Quantified Zero Thermal Expansion in Magnetic R2Fe17-Based Intermetallic Compounds (R = Rare Earth)

摘要

Zero thermal expansion (ZTE) has been a fascinating task for the past few decades due to its great scientific and practical merits. To realize ZTE, negative thermal expansion is typically employed by chemical substitutions on tuning structure features, which often relies on trial and error. Here, we report on exploring quantification of thermal expansion with magnetic ordering in an intermetallic class of R2Fe,7 (R = rare earth), which can accurately determine the ZTE composition using a documented database. It demonstrates that the magnetic ordering of the Fe-sublattice contributes to the thermal expansion anomaly through simultaneous examinations of magnetization and neutron powder diffraction. Alternative elements can be manipulated on a Fe-sublattice to control both the total ordered magnetic moments of the Fe-sublattice and Curie temperature, which tailors the temperature variation of the magnetic contributions on thermal expansion. The current work might point to a future for ZTE high throughput searches, anticipated to benefit applications.