APL Materials (Apr 2015)

Building blocks for correlated superconductors and magnets

  • J. L. Sarrao,
  • F. Ronning,
  • E. D. Bauer,
  • C. D. Batista,
  • J.-X. Zhu,
  • J. D. Thompson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4913732
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 4
pp. 041512 – 041512-8

Abstract

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Recent efforts at Los Alamos to discover strongly correlated superconductors and hard ferromagnets are reviewed. While serendipity remains a principal engine of materials discovery, design principles and structural building blocks are beginning to emerge that hold potential for predictive discovery. Successes over the last decade with the so-called “115” strongly correlated superconductors are summarized, and more recent efforts to translate these insights and principles to novel hard magnets are discussed. While true “materials by design” remains a distant aspiration, progress is being made in coupling empirical design principles to electronic structure simulation to accelerate and guide materials design and synthesis.