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Sun et al. Microstructures 2023;3:2023028 Microstructures
DOI: 10.20517/microstructures.2023.03

Research Article Open Access

Structure, magnetism and low thermal expansion in

Tb Er Co Mn intermetallic compounds
1-x
y
x
2
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
Yanming Sun , Yili Cao , Yang Ren , Saul H. Lapidus , Qiang Li , Jinxia Deng , Jun Miao , Kun Lin , Xianran
Xing 1
1
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Institute of Solid State Chemistry, Department of
Physical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
2
Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
3
X-Ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Correspondence to: Prof. Xianran Xing, Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing,
Xueyuan Rd. 30, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China. E-mail: xing@ustb.edu.cn
How to cite this article: Sun Y, Cao Y, Ren Y, Lapidus SH, Li Q, Deng J, Miao J, Lin K, Xing X. Structure, magnetism and low
thermal expansion in Tb Er x Co Mn y intermetallic compounds. Microstructures 2023;3:2023028.
2
1-x
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/microstructures.2023.03
Received: 16 Jan 2023 First Decision 17 Feb 2023 Revised: 18 Apr 2023 Accepted: 6 Jun 2023 Published: 16 Jun 2023
Academic Editors: Andrea Sanson, Danmin Liu Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan
Abstract
Here, we obtained a series of controllable thermal expansion alloys Tb Er x Co Mn y (x = 0-0.5, y = 0-0.4) by
1-x
2
incorporating double rare earth doping and introducing non-stoichiometric Mn content. By varying the amount of
-1
-6
Er or Mn, a low thermal expansion (LTE) is achieved in Tb Er Co Mn (TECM, α = 1.23 × 10 K , 125~236 K). The
0.6 0.4 2 0.1 1
macroscopic linear expansion and magnetic properties reveal that anomalous thermal expansion is closely related
to the magnetic phase transition. Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction results show that TECM is a cubic phase
(space group: Fd-3m) at high temperatures, and a structural transition to a rhombohedral phase
(space group: R-3m) occurs as temperature decreases. The negative thermal expansion c-axis compensates for the
normal positive thermal expansion of the basal plane, resulting in the volumetric LTE. This study provides a new
metallic and magnetic ZTE material.
Keywords: Zero thermal expansion, crystal structure, microstructure, magnetism

INTRODUCTION
By flexibly compensating for thermal expansion, negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials have gained

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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