Nanoclustering Cr, Ni, and Mn separately at GBs reduces GB cohesion in single-phase CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloys.

The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic deconvolution analysis is applied to quantitatively distinguish valence states of Ni and to obtain the δ value in LaNiO3−δ films on Si substrates. The mechanism of the Ni3+/Ni2+ ratio dependent transport is clarified by the combination of transport measurements and first-principle calculations. At lower Ni3+/Ni2+ ratio of 0.39, the LaNiO2.64 film exhibits semi-conductive behavior with carriers mainly being hopping polarons, while higher Ni3+/Ni2+ ratio transfers the LaNiO2.84 film to an electronic conductor. The observed reduction of the electron-phonon interaction, shortened mean free path, and increased electron-electron coupling are suggested to be correlated to high Ni3+/Ni2+ ratio.

Effect of Zr and B on magnetocaloric effect for Fe90−xZr10Bx (x:3∼9) and Fe93−xZr7Bx (x:0∼13) amorphous alloys is presented. A clear dependence of peak magnetic entropy change (|ΔSmpk|) on (Zr+B) total contents rather than respective contents is observed and found to be correlated with average magnetic moment per Fe atom. Temperature of |ΔSmpk| corresponding to Curie temperature (Tc) is dependent on B contents, which is discussed in terms of exchange coupling. These findings exhibit in general the importance of Zr and B in seeking for an optimal |ΔSmpk| and meanwhile tunable Tc in Fe-based amorphous alloys.

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films were deposited on amorphous glass substrates at room temperature by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. It is revealed that the influence of deposition parameters, such as target-substrate distance and deposition time, on the structure and properties of the films arises primarily from the variations in film thickness. For the GZO films with smaller thicknesses $\left(\le 385\text{nm}\right)$ , crystallinity is greatly improved with an increase in thickness, which leads to an increase in Hall mobility and a decrease in electrical resistivity. The carrier concentration is, however, found to exhibit only a slight change with the thickness variations. The relationship of electrical property and microstructure suggests that the resistivity of the films arises mainly from ionic impurity scattering rather than from grain boundary scattering. All the films exhibit a transmittance of over 90% in the visible wavelength range. The band gap of the GZO films is widened with increasing film thickness. In combination with the result that the carrier concentration exhibited a slight dependence on thicknesses, the broadening of the band gap with thicknesses is attributed more to the improved crystallinity than to the Moss–Burstein shift.