Magnetic Phase Boundary Mapping for the Discovery of Emergent Properties in Intermetallic Magnets

非技术性SUMMARYIINERANT(金属)磁体是一类独特的磁性材料，用于具有重要社会意义的信息和清洁能源技术，包括自旋阀、新型电子设备、电动汽车、风力涡轮机和磁性冰箱。早期的研究提供了对简单金属--铁、钴和镍--磁性的理解。材料科学家目前的知识状态和先进的实验和理论工具使他们能够深入了解更复杂的金属间化合物系统的磁性行为。此外，这些工具不仅可以进行研究，还可以预测所需的电磁特性。在NSF材料研究部固态和材料化学计划的支持下，佛罗里达州立大学的Michael Shatruk教授将利用先进的理论方法和广泛的实验研究来微调材料的晶体和电子结构，以找到磁矩达到奇异构型的状态，如螺旋、螺旋和涡旋。这些研究的结果将是合理设计具有新型磁性的材料，为在新型器件中实现新的性质铺平道路。该项目采用的理论和实验工具的多样性将为研究生和本科生提供独特的研究培训，他们将精通固态化学、材料合成和表征以及量子化学计算。具有共线磁矩排列的技术总结磁体，如正则铁、铁和反铁磁体，长期以来一直是固体化学和凝聚态物理中活跃的研究和创新领域。现代固态科学提供了强大的工具来探索具有竞争磁相互作用的材料的设计，这些相互作用可能导致非共线磁结构，如螺旋、螺旋或天空电子自旋织构。该项目旨在通过实施磁相边界映射的概念来开发获得此类材料的合理途径。两个共线磁性结构(例如，铁磁和反铁磁性)之间的相空间将通过一系列结构、磁和光谱技术以及电子结构计算来探索，以揭示对化学取代和外加磁场或压力高度敏感的非共线自旋织构区域。该项目将积极利用国家实验室先进的大规模研究设施来确定磁性结构和详细的结构-性质关联。拟议的研究活动将为研究生和本科生提供材料合成、结构和磁性调查、中子散射方法的使用以及电子能带结构研究的综合培训。这些学生将参与与中子和X射线散射设施的研究人员的积极合作。PI和他的研究小组将通过化学从硕士到博士的过渡性桥梁计划，组织磁性和磁性材料方面的本科暑期学校，以及实施针对高中生的独特的MindLab研究经验，通过吸收来自代表性不足群体的学生来促进更广泛的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYItinerant (metallic) magnets are a unique class of magnetic materials used in societally important information and clean-energy technologies, including spin valves, novel electronic devices, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and magnetic refrigerators. Early studies offered understanding of magnetism in simple metals – iron, cobalt, and nickel. The present state of knowledge and advanced experimental and theoretical tools available to materials scientists afford insight into magnetic behavior of more complex intermetallic systems. Moreover, these tools allow not only investigation but also prediction of desired electronic and magnetic properties. With this project, supported by the Solid State and Materials Chemistry Program in NSF’s Division of Materials Research, Professor Michael Shatruk at the Florida State University will leverage the advanced theoretical methods and extensive experimental studies to fine-tune materials’ crystal and electronic structures in order to find states in which magnetic moments attain exotic configurations, such as helices, spirals, and vortices. The outcome of these studies will be rational design of materials with novel magnetic properties, paving the way to new properties that can be implemented in novel devices. The diversity of theoretical and experimental tools employed in this project will provide unique research training for graduate and undergraduate students, who will become proficient in solid state chemistry, materials synthesis and characterization, and quantum-chemical calculations. TECHNICAL SUMMARYMagnets with collinear arrangement of magnetic moments, such as canonical ferro-, ferri-, and antiferromagnets, have long been an area of active studies and innovations in solid state chemistry and condensed matter physics. Modern solid-state sciences provide powerful tools to explore the design of materials with competing magnetic interactions that can result in non-collinear magnetic structures, such as helical, spiral, or skyrmionics spin textures. This project aims to develop rational pathways to such materials by implementing a concept of magnetic phase boundary mapping. The phase space between two collinear magnetic structures (e.g., ferro- and antiferromagnetic) will be probed by a range of structural, magnetic, and spectroscopic techniques, as well as by electronic structure calculations, to uncover the region of non-collinear spin textures that are highly sensitive both to chemical substitutions and to applied magnetic fields or pressure. The project will make active use of advanced large-scale research facilities at national labs for determination of magnetic structures and detailed structure-property correlations. The proposed research activities will provide versatile training to graduate and undergraduate students in materials synthesis, investigation of structural and magnetic properties, the use of neutron scattering methods, and studies of the electronic band structure. The students will be involved in active collaborations with researchers at neutron and X-ray scattering facilities. The PI and his research group will contribute to broadening participation by involving students from underrepresented groups through a transitional master-to-PhD bridge program in chemistry, organization of undergraduate summer schools in magnetism and magnetic materials, and implementation of the unique MINDLab research experiences aimed at high-school students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.