal an alternative mechanism for solid-state amorphization but also establish an explicit experimental link between martensitic transformations and catastrophic melting.
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    Strongly correlated superconductor with polytypic 3D Dirac points
    (Berlin : Springer Nature, 2020) Borisenko, Sergey; Bezguba, Volodymyr; Fedorov, Alexander; Kushnirenko, Yevhen; Voroshin, Vladimir; Sturza, Mihai; Aswartham, Saicharan
    Topological superconductors should be able to provide essential ingredients for quantum computing, but are very challenging to realize. Spin–orbit interaction in iron-based superconductors opens the energy gap between the p-states of pnictogen and d-states of iron very close to the Fermi level, and such p-states have been recently experimentally detected. Density-functional theory predicts existence of topological surface states within this gap in FeTe1−xSex making it an attractive candidate material. Here we use synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and band structure calculations to demonstrate that FeTe1−xSex (x = 0.45) is a superconducting 3D Dirac semimetal hosting type-I and type-II Dirac points and that its electronic structure remains topologically trivial. We show that the inverted band gap in FeTe1−xSex can possibly be realized by further increase of Te content, but strong correlations reduce it to a sub-meV size, making the experimental detection of this gap and corresponding topological surface states very challenging, not to mention exact matching with the Fermi level. On the other hand, the p–d and d–d interactions are responsible for the formation of extremely flat band at the Fermi level pointing to its intimate relation with the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity in IBS.