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Hypothesis: Sponge phase (L3) lipid nanoparticles (L3-NPs) have been shown to have large potential for the encapsulation of biomolecules, such as enzymes, with applications in food and pharmaceutical science. In this study, we introduce new formulations of L3-NPs including the phospholipids dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) and dioleoyltrimethylammonium propane (DOTAP). The interaction of these new L3-NPs with myoglobin is of interest for the development of iron supplements which can be incorporated during food processing. Experiments: We characterized the sample structure by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements with and without the addition of myoglobin. We also tested the myoglobin-lipid interaction in an experimental setup that mimicked the interface between the bilayer and water channels within the bicontinuous sponge structure. This included spreading the L3-NPs onto a hydrophilic surface to form supported lipid bilayers and characterizing their interaction with myoglobin by means of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring and polarized neutron reflectometry. Findings: SAXS data indicate that the new formulations containing DOPC and DOTAP formed a sponge phase in the bulk. The data from the surface techniques showed that deposited bilayers containing DOPC were largely unaffected by the addition of myoglobin, whereas those without DOPC were destabilized and partially removed.

We report on the discovery of a boundary-induced body-centered tetragonal iron phase in thin films deposited on MgAl2⁢O4 (001) substrates. We present evidence for this phase using detailed x-ray analysis and ab initio density functional theory calculations. A lower magnetic moment and a rotation of the easy magnetization direction are observed, as compared with body-centered cubic iron. Our findings expand the range of known crystal and magnetic phases of iron, providing valuable insights for the development of heterostructure devices using ultrathin iron layers.

We describe the effect of the Fe layer thickness on the antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling in [Fe/MgO]_𝑁 superlattices. An increase in coupling strength with increasing Fe layer thickness is observed, which highlights the need for including the extension of both layers when discussing the interlayer exchange coupling in superlattices.

Applying nitriding in laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing at custom build positions requires knowledge of the spatially and temporally resolved nitriding behaviour. Here we take steps toward this goal by sequential analysis of spatially resolved structural, chemical, and mechanical information throughout the melt pool, which is not available in previous studies. Single laser nitriding tracks are produced in a laser powder bed fusion system. By re-nitriding the initially nitrided track two more times, the effect of multiple sequential nitriding steps on the spatially resolved evolution of composition, structure, morphology and mechanical properties is captured. Characterisation is carried out by X-ray diffraction on the top of the laser tracks as well as laser optical microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and nanoindentation on the melt pool cross sections. Nitrogen incorporation and TiN formation is observed at > 200 μm melt pool depth and it is evident that multiple sequential laser passes increase the TiN fraction. The nitrogen incorporation results in a gradient of the mechanical properties with enhanced hardness and elastic modulus depending on the local nitride fraction. A maximum local hardness of ∼ 20 GPa is observed and a melt pool hardness of 7.3 ± 1.7, 9.3 ± 3.5, and 10.3 ± 5.2 GPa is attained for one, two and three melts. Compared to the Ti substrate with a hardness of ∼ 2.5 GPa, substantial local modifications are obtained.

Additive manufacturing makes the production of bulk metallic glasses possible in thicknesses exceeding the critical casting thickness. However, a crucial challenge is the build-up of thermally induced stress, often resulting in printed parts suffering from cracking. In this study, the process parameters are optimised for printing soft-magnetic metallic glass samples of an Fe-based alloy (Fe_73.8P_10.6Mo_4.2B_2.3Si_2.3C_6.7), using laser beam powder bed fusion. In addition, the structural and magnetic properties of as-received and heat-treated powder are investigated and compared to those of the printed samples. Kerr microscopy is used for imaging the magnetic domains on single track cross-sections produced on top of a polished printed sample. This reveals the shape of the melt pool of a single laser track, as well as the magnetic domains around it and in other regions of the printed sample. The shape and size of the magnetic domains reflect the residual stress in the sample through the effect of magneto-elastic coupling. This magnetic contrast could be used to get further insights into how to control the development of stress during the printing process.

Metallic disks engineered on the 100 nm scale have an internal magnetic texture which varies from a fully magnetized state to a vortex state with zero moment. The interplay between this internal structure and the interdisk interactions is studied in magnetic metamaterials made of square arrays of the magnetic disks. The texture is modeled by a mesospin of varying length with O(2) symmetry and the interdisk interaction by a nearest-neighbor coupling between mesospins. The thermodynamic properties of the model are studied numerically and an ordering transition is found which varies from Kosterlitz-Thouless to first order via an apparent tricritical point. The effective critical exponent characterizing the finite-size magnetization evolves from the value for the 2D XY model to less than half this value at the tricritical point. The consequences for future experiments both in and out of equilibrium are discussed.

omposition analysis at the nm-scale, marking the onset of clustering in bulk metallic glasses, can aid the understanding and further optimization of additive manufacturing processes. By atom probe tomography, it is challenging to differentiate nm-scale segregations from random fluctuations. This ambiguity is due to the limited spatial resolution and detection efficiency. Cu and Zr were selected as model systems since the spatial distributions of the isotopes therein constitute ideal solid solutions, as the mixing enthalpy is, by definition, zero. Close agreement is observed between the simulated and measured spatial distributions of the isotopes. Having established the signature of a random distribution of atoms, the elemental distribution in amorphous Zr59.3Cu28.8Al10.4Nb1.5 samples fabricated by laser powder bed fusion is analyzed. By comparison with the length scales of spatial isotope distributions, the probed volume of the bulk metallic glass shows a random distribution of all constitutional elements, and no evidence for clustering is observed. However, heat-treated metallic glass samples clearly exhibit elemental segregation which increases in size with annealing time. Segregations in Zr59.3Cu28.8Al10.4Nb1.5 > 1 nm can be observed and separated from random fluctuations, while accurate determination of segregations < 1 nm in size are limited by spatial resolution and detection efficiency.

ZrN formation in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass is observed after processing using reactive laser powder bed fusion. Two processing routes employing nitrogen as a reactive process gas are explored: (1) Standard inert processing in argon followed by reactive remelting in nitrogen and (2) reactive processing in nitrogen. Incorporation of nitrogen is depth-dependent and both approaches result in a dispersion of ZrN nanocrystals in the amorphous matrix close to the surface. The process parameters can be adjusted to control the volume fraction of crystalline phases formed. Hence, it is shown that reactive additive manufacturing can be utilised to form bulk metallic glass-ceramic composites in surface near regions. Thereby we demonstrate that the reactive gas atmosphere utilised during additive manufacturing enables local tailoring of structure, composition, and mechanical properties in the vicinity of the surface.

The need to acquire multiple angle-resolved electron energy loss spectra (EELS) is one of the several critical challenges associated with electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) experiments. If the experiments are performed by scanning a nanometer to atomic-sized electron probe on a specific region of a sample, the precision of the local magnetic information extracted from such data highly depends on the accuracy of the spatial registration between multiple scans. For an EMCD experiment in a 3-beam orientation, this means that the same specimen area must be scanned four times while keeping all the experimental conditions same. This is a non-trivial task as there is a high chance of morphological and chemical modification as well as non-systematic local orientation variations of the crystal between the different scans due to beam damage, contamination and spatial drift. In this work, we employ a custom-made quadruple aperture to acquire the four EELS spectra needed for the EMCD analysis in a single electron beam scan, thus removing the above-mentioned complexities. We demonstrate a quantitative EMCD result for a beam convergence angle corresponding to sub-nm probe size and compare the EMCD results for different detector geometries.

We provide experimental and numerical evidence for thermal excitations within and among magnetic mesospins, forming artificial spin ice structures. At low temperatures, a decrease in magnetization and increase in susceptibility is observed with increasing temperature, interpreted as an onset of thermal fluctuations of the magnetic texture within the mesospins. At elevated temperatures a pronounced susceptibility peak is observed, related to thermally induced flipping of the mesospins and a collapse of the remanent state. The fluctuations, while occurring at distinct length and energyscales, are shown to be tunable by the interaction strength of the mesospins.