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In this work, La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LSMO) nanopowders are synthesized using two different methods: Pechini (LSMO-PC) and auto-combustion (LSMO-AC). Nanoparticle sizes, structural, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties were determined and compared. The X-ray diffraction confirms the coexistence of two phases; rhombohedral symmetry with space group R-3c and orthorhombic symmetry with space group Pbnm, with the rhombohedral phase dominating. The scanning electron microscope images show that LSMO-PC has larger nanoparticle sizes (~495 nm) than LSMO-AC (~195 nm). The samples exhibit ferromagnetic properties with distinct hysteresis loops and Curie temperatures 340 K and 290 K for LSMO-PC and LSMO-AC respectively. The variation of the magnetic entropy was measured indirectly using the Maxwell approach with increasing magnetic field. For LSMO-PC it reaches a maximum -dSM=1.69 J/kg.K at 340 K and dH= 5 T. The associated adiabatic temperature change dTM is 1.04 K. While LSMO-PC demonstrates superior magnetic and magnetocaloric properties, LSMO-AC displays significant magnetocaloric thermal stability. The obtained values make LSMO-PC and LSMO-AC promising candidates for eco-friendly room-temperature magnetocaloric applications.

A series of (1-x)[(2BaO-0,5Na2O)-1P2O5] -xNb2O5 (BNPN, x=0,41, 0,43, 0,45, 0,48) glass-ceramics based on phosphate glasses have been prepared via a controlled-crystallization route. The structure, dielectric properties, interfacial polarization, and energy storage properties were systematically investigated. The x-ray diffraction results showed the simultaneous presence of Ba2NaNb5O15 tungsten bronze structure (TTB) and the NaNbO3 perovskite. A stable dielectric constant over a temperature range from 25-200{\deg}C, low dielectric losses less than 0,03, and excellent frequency stability at room temperature were obtained. The decrease in niobium content promoted TTB crystallization with the improvement of the high dielectric properties of the system. The optimum of the dielectric constant and recoverable energy storage density were obtained for BNP41 crystallized at 1000{\deg}C. Analyses of the complex impedance indicated that the niobium content and crystallization temperature affect the interfacial polarization., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables

Barium sodium niobate Ba$_2$NaNb$_5$O$_{15}$ (BNN) ceramics with different amounts of BaO-Na$_2$O-Nb$_2$O$_5$-P$_2$O$_5$ (BNNP) glass were prepared via the conventional solid-state method. The effect of glass content on the structural, microstructure, and dielectric properties of BNN ceramics was investigated. The XRD results showed that no secondary phase was formed after adding BNNP glass. It was found that such additions reduce the average grain size and refine the microstructure of the obtained ceramics. Moreover, the samples exhibited a stable dielectric constant over the temperature range of 25$^\circ$C-150$^\circ$C, and their dielectric constants were significantly improved. The ceramic with 7.5 wt% BNNP glass content showed a dielectric constant which is more than twice as much as that of pure BNN ceramic, as well as a low dielectric loss of less than 5%., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Multiferroic CoFe2O4-Ba0.95Ca0.05Ti0.89Sn0.11O3 core-shell nanofibers (CFO@BCTSn NFs) were synthesized by a sol-gel co-axial electrospinning technique. The scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope were used to check nanofibers' core-shell structure/configuration. X-ray diffraction and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope were used to confirm the spinel structure of CFO and the perovskite structure of BCTSn. The magnetic character of the resultant CFO@BCTSn NFs was determined by SQUID magnetometry. The piezoelectricity was verified using piezo-response force microscopy, which revealed an entirely covered ferroelectric shell outline, in accordance with SEM and TEM observations. The magnetoelectric (ME) coefficient was measured as a function of the applied external DC magnetic field. The maximum ME coefficient obtained for the CFO@BCTSn NFs was 346 mV cm-1 Oe-1. The high magnetoelectric coupling suggests that CFO@BCTSn NFs could be a promising candidate for magnetic field sensor and magnetoelectric device applications.

The past decade's discovery of topological excitations in nanoscale ferroelectrics has turned the prevailing view that the polar ground state in these materials is uniform. However, the systematic understanding of the topological polar structures in ferroelectrics is still on track. Here we study stable vortex-like textures of polarization in the nanocylinders of ferroelectric PbTiO$_3$, arising due to the competition of the elastic and electrostatic interactions. Using the phase-field numerical modeling and analytical calculations, we show that the orientation of the vortex core with respect to the cylinder axis is tuned by the geometrical parameters and temperature of the system., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures

Lead-free BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 (BTSn) ceramic was elaborated via a solid-state reaction method and its dielectric, ferroelectric, energy storage, electromechanical as well as electrocaloric properties were investigated at 25 kV/cm. Pure perovskite structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The maximum of the dielectric constant was found to be 17390 at 41 {\deg}C. The enhanced total energy density, the recovered energy density, and the energy storage efficiency of 92.7 mJ/cm3, 84.4 mJ/cm3, and 91.04%, respectively, were observed at 60 {\deg}C, whereas the highest storage efficiency of 95.87 % was obtained at 100 {\deg}C. At room temperature, the electromechanical strain and the large-signal piezoelectric coefficient reached a maximum of 0.07 % and 280 pm/V. The large electrocaloric effect of 0.71 K and the electrocaloric responsivity of 0.28. 10-6 K.mm/kV at 49 {\deg}C under 25 kV/cm were indirectly calculated via Maxwell relation from the ferroelectric polarization P (T, E) that was determined from the P-E hysteresis loops. By exploiting the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) phenomenological theory, the electrocaloric response was estimated to be of 0.61 K at 50 {\deg}C under 25 kV/cm. We conclude that BTSn lead-free ceramic is a promising candidate for potential applications in high-efficiency energy storage devices and solid-state refrigeration technology.

Perovskite manganite La0.5Ca0.5-x xMnO3 (LCMO) nanomaterials were elaborated using the sucrose modified auto combustion method. Rietveld refinements of the X-ray diffraction patterns of the crystalline structure confirm a single-phase orthorhombic state with Pbnm space group (No. 62). The Ca-vacancies were voluntarily created in the LCMO structure in order to study their influence on the magnetic behaviour in the system. The magnetic susceptibility was found to be highly enhanced in the sample with Ca-vacancies. Paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic phase transition was evidenced in both samples around 254 K. This transition is, characterized by a drastic jump of the susceptibility in the sample with Ca-vacancies. The maximum of entropy change, observed for both compounds at magnetic field of 6T was 2.30 J kg-1K-1 and 2.70 J kg-1K-1 for the parent compound and the lacunar one respectively. The magnetocaloric adiabatic temperature change value calculated by indirect method was 5.6 K and 5.2 K for the non-lacunar and Ca-vacancy compound, respectively. The Ca-lacunar La0.5Ca0.5-x xMnO3 (x=0.05) reported in this work demonstrated overall enhancement of the magnetocaloric effect over the LCMO. The technique used to elaborate LCMO materials was beneficial to enhance the magnetocaloric effect and magnetic behaviour. Therefore, we conclude that this less costly environmentally friendly system can be considered as more advantageous candidate for magnetic refrigeration applications then the commonly Gd-based compounds., Comment: 12 pages,11 figures, Article

Ferroelectric ceramics (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.9Zr0.1-xSnx)O3 (x=0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06) were prepared by a sol-gel method. Structural investigation revealed the co-existence of tetragonal (P4mm) and orthorhombic (Pmm2) symmetries at room temperature for the undoped ceramic, while only a tetragonal structure (P4mm) was observed for the doped ceramics. Dielectric measurements indicate a dielectric relaxation process at high temperatures which is essentially related to the hopping of oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, a down shifting of the Curie temperature (TC) with increasing Sn4+ doping rate has been revealed. The temperature profiles of the Raman spectra unveiled the existence of polar nanoregions (PNRs) above the Curie temperature in all ceramics. The ferroelectric properties were found to be related to the microstructure. Electrocaloric effect was investigated in this system that revealed an electrocaloric responsivity of 0.225 10-6 K m/V for the composition with x = 0.04 Sn doping, where other remarkable physical properties were also observed.

Ferroelectric glass-ceramics are promising composite materials with dual properties, of high dielectric permittivity and high dielectric breakdown strength. In this context, new phosphate glass-ceramics 2BaO-0.5Na2O 2.5[(1-x)Nb2O5 xWO3]-1P2O5 (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) designated as B0, B1, B2, B3, B4 respectively, were prepared by the controlled crystallization technology and then crystallized at high temperature of 760 {\deg}C for 10 hours. Subsequently, the obtained glass-ceramics were studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman, impedance spectroscopy, and the P-E hysteresis loops. All of these techniques allowed the identification of Ba2Na4W2Nb8O30 phase with tungsten bronze structure embedded in the glassy matrix. The density of glass-ceramics was found to increase with increasing tungsten content to reach a maximum at x =0.3 and then decreases. Dielectric and conductivity parameters were found to be governed by the presence of oxygen vacancies. Room temperature energy storage property which depends on the composition X, was performed using P-E hysteresis loops of the glass-ceramics. The optimum discharge density was obtained for B3 with an energy efficiency of 73.77%., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures

Electronic properties of triangular and hexagonal nano-scale quantum dots (QDs) of Silicene and bilayer graphene are studied. It is shown that the low-energy edge-localized electronic states, existing within the size-quantized gap are easily tunable by electric field. The appearance and field evolution of the electronic gap in these zero energy states (ZES) is shown to be very sensitive to QD geometry that permits to design the field-effect scalable QD devices with electronic properties on-demand.

We study the electronic and magnetic properties of multilayer quantum dots (MQDs) of graphite in the nearest-neighbor approximation of tight-binding model. We calculate the electronic density of states and orbital susceptibility of the system as function of the Fermi level location. We demonstrate that properties of MQD depend strongly on the shape of the system, on the parity of the layer number and on the form of the cluster edge. The special emphasis is given to reveal the new properties with respect to the monolayer quantum dots of graphene. The most interesting results are obtained for the triangular MQD with zig-zag edge at near-zero energies. The asymmetrically smeared multi-peak feature is observed at Dirac point within the size-quantized energy gap region, where monolayer graphene flakes demonstrate the highly-degenerate zero-energy state. This feature, provided by the edge-localized electronic states results in the splash-wavelet behavior in diamagnetic orbital susceptibility as function of energy.

The exchange bias at ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interfaces strongly depends upon the state of antiferromagnetic (AF) layer which, due to strong magnetoelastic coupling, is sensitive to mechanical stresses. In the present paper we consider magnetoelastic effects that arise at FM/AF interface due to lattice misfit and magnetic ordering. We show how magnetostriction affects mutual orientation of AF and FM vectors and easy-axis direction in thin AF layer. The results obtained could be used for tailoring exchange biased systems., Comment: Accepted for publication in Metallofizika i Noveishiye technologii

Basing on Ginzburg-Landau approach we generalize the Kittel theory and derive the interpolation formula for the temperature evolution of a multi-domain polarization profile P(x,z). We resolve the long-standing problem of the near-surface polarization behavior in ferroelectric domains and demonstrate the polarization vanishing instead of usually assumed fractal domain branching. We propose an effective scaling approach to compare the properties of different domain-containing ferroelectric plates and films., Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. to be published

We report on the observation of highly anisotropic viscous electronic conducting phase in amorphous WO$_{1.55}$ films that occurs below a current (I)- and frequency (f)- dependent temperature T*(I, f). At T < T*(I, f) the rotational symmetry of randomly disordered electronic background is broken leading to the appearance of mutually perpendicular metallic- and insulating-like states. A rich dynamic behavior of the electronic matter occurring at T < T*(I, f) provides evidence for an interplay between pinning effects and electron-electron interactions. The results strongly suggest a dynamic crystallization of the disordered electronic matter, viz. formation of sliding Wigner crystal, as well as the occurrence of quantum smectic or stripe phase in the pinning-dominated regime., Comment: 17 pages including 5 figures