Ferromagnetic transition has generally been considered to involve only an ordering of magnetic moment with no change in the host crystal structure or symmetry, as evidenced by a wealth of crystal structure data from conventional X-ray diffractometry （XRD）. However, the existence of magnetostriction in all known ferromagnetic systems indicates that the magnetic moment is coupled to the crystal lattice; hence there is a possibility that magnetic ordering may cause a change in crystal structure. With the development of high-resolution synchrotron XRD, more and more magnetic transitions have been found to be accompanied by simultaneous structural changes. In this article, we review our recent progress in understand- ing the structural change at a ferromagnetic transition, including synchrotron XRD evidence of structural changes at the ferromagnetic transition, a phenomenological theory of crystal structure changes accompanying ferromagnetic transitions, new insight into magnetic morphotropic phase boundaries （MPB） and so on. Two intriguing implications of non-centric symmetry in the ferromagnetic phase and the first-order nature of ferromagnetic transition are also discussed here. In short, this review is intended to give a self-consistent and logical account of structural change occurring simultaneously with a ferromagnetic transition, which may provide new insight for developing highly magneto-responsive materials.
Silicon-based electrodes have attracted great attention in the artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic natural photosynthesis and directly convert the solar energy into chemical energy. Despite significant efforts to date,catalytic stability of the silicon photoelectrodes is limited by their poor electrochemical stability. The formation of passivation or protective layers provides a feasible strategy to improve the photocatalytic stability of silicon photoelectrodes. Many candidates including metals, metal oxides, metal silicides and polymers have been explored as the protection layers for silicon photoelectrodes. The present review gives a concise overview of the protected silicon photoanodes for water oxidation with a focus on the relationship between the structural architecture of silicon photoanodes and their photocatalytic activity and stability.
The crystal structure,magnetization,and spontaneous magnetostriction of ferromagnetic Laves phase Gd Fe2 compound have been investigated.High resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction（XRD） analysis shows that Gd Fe2 has a lower cubic symmetry with easy magnetization direction（EMD） along [100] below Curie temperature TC.The replacement of Gd with a small amount of Tb changes the EMD to [111].The Curie temperature decreases while the field dependence of the saturation magnetization（Ms） measured in temperature range 5–300 K varies with increasing Tb concentration.Coercivity Hc increases with increasing Tb concentration and decays exponentially as temperature increases.The anisotropy in Gd Fe2 is so weak that some of the rare-earth substitution plays an important role in determining the easy direction of magnetization in GdFe_2.The calculated magnetostrictive constant λ100 shows a small value of 37×10^（-6）.This value agrees well with experimental data 30×10^（-6）.Under a relatively small magnetic field,GdFe_2 exhibits a V-shaped positive magnetostriction curve.When the field is further increased,the crystal exhibits a negative magnetostriction curve.This phenomenon has been discussed in term of magnetic domain switching.Furthermore,magnetostriction increases with increasing Tb concentration.Our work leads to a simple and unified mesoscopic explanation for magnetostriction in ferromagnets.It may also provide insight for developing novel functional materials.
