We present an overview of various theoretical methods with detailed emphasis on an intermediate Coulomb-U coupling model. This model is based on material-specific ab initio band structure from which correlation effects are computed via self-consistent GW-based self-energy corrections arising from spin fluctuations. We apply this approach to four isostructural intermetallic actinides PuCoIn5, PuCoGa5, PuRhGa5 belonging to the Pu-115 family, and UCoGa5 a member of the U-115 family. The 115 families share the property of spin–orbit split density of states enabling substantial spin fluctuations around 0.5 eV, whose feedback effect on the electronic structure creates mass renormalization and electronic “hot spots,” i.e., regions of large spectral weight. A detailed comparison is provided for the angle-resolved and angle-integrated photoemission spectra and de Haas–van Alphen experimental data as available. The results suggest that this class of actinides is adequately described by the intermediate Coulomb interaction regime, where both itinerant and incoherent features coexist in the electronic structure.

Development of a versatile technique for fabricating ceramic thin films on plastics has long been a challenge for those who aim at providing the surface of lightweight, flexible plastics a variety of functions. Wet processing techniques that have been reported so far on the fabrication of ceramic thin films on plastics are reviewed in this article. The techniques include crystalline nanoparticle deposition, liquid phase deposition, sol-gel method and chemical solution deposition (CSD). In these techniques, the issue of how to crystallize and/or densify the films on plastic substrates without firing has been focused on, and it would be recognized that great efforts have been made on this issue. Self-combustion of CSD thin films is also introduced, which only requires heat treatment at low temperatures for films to be crystallized. Finally a transfer process that our group has proposed recently is presented, which is unique in that the crystallization and densification are guaranteed by a firing step.

We have studied the atomic ordering of B-site transition metals and magnetic properties in the pulsed laser deposited films of La2CrFeO6 (LCFO) and La2VMnO6 (LVMO), whose bulk materials are known to be single perovskites with random distribution of the B-site cations. Despite similar ionic characters of constituent transition metals in each compound, the maximum B-site order attained was surprisingly high, ∼90% for LCFO and ∼80% for LVMO, suggesting a significant role of epitaxial stabilization in the spontaneous ordering process. Magnetization and valence state characterizations revealed that the magnetic ground state of both compounds was coincidently ferrimagnetic with saturation magnetization of ∼2 μB per formula unit, unlike those predicted theoretically. In addition, they were found to be insulating with optical band gaps of 1.6 and 0.9 eV for LCFO and LVMO, respectively. Our results present a wide opportunity to explore novel magnetic properties of binary transition metal perovskites upon epitaxial stabilization of the ordered phase.

Changes in crystal structure and ferroelectric properties are investigated for (100)/(001)-oriented epitaxial PbTiO3 thin films grown on CaF2 substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. In this work, PbTiO3 films, with thickness ranging from 60 to 2000 nm, presented volume fraction of (001)-oriented c-domain higher than 90%. Hence, the residual strain is smaller compared to films deposited on widely investigated SrTiO3 substrates. Additionally, more than 60 μC/cm2 remnant polarization is obtained for all film thickness ranges, and the estimated spontaneous polarization taking into account c-domain volume fraction is about 80 μC/cm2 regardless of film thickness, in good agreement with reported values for the single crystal.

A comprehensive study of SrRuO3 thin films growth on (001) MgO substrates by pulsed laser deposition in a wide oxygen pressure range from 10 to 300 mTorr was carried out. The experimental results showed a correlation between the lattice constants, resistivity, and oxygen partial pressures used. Ru deficiency detected only in films deposited at lower oxygen pressures (<50 mTorr), resulted in an elongation of the in-plane and out-of-plane lattice constants and an increase in the film resistivity. When deposited with oxygen partial pressure of 50 mTorr, SrRuO3 films had lattice parameters matching those of bulk SrRuO3 material and exhibited room temperature resistivity of 320 μΩ·cm. The resistivity of SrRuO3/MgO films decreased with increasing oxygen partial pressure.

We analyze the effect of postdeposition annealing conditions on both the structure and the created defects in Zn0.90Co0.10O thin films, which deposited on the Si(100) substrates by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique using a homemade target. The dependence of the number and distribution of defects in homogeneously substituted Co+2 for Zn+2 ions in ZnO lattice on the annealing conditions is investigated. Orientations of thin films are in the [0002] direction with a surface roughness changing from 67 ± 2 nm to 25.8 ± 0.6 nm by annealing. The Co+2 ion substitution, changing from 7.5% ± 0.3% to 8.8 ± 0.3%, leads to the formation of Zn–O–Co bonds instead of Zn–O–Zn bonds and splitting of the Co 2p energy level to Co 2p1/2 and Co 2p3/2 with an energy difference of 15.67 ± 0.06 eV. The defects in the lattice are revealed from the correlations between Zn–O–Co bonds and intensity of the Raman peak at around 691 cm−1. In addition, the asymmetry changes of O 1s peak positions in the x-ray photoelectron spectra are in agreement with the Raman results.

We report an alternative interruption scheme to effectively improve the abruptness of GaN/AlGaN superlattices by minimizing the asymmetric feature of different types of heterointerfaces. It is found by x-ray diffraction that the interface abruptness is degraded and the GaN thickness is reduced with the interruption time increasing. Detailed investigation with scanning transmission electron microscopy demonstrates that the Al diffusion and the interface etching effect at the GaN/AlGaN interface are the critical reasons leading to the interfacial asymmetry. An alternative interface–interruption scheme is then proposed to enhance the abruptness of the superlattice interfaces, and consequently, the emission efficiency can also be significantly enhanced.

The present work highlights the effect of postdeposition annealing (373–773 K) on the tunability of electrical conductivity of radio frequency sputtered NiOx thin films with both n-type and p-type behavior. The NiOx thin films were polycrystalline with preferred (200) orientation with high optical transmission. The as-grown NiOx thin film exhibits an n-type behavior with room temperature resistivity of 4.80 × 10−3 Ω-cm and majority carrier (electrons) concentration of about 3.90 × 1020 cm−3. Film annealed at 473 K was p-type having resistivity of 1.54 × 10−1 Ω-cm and majority carrier (hole) concentration of about 4.45 × 1018 cm−3. Hall effect and thermoelectric power measurements confirm a transition in electrical conduction from n-type to p-type with postdeposition annealing at 473 K. The observed tunability of electrical conductivity of NiOx thin film will pave way toward realization of p-n homojunction for short wave length optoelectronic device applications.

A hot-rolled AZ31 Mg alloy sheet was subjected to dynamic plastic deformation parallel to the rolling direction with the aim of introducing {10-12} twins. Subsequent tensile tests were carried out along the predeformed direction and the initial transverse direction (TD). It was found that untwinning led to a significant drop in yield stress when tension is carried out along the predeformed direction. And {10-12} twins and strain caused by twinning were recovered by untwinning. The tensile yield stress increased slightly with prestrain was correlated with the texture hardening caused by untwinning. When tension is carried out along initial TD, {10-12} twinning activity was restrained and slip dominated plastic deformation. The tensile yield stress increased significantly with prestrain was strongly correlated with the hardening contributions of {10-12} twins. {10-12} twinning led to the obvious yield stress in-plane anisotropy but had little effect on the maximum flow stress.

The primary dendrite arm spacing and its distribution at the solid–liquid interface has been examined in directionally solidified Sn–36 at.% Ni peritectic alloys under constant temperature gradient in a range of growth rates (2–200 μm/s). Statistical analysis of the primary dendrite arm spacing on transverse sections has been carried out using the minimum spanning tree and Voronoi polygon. The frequency distribution of the number of nearest neighbors determined by the Voronoi polygon suggested that the arrangement of dendrites at the solid–liquid interface could be visualized as hexagonal tessellation. The primary dendrite arm spacing determined by the conventional area counting method and minimum spanning tree all decreased with increasing growth rate, and a range of primary dendrite spacing was present during solidification. The range first increased with increasing growth rate, but when the growth rate exceeded 20 μm/s, it turned to decrease, which can be attributed to disorder induced by growth rate and interdendritic convection.

A whisker and hillock growth model based on local film microstructure, grain misorientation, and elastic strain energy density (ESED) as the driving force for growth was developed to predict preferred sites for growth. Local grain orientations and strains measured by synchrotron microdiffraction in nine regions containing whiskers or hillocks were compared with elastic finite element analysis simulations including Sn elastic anisotropy. Whisker and hillock grains were observed to have higher crystallographic misorientations with neighboring grains than generally observed in the microstructure. While elastic simulations predicted higher local out-of-plane elastic strains and ESEDs at those locations with high misorientations before growth, synchrotron measurements of out-of-plane strains of whisker and hillock grains after growth showed relaxation, with correspondingly low ESEDs calculated from measured strains. Hence, highly localized out-of-plane elastic strains and ESEDs of grains with high relative misorientations with their neighbors determined, at least in part, which grains became whiskers or hillocks.

Pearlitic transformation in an ultrafine-grained (UFG) hypereutectoid steel was investigated. The steel was a plain carbon steel containing 1.0 wt% C and very few other elements. The UFG samples were prepared by thermomechanical treatment, and an average grain size of approximately 1 μm was achieved. The pearlitic transformation was conducted by heating the UFG samples at 1023 K for different times and then cooling in air. A new pearlitic transformation phenomenon was observed: traditional lamellar pearlite can be observed only when the grain size increases to a dimension larger than approximately 4 μm, which is a critical value. When grain size is smaller than this value, the pearlitic transformation occurs in the form of divorced eutectoid, and the microstructure is the ferrite matrix with granular cementite. This research indicates that grain size has a great influence on pearlitic transformation by shortening the diffusion distance and increasing the diffusion rate of carbon atoms in the UFG steel.

To study the initial plasticity during the nanoindentation of face-centered cubic bicrystal materials at the micro- and nanoscales, a $\sum {5(310)/[001]} {\rm{\theta }} = 53.1\circ $ symmetrical tilt grain boundary (GB) model of bicrystal copper was constructed using the quasicontinuum method. The nanoindentation process of the model was then simulated, and a group of indents across the GB during a bicrystal copper nanoindentation experiment were performed. The effect of the GB on the incipient yield was studied when the transition from elastic to plastic deformation and the first dislocation emission occur. The results show that the maximum incipient load appears in the center of the boundary; the load first increases and then gradually decreases until it presents no further significant changes when the indenter is far from the GB. It is observed that theoretical simulation results are in good agreement with those of the experimental measurement. The incipient yield force was affected by the size and the position of the indenter, the structure of the boundary, and the first dislocation emission.

Oxygen-free high conducting copper wires drawn to true strains of 2.3, 3.1, and 3.6 exhibit inhomogeneity in the form of three distinct concentric regimes: the inner core, the midsection, and the outer region. While the microtexture of the inner core was dominated by a strong <111> + weak <100> duplex fiber texture, the midsection and the outer region had a comparatively weaker texture. An upper bound plasticity modeling and the nanohardness measurement revealed that the midsection was the most strained region. Upon annealing at 170 °C, the 2.3-strained wire did not recrystallize, whereas the 3.1- and 3.6-strained wires exhibited partial recrystallization. For the 3.6 wire, the inner core was unrecrystallized, while the midsection and outer region recrystallized with strong <100> + weak <111> fiber texture. The recrystallized grains were classified as type “A” grains, which grew laterally with <100>//DD orientation, and type “B” grains, which generally grew axially with <111>//DD orientation.