Probing deformation behavior of a refractory high-entropy alloy using neutron diffraction

Zhou, Y.*; Song, W.*; Zhang, F.*; Wu, Y.*; Lei, Z.*; Jiao, M.*; Zhang, X.*; Dong, J.*; Zhang, Y.*; Yang, M.*; et al.

Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 971, p.172635_1 - 172635_7, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2023.172635

Gradient residual strain measurement procedure in surface impacted railway steel axles by using neutron scattering

Zhou, L.*; Zhang, H.*; Qin, T. Y.*; Hu, F. F.*; Xu, P. G.; Ao, N.*; Su, Y. H.; He, L. H.*; Li, X. H.*; Zhang, J. R.*; et al.

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 11 Pages, 2024/00

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-024-07352-5

Pressure-modulated magnetism and negative thermal expansion in the HoFe intermetallic compound

Cao, Y.*; Zhou, H.*; Khmelevskyi, S.*; Lin, K.*; Avdeev, M.*; Wang, C.-W.*; Wang, B.*; Hu, F.*; Kato, Kenichi*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Chemistry of Materials, 35(8), p.3249 - 3255, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c00158

Hydrostatic and chemical pressure are efficient stimuli to alter the crystal structure and are commonly used for tuning electronic and magnetic properties in materials science. However, chemical pressure is difficult to quantify and a clear correspondence between these two types of pressure is still lacking. Here, we study intermetallic candidates for a permanent magnet with a negative thermal expansion (NTE). Based on in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, negative chemical pressure is revealed in HoFe on Al doping and quantitatively evaluated by using temperature and pressure dependence of unit cell volume. A combination of magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements also allowed one to compare the effect of chemical pressure on magnetic ordering with that of hydrostatic pressure. Intriguingly, pressure can be used to control suppression and enhancement of NTE. Electronic structure calculations indicate that pressure affected the top of the majority band with respect to the Fermi level, which has implications for the magnetic stability, which in turn plays a critical role in modulating magnetism and NTE. This work presents a good example of understanding the effect of pressure and utilizing it to control properties of functional materials.

Fatigue crack non-propagation behavior of a gradient steel structure from induction hardened railway axles

Zhang, H.*; Wu, S. C.*; Ao, N.*; Zhang, J. W.*; Li, H.*; Zhou, L.*; Xu, P. G.; Su, Y. H.

International Journal of Fatigue, 166, p.107296_1 - 107296_11, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2022.107296

A Safer preprocessing system for analyzing dissolved organic radiocarbon in seawater

Otosaka, Shigeyoshi*; Jeon, H.*; Hou, Y.*; Watanabe, Takahiro; Aze, Takahiro*; Miyairi, Yosuke*; Yokoyama, Yusuke*; Ogawa, Hiroshi*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 527, p.1 - 6, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2022.07.003

The measurement the radiocarbon of dissolved organic matter (DOC) in seawater can provide information about a timescale of the dynamics of dissolved organic matter as well as about its sources in the ocean. Due to the low DOC concentration in seawater, in spite of the development of accelerator mass spectrometry, a relatively large volume of seawater (1 L) is required for that analysis. In addition, complicated processing such as UV irradiation that emits high heat is required. In this study, we have developed a safer and easier method to analyze DOC in seawater than the conventional method. A particularly significant change was the adoption of a low-pressure mercury lamp in the decomposition system, which enabled direct decomposition of organic matter at lower temperatures. We also propose a method to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of this system by analyzing simulated seawater consists of a soluble reference material of organic matter and sodium chloride. This method is expected to be applied not only to carbon isotope ratio analysis but also to analysis of trace elements and isotopes of various dissolved organic substances.

Structure of an aqueous RbCl solution in the gigapascal pressure range by neutron diffraction combined with empirical potential structure refinement modeling

Zhang, W. Q.*; Yamaguchi, Toshio*; Fang, C. H.*; Yoshida, Koji*; Zhou, Y. Q.*; Zhu, F. Y.*; Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori; Li, W.*

Journal of Molecular Liquids, 348, p.118080_1 - 118080_11, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.118080

The ion hydration and association and hydrogen-bonded water structure in an aqueous 3 mol/kg RbCl solution were investigated at 298 K/0.1 MPa, 298 K/1 GPa, 523 K/1 GPa, and 523 K/4 GPa by neutron diffraction combined with EPSR methods. The second hydration layer of Rb and Cl becomes evident under elevated pressure and temperature conditions. The average oxygen coordination number of Rb (Cl) in the first hydration layer increases from 6.3 (5.9) ambient pressure to 8.9 (9.1) at 4 GPa, while decreasing coordination distance from 0.290 nm (0.322 nm) to 0.288 nm (0.314 nm). The orientation of the water dipole in the first solvation shell of Rb and a central water molecule is sensitive to pressure, but that in the first solvation shell of Cl does not change very much. The number of contact-ion pairs Rb-Cl decreases with elevated temperature and increases with elevated pressure. Water molecules are closely packed, and the tetrahedral hydrogen-bonded network of water molecules no longer exists in extreme conditions.

Martensitic transformation in CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy at cryogenic temperature

Naeem, M.*; Zhou, H.*; He, H.*; Harjo, S.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Lan, S.*; Wu, Z.*; Zhu, Y.*; Wang, X.-L.*

Applied Physics Letters, 119(13), p.131901_1 - 131901_7, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0067268

Quasifree neutron knockout reaction reveals a small -Orbital component in the Borromean nucleus B

Yang, Z. H.*; Kubota, Yuki*; Corsi, A.*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Sun, X.-X.*; Li, J. G.*; Kimura, Masaaki*; Michel, N.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yuan, C. X.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 126(8), p.082501_1 - 082501_8, 2021/02

AA2020-0819.pdf:1.29MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.082501

A quasifree (,) experiment was performed to study the structure of the Borromean nucleus B, which had long been considered to have a neutron halo. By analyzing the momentum distributions and exclusive cross sections, we obtained the spectroscopic factors for and orbitals, and a surprisingly small percentage of 9(2)% was determined for . Our finding of such a small component and the halo features reported in prior experiments can be explained by the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum, revealing a definite but not dominant neutron halo in B. The present work gives the smallest - or -orbital component among known nuclei exhibiting halo features and implies that the dominant occupation of or orbitals is not a prerequisite for the occurrence of a neutron halo.

Spin-polarized Weyl cones and giant anomalous Nernst effect in ferromagnetic Heusler films

Sumida, Kazuki; Sakuraba, Yuya*; Masuda, Keisuke*; Kono, Takashi*; Kakoki, Masaaki*; Goto, Kazuki*; Zhou, W.*; Miyamoto, Koji*; Miura, Yoshio*; Okuda, Taichi*; et al.

Communications Materials (Internet), 1, p.89_1 - 89_9, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-020-00088-w

Clades of huge phages from across Earth's ecosystems

Al-Shayeb, B.*; Sachdeva, R.*; Chen, L.-X.*; Ward, F.*; Munk, P.*; Devoto, A.*; Castelle, C. J.*; Olm, M. R.*; Bouma-Gregson, K.*; Amano, Yuki; et al.

Nature, 578(7795), p.425 - 431, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2007-4