Research Highlights

Light induced Weyl semimetals with exceptional ballistic transport

Topological phase transitions may be controlled by a coherent light-induced phononic symmetry switch, without the application of static electric or magnetic fields.

J. Wang Nature Materials image

Linking local structure order in metallic glass and competing crystalline phases

Short- and medium-range orders in Al90Tb10 glass are shown to be similar to structures of competing crystalline phases.

CZWang Highlight

Critical role of electron correlations on exchange interactions and spin excitations

Including nonlocal electron correlations in electronic structure calculations yields spin excitations consistent with inelastic neutron-scattering measurements in CrI3.

Ke highlight

Novel SmCo manufacturing method improves economic competitiveness

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University and Purdue University conducted the research for this highlight

Annual net cash flow for different levels (X% wt.) of CM powder addition (NPV of all cash flows indicated)

Ce-substituted SmCo5 retains huge magnetic anisotropy

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

Easy and hard axes magnetization for single crystals of the new Ce/Sm/Co/Cu material and their extrapolations to crossing record-high Ha = ~30 T. The upper insert - general appearance of the single crystals, the lower insert - literature data, Ha for single crystal of SmCo5 (Strnat, 1988).

High-performance critical-element-free permanent magnets

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

Hysteresis loops (top) for L10 FeNi as synthesized (black) and treated with concentrated HCl (red), demonstrating enhanced remanence and coercivity; bottom panel shows exceptional temperature dependence of coercivities in FeNi (red).

Sm2Fe17N3 as a cost-effective high-performance magnet

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

Hysteresis loops for Sm2Fe17 nitrided at 1 bar N2 pressure, yielding incomplete nitrogenation and low coercivity (red), and for sample nitrided at 100 bar, yielding full nitrogenation to Sm2Fe17N3 with ~ 8 kOe coercivity.

Critical hydrogen pressure for HDDR-formed NdFeB powder

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

H2 pressure dependence degree of anisotropy DOA (black circle) and coercivity Hci, (red square) in HDDR Nd14Fe77.9B7Al1Cu0.1 magnetic powder. DOA is defined as the normalized difference between the remanence at aligned state and that at non-aligned state for the same sample.

Novel fabrication for high-performance small magnets

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

M-H loops of the processed thin magnet (in plane).

Rationally designed rare earth separation by selective oxalate solubilization

CMI researchers at Ames Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight

Ionic radii and comparative extraction factor as a function of different REEs.