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IRG 1

Magnetic Intermetallic Mesostructures

Remarkable electrical, magnetic, and thermal phenonmena exist in functional intermetallics, and this richness stands to be amplified via multiscale microstructural design capable of further unlocking and harnessing their properties.  Hierarchically structured thermoelectric materials with high figures of merit exemplify the power and promise of this multiscale approach.  The materials challenge addressed in this IRG is to understand and develop unprecedented control over the couplings between strain, magnetization, and temperature (entropy) in single- and multiphase intermetallic compounds.  The long-term outcome of this research will be design rules for novel intermetallics that display engineered magnetoelastic and magnetocaloric responses to external fields, which will provide a fundamental advance capable of impacting technologies of actuation and solid-state refrigeration.