The major part of this chapter has already appeared in [1], but because of the length restrictions (in Science), the discussion on why we think this form is given in only brief detail. This chapter goes into more depth to try to answer the questions of why the fullerenes form themselves. This is another example of the very special behavior of carbon. From a chemist’s standpoint, it is carbon’s ability to form multiple bonds that allows it to make these low dimensional forms rather than to produce tetrahedral forms. Carbon can readily accomplish this and it is in the mathematics and physics of the way this universe was put together, that carbon is given this property. One of the consequences of this property is that, if left to its own devices as carbon condenses from the vapor and if the temperature range is just right, above 1000°C, but lower than 1400°C, there is an efficient self-assembly process whose endpoint is C60.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/273/5274/483.full.pdf

Crystalline Ropes of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes

Recent research activities on the linear magnetoelectric (ME) effect?induction of magnetization by an electric field or of polarization by a magnetic field?are reviewed. Beginning with a brief summary of the history of the ME effect since its prediction in 1894, the paper focuses on the present revival of the effect. Two major sources for 'large' ME effects are identified. (i) In composite materials the ME effect is generated as a product property of a magnetostrictive and a piezoelectric compound. A linear ME polarization is induced by a weak ac magnetic field oscillating in the presence of a strong dc bias field. The ME effect is large if the ME coefficient coupling the magnetic and electric fields is large. Experiments on sintered granular composites and on laminated layers of the constituents as well as theories on the interaction between the constituents are described. In the vicinity of electromechanical resonances a ME voltage coefficient of up to 90?V?cm?1?Oe?1 is achieved, which exceeds the ME response of single-phase compounds by 3?5 orders of magnitude. Microwave devices, sensors, transducers and heterogeneous read/write devices are among the suggested technical implementations of the composite ME effect. (ii) In multiferroics the internal magnetic and/or electric fields are enhanced by the presence of multiple long-range ordering. The ME effect is strong enough to trigger magnetic or electrical phase transitions. ME effects in multiferroics are thus 'large' if the corresponding contribution to the free energy is large. Clamped ME switching of electrical and magnetic domains, ferroelectric reorientation induced by applied magnetic fields and induction of ferromagnetic ordering in applied electric fields were observed. Mechanisms favouring multiferroicity are summarized, and multiferroics in reduced dimensions are discussed. In addition to composites and multiferroics, novel and exotic manifestations of ME behaviour are investigated. This includes (i) optical second harmonic generation as a tool to study magnetic, electrical and ME properties in one setup and with access to domain structures; (ii) ME effects in colossal magnetoresistive manganites, superconductors and phosphates of the LiMPO4 type; (iii) the concept of the toroidal moment as manifestation of a ME dipole moment; (iv) pronounced ME effects in photonic crystals with a possibility of electromagnetic unidirectionality. The review concludes with a summary and an outlook to the future development of magnetoelectrics research.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/38/8/R01/pdf

Revival of the Magnetoelectric Effect

Research Development on Sodium-Ion Batteries

Materials with nanoscopic dimensions not only have potential technological applications in areas such as device technology and drug delivery but also are of fundamental interest in that the properties of a material can change in this regime of transition between the bulk and molecular scales. In this article, a relatively new method for preparing nanomaterials, membrane-based synthesis, is reviewed. This method entails synthesis of the desired material within the pores of a nanoporous membrane. Because the membranes used contain cylindrical pores of uniform diameter, monodisperse nanocylinders of the desired material, whose dimensions can be carefully controlled, are obtained. This "template" method has been used to prepare polymers, metals, semiconductors, and other materials on a nanoscopic scale.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/266/5193/1961.full.pdf

Nanomaterials: a membrane-based synthetic approach.

Magnetism and ferroelectricity are essential to many forms of current technology, and the quest for multiferroic materials, where these two phenomena are intimately coupled, is of great technological and fundamental importance. Ferroelectricity and magnetism tend to be mutually exclusive and interact weakly with each other when they coexist. The exciting new development is the discovery that even a weak magnetoelectric interaction can lead to spectacular cross-coupling effects when it induces electric polarization in a magnetically ordered state. Such magnetic ferroelectricity, showing an unprecedented sensitivity to ap plied magnetic fields, occurs in 'frustrated magnets' with competing interactions between spins and complex magnetic orders. We summarize key experimental findings and the current theoretical understanding of these phenomena, which have great potential for tuneable multifunctional devices.

/pdf/multiferroics-a-magnetic-twist-for-ferroelectricity-40nmxke8g8.pdf

Multiferroics: a magnetic twist for ferroelectricity

The complete phase diagram of a ``colossal'' magnetoresistance material ( ${\mathrm{La}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{x}{\mathrm{MnO}}_{3}$) was obtained for the first time through magnetization and resistivity measurements over a broad range of temperatures and concentrations. Near $x\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.50$, the ground state changes from a ferromagnetic (FM) conductor to an antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator, leading to a strongly first order AFM transition with supercooling of $\ensuremath{\sim}30%$ ${T}_{N}$ at $x\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.50$. An unexpectedly large magnetoresistance is seen at low temperatures in the FM phase, and is largely attributed to unusual domain wall scattering.

Low temperature magnetoresistance and the magnetic phase diagram of La1-xCaxMnO3.

Optical conductivity measurements on the perovskite-related oxide CaCu3Ti4O12 provide a hint of the physics underlying the observed giant dielectric effect in this material. A low-frequency vibration displays anomalous behavior, implying that there is a redistribution of charge within the unit cell at low temperature. At infrared frequencies (terahertz), the value for the dielectric constant is approximately 80 at room temperature, which is far smaller than the value of approximately 10(5) obtained at lower radio frequencies (kilohertz). This discrepancy implies the presence of a strong absorption at very low frequencies due to dipole relaxation. At room temperature, the characteristic relaxation times are fast (less than or approximately 500 nanoseconds) but increase dramatically at low temperature, suggesting that the large change in dielectric constant may be due to a relaxor-like dynamical slowing down of dipolar fluctuations in nanosize domains.

/pdf/optical-response-of-high-dielectric-constant-perovskite-35lxksvfk8.pdf

Optical Response of High-Dielectric-Constant Perovskite-Related Oxide

The study of cooperative phenomena in magnetism has provided fertile ground for testing theories of interacting systems that possess different spatial dimensions, ranges, and sign of interactions, and that exhibit local anisotropy of the basic interacting unit, the magnetic spin. This study has also motivated the development of new classes of materials, from the oldest known type of magnets, namely ferromagnets, to modern substances embodied in the unusual random field and spin glass compounds. In this context, we use the term material class to mean a set of compounds that share both microscopic, as well as macroscopic, or bulk, properties. Thus for example, ferro magnets possess the microscopic uniform ferromagnetic­ type exchange or dipolar interaction between spins, in addition to a bulk low temperature magnetization approaching the theoretical saturated moment value, and characteristic critical behavior at the Curie, or order­ ing, temperature. Among the known classes of magnets, spin glasses are among the most fascinating, displaying in their bulk properties simul­ taneous sharp ordering features in their magnetic response while exhibiting no such anomalies in their thermal response (1). These properties are thought to arise from a ground state characterized not by a single potential well representing the uniform arrangement of perfectly ordered spins, as in a ferromagnet, but rather by an energy landscape with many nearly degenerate ground state configurations separated by barriers of random height ( 1 ). The microscopic parameters empirically associated with spin glass

Strongly Geometrically Frustrated Magnets

Giant dielectric constant response in a copper-titanate

Common water ice (ice I-h) is an unusual solid-the oxygen atoms form a periodic structure but the hydrogen atoms are highly disordered due to there being two inequivalent O-H bond lengths'. Pauling showed that the presence of these two bond lengths leads to a macroscopic degeneracy of possible ground states(2,3), such that the system has finite entropy as the temperature tends towards zero. The dynamics associated with this degeneracy are experimentally inaccessible, however, as ice melts and the hydrogen dynamics cannot be studied independently of oxygen motion(4). An analogous system(5) in which this degeneracy can be studied is a magnet with the pyrochlore structure-termed 'spin ice'-where spin orientation plays a similar role to that of the hydrogen position in ice I-h. Here we present specific-heat data for one such system, Dy2Ti2O7, from which we infer a total spin entropy of 0.67Rln2. This is similar to the value, 0.71Rln2, determined for ice I-h, SO confirming the validity of the correspondence. We also find, through application of a magnetic field, behaviour not accessible in water ice-restoration of much of the ground-state entropy and new transitions involving transverse spin degrees of freedom.

/pdf/zero-point-entropy-in-spin-ice-2zajyafzwo.pdf

Arthur P. Ramirez

Papers

Low temperature magnetoresistance and the magnetic phase diagram of La1-xCaxMnO3.

Optical Response of High-Dielectric-Constant Perovskite-Related Oxide

Strongly Geometrically Frustrated Magnets

Giant dielectric constant response in a copper-titanate

Zero-point entropy in ‘spin ice’