Rediscovery of Hall-Petch strengthening in bulk ultrafine grained pure Mg at cryogenic temperature; A Combined neutron diffraction and electron microscopy study

Zheng, R.*; Gong, W.; Du, J.-P.*; Gao, S.*; Liu, M.*; Li, G.*; 川崎 卓郎; Harjo S.; Ma, C.*; 尾方 成信*; et al.

Acta Materialia, 238, p.118243_1 - 118243_15, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118243

Grain refinement can lead to the strengthening of metallic materials according to the Hall-Petch relationship. However, our recent results suggested that grain boundary sliding is the dominant deformation mode in bulk ultrafine grained (UFG) pure Mg at room temperature, leading to softening. Here, for the first time, we report that the Hall-Petch strengthening can be regained in bulk UFG pure Mg at cryogenic temperature. At 77K, the UFG pure Mg with a mean grain size of 0.6 m exhibited ultrahigh tensile yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of 309 MPa and 380 MPa, respectively. Combined neutron diffraction and electron microscopy investigation indicated that residual dislocation structures and deformation twins hardly formed in the UFG specimen during tensile test at 298K. In contrast, fast accumulation of lattice defects and remarkable reorientation were evident at 77K, suggesting that the grain-boundary-mediated process was suppressed and the plastic deformation was dominated by dislocation slip and deformation twinning. In addition, all the pure Mg specimens exhibited pronounced strain hardening at 77 K, which was mainly attributed to the suppressed grain boundary sliding and dynamic recovery. The mean dislocation density and relative fractions of dislocations with various Burgers vectors of the UFG specimen deformed at 77K were determined quantitatively from neutron diffraction data.

Fine structure in the decay of the 8 isomer in U

Zhang, M. M.*; Tian, Y. L.*; Wang, Y. S.*; Zhang, Z. Y.*; Gan, Z. G.*; Yang, H. B.*; Huang, M. H.*; Ma, L.*; Yang, C. L.*; Wang, J. G.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 106(2), p.024305_1 - 024305_6, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024305

The extremely neutron-deficient even-even uranium isotopes U were produced in the complete-fusion reactions induced by impinging Ar and Ca ions on W targets. Fusion evaporation residues were separated in flight by the gas-filled recoil separator SHANS (Spectrometer for Heavy Atoms and Nuclear Structure) and subsequently identified using the recoil--correlation method. In this paper, we report on new -decay activities with keV for U and keV for U, which decay from the 8 isomeric states of U into the 2 states of their daughter nuclei Th, respectively. The new results extend the systematics of the -decay fine structure for the = 124 and 126 even-even isotones.

Achieving excellent mechanical properties in type 316 stainless steel by tailoring grain size in homogeneously recovered or recrystallized nanostructures

Liu, M.*; Gong, W.; Zheng, R.*; Li, J.*; Zhang, Z.*; Gao, S.*; Ma, C.*; 辻 伸泰*

Acta Materialia, 226, p.117629_1 - 117629_13, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.117629

One hopeful path to realize good comprehensive mechanical properties in metallic materials is to accomplish homogeneous nanocrystalline (NC) or ultrafine grained (UFG) structure with low dislocation density. In this work, high pressure torsion deformation followed by appropriate annealing was performed on 316 stainless steel (SS). For the first time, we successfully obtained NC/UFG 316 SS having uniform microstructures with various average grain sizes ranging from 46 nm to 2.54 m and low dislocation densities. Among the series, an un-precedentedly high yield strength (2.34 GPa) was achieved at the smallest grain size of 46 nm, in which dislocation scarcity induced hardening accounting for 57% of the strength. On the other hand, exceptional strength-ductility synergy with high yield strength (900 MPa) and large uniform elongation (27%) was obtained in the fully recrystallized specimen having the grain size of 0.38 m. The high yield stress and scarcity of dislocation sources in recrystallized UFGs activated stacking faults and deformation twins nucleating from grain boundaries during straining, and their interaction with dislocations allowed for sustainable strain hardening, which also agreed with the plaston concept recently proposed. The multiple deformation modes activated, together with the effective strengthening mechanisms, were responsible for the outstanding comprehensive mechanical performance of the material.

Neutron spectroscopy evidence on the dual nature of magnetic excitations in a van der Waals metallic ferromagnet FeGeTe

Bao, S.*; Wang, W.*; Shangguan, Y.*; Cai, Z.*; Dong, Z.-Y.*; Huang, Z.*; Si, W.*; Ma, Z.*; 梶本 亮一; 池内 和彦*; et al.

Physical Review X, 12(1), p.011022_1 - 011022_15, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.011022

In the local or itinerant extreme, magnetic excitations can be described by the Heisenberg model which treats electron spins as localized moments, or by the itinerant-electron model where the exchange interaction between electrons leads to unequal numbers of electrons with up and down spins. However, the nature of the magnetic excitations has been elusive when both local moments and itinerant electrons are present in the intermediate range. Using inelastic neutron scattering, we provide direct spectroscopic evidence on the coexistence of and interplay between local moments and itinerant electrons in a van der Waals metallic ferromagnet FeGeTe, which can sustain tunable room-temperature ferromagnetism down to the monolayer limit. We find that there exist ferromagnetic spin-wave excitations dispersing from the zone center at low energies resulting from local moments and a columnlike broad continuum at the zone boundary at high energies up to over 100 meV resulting from itinerant electrons. Unlike the two-dimensional crystal structure, the low-energy mode exhibits a three-dimensional nature, and the high-energy mode also has an out-of-plane dependence. Both modes persist well above the Curie temperature of 160 K. Our neutron spectroscopic data reveal that the low-energy spin waves at 100 K are more coherent than those at 4 K, which is evidence of the weakening of the Kondo screening at high temperatures. These results unambiguously demonstrate the coexistence of local moments and itinerant electrons and the Kondo effect between these two components in FeGeTe. Such behaviors are generally expected in heavy-fermion systems with heavy electrons but are rarely clearly observed in materials with light electrons. These findings shed light on the understanding of magnetism in transition-metal compounds.

Evidence for strong correlations at finite temperatures in the dimerized magnet NaCuTeO

Shangguan, Y.*; Bao, S.*; Dong, Z.-Y.*; Cai, Z.*; Wang, W.*; Huang, Z.*; Ma, Z.*; Liao, J.*; Zhao, X.*; 梶本 亮一; et al.

Physical Review B, 104(22), p.224430_1 - 224430_8, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.224430

Dimerized magnets forming alternating Heisenberg chains exhibit quantum coherence and entanglement and thus can find potential applications in quantum information and computation. However, magnetic systems typically undergo thermal decoherence at finite temperatures. Here, we show inelastic neutron scattering results on an alternating antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic chain compound NaCuTeO that the excited quasiparticles can counter thermal decoherence and maintain strong correlations at elevated temperatures. At low temperatures, we observe clear dispersive singlet-triplet excitations arising from the dimers formed along the crystalline -axis. The excitation gap is of 18 meV and the bandwidth is about half of the gap. The band top energy has a weak modulation along the [100] direction, indicative of a small interchain coupling. The gap increases while the bandwidth decreases with increasing temperature, leading to a strong reduction in the available phase space for the triplons. As a result, the Lorentzian-type energy broadening becomes highly asymmetric as the temperature is raised. These results are associated with a strongly correlated state resulting from hard-core constraint and quasiparticle interactions. We consider these results to be not only evidence for strong correlations at finite temperatures in NaCuTeO, but also for the universality of the strongly correlated state in a broad range of quantum magnetic systems.

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

奥村 拓馬*; 東 俊行*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; 橋本 直; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

超伝導遷移エッジ型センサーマイクロカロリメーターを用いて、鉄のミュー原子から放出される電子X線を観測した。FWHMでの5.2eVのエネルギー分解能により、電子特性およびX線の非対称の広いプロファイルを約6keVの超衛星線線とともに観察することができた。このスペクトルは、電子のサイドフィードを伴う、負ミュオンと殻電子による核電荷の時間依存スクリーニングを反映している。シミュレーションによると、このデータは電子殻および殻の正孔生成と、ミュオンカスケードプロセス中のそれらの時間発展を明確に示している。

Evidence for magnon-phonon coupling in the topological magnet CuTeO

Bao, S.*; Cai, Z.*; Si, W.*; Wang, W.*; Wang, X.*; Shangguan, Y.*; Ma, Z.*; Dong, Z.-Y.*; 梶本 亮一; 池内 和彦*; et al.

Physical Review B, 101(21), p.214419_1 - 214419_8, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.214419

We perform thermodynamic and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements to study the lattice dynamics (phonons) of a cubic collinear antiferromagnet CuTeO which hosts topological spin excitations (magnons). While the specific heat and thermal conductivity results show that the thermal transport is dominated by phonons, the deviation of the thermal conductivity from a pure phononic model indicates that there is a strong coupling between magnons and phonons. In the INS measurements, we find a mode in the excitation spectra at 4.5 K, which exhibits a slight downward dispersion around the Brillouin zone center. This mode disappears above the Nel temperature and thus cannot be a phonon. Furthermore, the dispersion is distinct from that of a magnon. Instead, it can be explained by the magnon-polaron mode, collective excitations resulting from the hybridization between magnons and phonons. We consider the suppression of the thermal conductivity and emergence of the magnon-polaron mode to be evidence for magnon-phonon coupling in CuTeO.

Non-destructive analysis of samples with a complex geometry by NRTA

Ma, F.; Kopecky, S.*; Alaerts, G.*; 原田 秀郎; Heyse, J.*; 北谷 文人; Noguere, G.*; Paradela, C.*; alamon, L.*; Schillebeeckx, P.*; et al.

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 35(3), p.478 - 488, 2020/03

AA2019-0356.pdf:2.54MB

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9JA00342H

The use of Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis to characterize homogeneous samples not fulfilling good transmission geometry conditions is discussed. Analytical expressions for such samples have been derived and implemented in the resonance shape analysis code REFIT. They were validated by experiments at the time-of-flight facility GELINA using a set of metallic natural copper samples. The expressions were used to derive sample characteristics by a least squares adjustment to experimental transmission data. In addition, the resonance parameters of Cu for energies below 6 keV, which are reported in the literature and recommended in evaluated data libraries, were verified. This research was implemented under the subsidiary for nuclear security promotion of MEXT.

IRDFF-II; A New neutron metrology library

Trkov, A.*; Griffin, P. J.*; Simakov, S. P.*; Greenwood, L. R.*; Zolotarev, K. I.*; Capote, R.*; Aldama, D. L.*; Chechev, V.*; Destouches, C.*; Kahler, A. C.*; et al.

Nuclear Data Sheets, 163, p.1 - 108, 2020/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2019.12.001

60MeVまでの核分裂炉、核融合炉の中性子計測のための核データであるIRDFF-IIが公開された。このライブラリは、(a)研究炉応用、(b)商業炉の安全性応用、(c)核融合材料開発のための損傷研究、をサポートしている。本論文は、ライブラリの内容、検証プロセスについて述べ、幅広い中性子場でのベンチマークデータを提供している。このライブラリは様々な応用のための中性子計測における国際的な基準データとなることが期待される。

Comparison of heavy-ion transport simulations; Collision integral with pions and resonances in a box

小野 章*; Xu, J.*; Colonna, M.*; Danielewicz, P.*; Ko, C. M.*; Tsang, M. B.*; Wang, Y,-J.*; Wolter, H.*; Zhang, Y.-X.*; Chen, L.-W.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 100(4), p.044617_1 - 044617_35, 2019/10

AA2019-0025.pdf:2.76MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.100.044617

2017年4月に開催された国際会議Transport2017において、重イオン核反応モデルの国際的な比較が議論された。重イオン加速器の安全評価や宇宙飛行士の被ばく評価等で重要な役割を果たすため、世界中で重イオン核反応の様々な理論モデルが開発されている。本研究では、辺の長さが20fmの直方体に320個の中性子と陽子をランダム配置し、それらが70fm/cの間に起こす散乱の回数やエネルギーを計算した。ここでは、特にパイオンやその前駆体であるデルタ共鳴の生成に注目して比較を行った。参加コードは、個々の粒子の時間発展を追うQMD型コードと、粒子の位置や運動量の確率分布を決めておき、散乱や崩壊が発生したときそれらを乱数サンプリングするBUU型コードがあり、発表者が用いたJQMDは前者に属する。本研究により、計算における時間刻みが各コードによる結果の差の主な原因であることが分かった。さらに、今後のJQMDの改良方針の策定に有益な知見を得ることができた。