A remarkable fourfold increase in hardness of titanium is achieved by the addition of gold, yielding a novel biocompatible material.

Single crystals of Ln(2)Fe(4)Sb(5) (Ln = La-Nd and Sm) were grown from an inert Bi flux. Measurements of the single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that these compounds crystallize in the tetragonal space group I4/mmm with lattice parameters of a ≈ 4 Å, c ≈ 26 Å, V ≈ 500 Å(3), and Z = 2. This crystal structure consists of alternating LnSb(8) square antiprisms and Fe-sublattices composed of nearly equilateral triangles of bonded Fe atoms. These compounds are metallic and display spin glass behavior, which originates from the magnetic interactions within the Fe-sublattice. Specific heat measurements are void of any sharp features that can be interpreted as contributions from phase transitions as is typical for spin glass systems. A large, approximately linear in temperature, contribution to the specific heat of La(2)Fe(4)Sb(5) is observed at low temperatures that we interpret as having a magnetic origin. Herein, we report the synthesis, structure, and physical properties of Ln(2)Fe(4)Sb(5) (Ln = La-Nd and Sm).

The structural and transport properties of polycrystalline Ti1-xPtxSe2-y (x ≤ 0.13, y ≤ 0.2) are studied, revealing highly tunable electrical properties, spanning nearly 10 orders in magnitude in scaled resistivity. Using x-ray and neutron diffraction, Pt is found to dope on the Ti site. In the absence of Pt doping (for x = 0), Se deficiency (y > 0) increases the metallic character of TiSe2, while a remarkable increase of the low temperature resistivity is favored by no Se deficiency (y = 0) and increasing amounts of doped Pt (x > 0). The chemical tuning of the resistivity in Ti1-xPtxSe2-y with Se deficiency and Pt doping results in a metal-to-insulator transition. The simultaneous Pt doping and Se deficiency (x,y > 0) confirms the competition between the two opposing trends in electrical transport, with the main outcome being the suppression of the charge density wave (CDW) transition below 2 K for y = 2x = 0.18. Band structure calculations on a subset of Ti1-xPtxSe2-y compositions are in line with the experimental observations.

Single crystals of Lu3T4Ge13‐x (T: Co, Rh, Os) and Y3T4Ge13‐x (T: Ir, Rh, Os) are grown by a self‐flux method from mixtures of the elements in ratios of Lu(Y):T:Ge of 2:3:25 or 1:1:20 (1000‐1200 °C; slow cooling to 820‐960 °C) followed by decanting the surplus Ge flux.

We have synthesized R 5 Pb 3 (R = Gd-Tm) compounds in polycrystalline form and performed structural analysis, magnetization, and neutron scattering measurements. For all R 5 Pb 3 reported here the Weiss temperatures θ W are several times smaller than the ordering temperatures T ORD , while the latter are remarkably high (T ORD up to 275 K for R = Gd) compared to other known R-M binaries (M = Si, Ge, Sn and Sb). The magnetic order changes from ferromagnetic in R = Gd, Tb to antiferromagnetic in R = Dy-Tm. Below T ORD , the magnetization measurements together with neutron powder diffraction show complex magnetic behavior and reveal the existence of up to three additional phase transitions.We believe this to be a result of crystal electric field effects responsible for high magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The R 5 Pb 3 magnetic unit cells for R = Tb-Tm can be described with incommensurate magnetic wave vectors with spin modulation either along the c axis in R = Tb, Er and Tm or within the ab-plane in R = Dy and Ho.Keywords: rare earth led binary systems, incommensurate magnetic structure, crystal field effects. I. INTRODUCTIONThe discovery of intermetallic compounds with the chemical formula R 5 M 3 (R = rare earth, M = Si, Ge, Sn, Sb and Bi) attracted attention in condensed matter physics because of their rich structural and physical properties. R 5 Si 3 compounds (R = La-Nd) crystallize in the Cr 5 B 3 -type tetragonal structure 1, 2 with space group (SG) I 4 /mcm, while the R = Gd-Lu, Y, members of this series crystallize in the Mn 5 Si 3 -type hexagonal structure with SG P6 3 /mcm. 3, 4 All R 5 Bi 3 compounds crystallize in the orthorhombic Y 5 Bi 3 -type structure with SG Pnma. 2, 5, 6 R 5 M 3 (where R = La-Nd, Gd-Lu and M = Ge, Sn, Sb, Pb) adopt a hexagonal P6 3 /mcm structure, in which the R atoms (R 1 , R 2 ) occupy two inequivalent crystallographic sites, with 2(3) R 1 (R 2 )/f.u. in the 4d(6g) positions. Thus one