Heusler and half-Heusler compounds are ternary intermetallics with over a thousand compositions that span most of the periodic table. These materials host highly tunable electronic, magnetic, topological, ferroelastic, and thermoelectric properties, due to the strong d character of bands near the Fermi energy as well as the variety of local and hybridized moments available in the 4f-shell. The high degree of tunability in properties and compositions, and strong coupling to structural distortions, make Heusler compounds an exciting platform for materials design, both in bulk materials and at interfaces in epitaxial layered heterostructures. The June 2022 theme issue of MRS Bulletin highlights the fundamental properties, synthesis, structure, and new methods for computational discovery of this class of materials. The talks in this webinar covering topology, skyrmion structures, antiferromagnetism and ferromagnetic shape memory alloys using Heusler compounds complement the articles in the MRS Bulletin issue.

Talk Presentations:

Skyrmions, topology and Heusler compounds
Claudia Felser, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids & Stuart S. Parkin, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
(Talk begins at 9:30)
Coupling between ferromagnetic and ferroelastic transitions and ordering in Heusler alloys produces new multifunctionality
Oleg Heczko, Charles University
(Talk begins at 34:00)
RPtBi: magnetism and topology
Eundeok Mun, Simon Fraser University
(Talk begins at 57:50)