Tingting Zuo

High-entropy Alloys with High Saturation Magnetization, Electrical Resistivity, and Malleability

Soft magnetic materials (SMMs) find important applications in a number of areas. The diverse requirements for these applications are often demanding and challenging for the design and fabrication of SMMs. Here we report a new class of FeCoNi(AlSi)x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 in molar ratio) SMMs based on high-entropy alloys (HEAs). It is found that with the compositional and structural changes, the optimal balance of magnetic, electrical, and mechanical properties is achieved at x = 0.2, for which the combination of saturation magnetization (1.15 T), coercivity (1,400 A/m), electrical resistivity (69.5 μΩ·cm), yield strength (342 MPa), and strain without fracture (50%) makes the alloy an excellent SMM. Ab initio calculations are used to explain the high magnetic saturation of the present HEAs and the effects of compositional structures on magnetic characteristics. The HEA-based SMMs point to new directions in both the application of HEAs and the search for novel SMMs.

Design of Light-Weight High-Entropy Alloys

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a new class of solid-solution alloys that have attracted worldwide attention for their outstanding properties. Owing to the demand from transportation and defense industries, light-weight HEAs have also garnered widespread interest from scientists for use as potential structural materials. Great efforts have been made to study the phase-formation rules of HEAs to accelerate and refine the discovery process. In this paper, many proposed solid-solution phase-formation rules are assessed, based on a series of known and newly-designed light-weight HEAs. The results indicate that these empirical rules work for most compositions but also fail for several alloys. Light-weight HEAs often involve the additions of Al and/or Ti in great amounts, resulting in large negative enthalpies for forming solid-solution phases and/or intermetallic compounds. Accordingly, these empirical rules need to be modified with the new experimental data. In contrast, CALPHAD (acronym of the calculation of phase diagrams) method is demonstrated to be an effective approach to predict the phase formation in HEAs as a function of composition and temperature. Future perspectives on the design of light-weight HEAs are discussed in light of CALPHAD modeling and physical metallurgy principles.

Processing effects on the magnetic and mechanical properties of FeCoNiAl 0.2 Si 0.2 high entropy alloy

High entropy alloys with the composition of FeCoNiAl0.2Si0.2 were prepared by arc melting and induction melting, denoted by A1 and A2, respectively. The samples prepared by these two techniques have a face-centered cubic (FCC) phase structure and a typical dendrite morphology. The tensile yield strength and maximum strength of A2 samples are about 280 and 632 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the elongation can reach 41.7%. These two alloys prepared by the different methods possess the similar magnetic properties. The saturation magnetization and coercivity can reach 1.151 T and 1400 A/m for Al samples and 1.015 T and 1431 A/m for A2 samples, respectively. Phases in A2 samples do not change, which are heat treated at different temperatures, then quenched in water. Only the sample, which is heat treated at 600°C for 3 h and then furnace cooled, has a new phase precipitated. Besides, the coercivity decreases obviously at this temperature. Cold rolling and the subsequent heat treatment cannot improve the magnetic properties effectively. However, cold rolling plays an important role in improving the strength.

G-mode magnetic force microscopy: Separating magnetic and electrostatic interactions using big data analytics

In this work, we develop a full information capture approach for Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM), referred to as generalized mode (G-Mode) MFM. G-Mode MFM acquires and stores the full data stream from the photodetector, captured at sampling rates approaching the intrinsic photodiode limit. The data can be subsequently compressed, denoised, and analyzed, without information loss. Here, G-Mode MFM is implemented and compared to the traditional heterodyne-based MFM on model systems, including domain structures in ferromagnetic Yttrium Iron Garnet and the electronically and magnetically inhomogeneous high entropy alloy, CoFeMnNiSn. We investigate the use of information theory to mine the G-Mode MFM data and demonstrate its usefulness for extracting information which may be hidden in traditional MFM modes, including signatures of nonlinearities and mode-coupling phenomena. Finally, we demonstrate detection and separation of magnetic and electrostatic tip-sample interactions from a single G-Mode image, by analy...