Quantified Zero Thermal Expansion in Magnetic R2Fe17-Based Intermetallic Compounds (R = Rare Earth)

Zero thermal expansion (ZTE) hasbeen a fascinating task for thepast few decades due to its great scientific and practical merits.To realize ZTE, negative thermal expansion is typically employed bychemical substitutions on tuning structure features, which often relieson trial and error. Here, we report on exploring quantification ofthermal expansion with magnetic ordering in an intermetallic classof R2Fe17 (R = rare earth), which can accuratelydetermine the ZTE composition using a documented database. It demonstratesthat the magnetic ordering of the Fe-sublattice contributes to thethermal expansion anomaly through simultaneous examinations of magnetizationand neutron powder diffraction. Alternative elements can be manipulatedon a Fe-sublattice to control both the total ordered magnetic momentsof the Fe-sublattice and Curie temperature, which tailors the temperaturevariation of the magnetic contributions on thermal expansion. Thecurrent work might point to a future for ZTE high throughput searches,anticipated to benefit applications.