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    Promoting abnormal grain growth in Fe-based shape memory alloys through compositional adjustments
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2019) Vollmer, M.; Arold, T.; Kriegel, M.J.; Klemm, V.; Degener, S.; Freudenberger, J.; Niendorf, T.
    Iron-based shape memory alloys are promising candidates for large-scale structural applications due to their cost efficiency and the possibility of using conventional processing routes from the steel industry. However, recently developed alloy systems like Fe–Mn–Al–Ni suffer from low recoverability if the grains do not completely cover the sample cross-section. To overcome this issue, here we show that small amounts of titanium added to Fe–Mn–Al–Ni significantly enhance abnormal grain growth due to a considerable refinement of the subgrain sizes, whereas small amounts of chromium lead to a strong inhibition of abnormal grain growth. By tailoring and promoting abnormal grain growth it is possible to obtain very large single crystalline bars. We expect that the findings of the present study regarding the elementary mechanisms of abnormal grain growth and the role of chemical composition can be applied to tailor other alloy systems with similar microstructural features.
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    Air-stable redox-active nanomagnets with lanthanide spins radical-bridged by a metal–metal bond
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2019) Liu, F.; Velkos, G.; Krylov, D.S.; Spree, L.; Zalibera, M.; Ray, R.; Samoylova, N.A.; Chen, C.-H.; Rosenkranz, M.; Schiemenz, S.; Ziegs, F.; Nenkov, K.; Kostanyan, A.; Greber, T.; Wolter, A.U.B.; Richter, M.; Büchner, B.; Avdoshenko, S.M.; Popov, A.A.
    Engineering intramolecular exchange interactions between magnetic metal atoms is a ubiquitous strategy for designing molecular magnets. For lanthanides, the localized nature of 4f electrons usually results in weak exchange coupling. Mediating magnetic interactions between lanthanide ions via radical bridges is a fruitful strategy towards stronger coupling. In this work we explore the limiting case when the role of a radical bridge is played by a single unpaired electron. We synthesize an array of air-stable Ln 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) dimetallofullerenes (Ln 2 = Y 2 , Gd 2 , Tb 2 , Dy 2 , Ho 2 , Er 2 , TbY, TbGd) featuring a covalent lanthanide-lanthanide bond. The lanthanide spins are glued together by very strong exchange interactions between 4f moments and a single electron residing on the metal–metal bonding orbital. Tb 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) shows a gigantic coercivity of 8.2 Tesla at 5 K and a high 100-s blocking temperature of magnetization of 25.2 K. The Ln-Ln bonding orbital in Ln 2 @C 80 (CH 2 Ph) is redox active, enabling electrochemical tuning of the magnetism.
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    Discovery of TaFeSb-based half-Heuslers with high thermoelectric performance
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2019) Zhu, H.; Mao, J.; Li, Y.; Sun, J.; Wang, Y.; Zhu, Q.; Li, G.; Song, Q.; Zhou, J.; Fu, Y.; He, R.; Tong, T.; Liu, Z.; Ren, W.; You, L.; Wang, Z.; Luo, J.; Sotnikov, A.; Bao, J.; Nielsch, K.; Chen, G.; Singh, D.J.; Ren, Z.
    Discovery of thermoelectric materials has long been realized by the Edisonian trial and error approach. However, recent progress in theoretical calculations, including the ability to predict structures of unknown phases along with their thermodynamic stability and functional properties, has enabled the so-called inverse design approach. Compared to the traditional materials discovery, the inverse design approach has the potential to substantially reduce the experimental efforts needed to identify promising compounds with target functionalities. By adopting this approach, here we have discovered several unreported half-Heusler compounds. Among them, the p-type TaFeSb-based half-Heusler demonstrates a record high ZT of ~1.52 at 973 K. Additionally, an ultrahigh average ZT of ~0.93 between 300 and 973 K is achieved. Such an extraordinary thermoelectric performance is further verified by the heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency measurement and a high efficiency of ~11.4% is obtained. Our work demonstrates that the TaFeSb-based half-Heuslers are highly promising for thermoelectric power generation.
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    Divalent EuRh 2 Si 2 as a reference for the Luttinger theorem and antiferromagnetism in trivalent heavy-fermion YbRh 2 Si 2
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2019) Güttler, M.; Generalov, A.; Fujimori, S.I.; Kummer, K.; Chikina, A.; Seiro, S.; Danzenbächer, S.; Koroteev, Y.M.; Chulkov, E.V.; Radovic, M.; Shi, M.; Plumb, N.C.; Laubschat, C.; Allen, J.W.; Krellner, C.; Geibel, C.; Vyalikh, D.V.
    Application of the Luttinger theorem to the Kondo lattice YbRh 2 Si 2 suggests that its large 4f-derived Fermi surface (FS) in the paramagnetic (PM) regime should be similar in shape and volume to that of the divalent local-moment antiferromagnet (AFM) EuRh 2 Si 2 in its PM regime. Here we show by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy that paramagnetic EuRh 2 Si 2 has a large FS essentially similar to the one seen in YbRh 2 Si 2 down to 1 K. In EuRh 2 Si 2 the onset of AFM order below 24.5 K induces an extensive fragmentation of the FS due to Brillouin zone folding, intersection and resulting hybridization of the Fermi-surface sheets. Our results on EuRh 2 Si 2 indicate that the formation of the AFM state in YbRh 2 Si 2 is very likely also connected with similar changes in the FS, which have to be taken into account in the controversial analysis and discussion of anomalies observed at the quantum critical point in this system.