title: A family of ductile intermetallic compounds.
abstract: Stoichiometric intermetallic compounds have always been touted for their attractive chemical, physical, electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties, but few practical uses have materialized because they are brittle at room temperature. Here we report on a large family of fully ordered, stoichiometric binary rare-earth intermetallic compounds with high ductility at room temperature. Although conventional wisdom calls for special conditions, such as non-stoichiometry, metastable disorder or doping to achieve some ductility in intermetallic compounds at room temperature, none of these is required in these unique B2 rare-earth compounds. Ab initio calculations of YAg, YCu and NiAl crystal defect energies support the observed deformation modes of these intermetallics.
authors.affiliation: Ames Laboratory of the US DOE, 255 Spedding Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-3020, USA.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gschneidner
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pecharsky
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Zhehua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lograsso
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: C H Chester
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Yiying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Slager
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kesse
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D003461:Crystallography / Q000379:methods*; D004419:Dysprosium / Q000737:chemistry; D004548:Elasticity; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods; D008674:Metals, Rare Earth / Q000737:chemistry*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009038:Motion; D018030:Silver Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D015019:Yttrium / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008674:Metals, Rare Earth; D018030:Silver Compounds; D004419:Dysprosium; D015019:Yttrium; D003300:Copper