Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are one of the most promising energy storage technologies that would overcome the limitations of current Li‐ion batteries, based on their low density (0.534 g cm−3), low reduction potential (−3.04 V vs Standard Hydrogen Electrode) as well as their high theoretical capacities (3860 mAh g−1 and 2061 mAh cm−3). The overall cell mass and volume would be reduced while both gravimetric and volumetric energy densities would be greatly improved. Their electrochemical performance, however, is hampered by the low efficiency at high current densities and continuous degradation, which are related, among other factors, to the properties of the lithium metal anode (LMA). Hence, the production and processing of LMAs is crucial to obtain the desired properties that would enable LMBs. Here, the conventional method used for the production of LMAs, which is the combination of extraction, electrowinning, extrusion, and rolling processes, is reviewed. Then, the advances in the different alternative methods that can be used to produce and improve the properties of LMAs are described, which are divided into vapor phase, liquid phase, and electrodeposition. Within this last method, the anode‐less concept, for which different approaches to the development of advanced current collectors are illustrated, is included.

Epitaxial CoRu-alloy films with (1010) surface orientation and varying stoichiometry have been grown at room temperature. In order to achieve good epitaxy independent from the alloy composition, we have devised an underlayer sequence, which utilized a CrRu-alloy film as template layer with individually optimized composition. All alloys in the composition range of 0–30 at. % Ru content exhibit hcp structure and thus uniaxial magneto-crystalline anisotropy. We observe an almost linear decrease of the saturation magnetization and Curie temperature with increasing Ru content. However, the magneto-crystalline anisotropy shows a non-monotonous behavior with a maximum near 15% Ru.

The magnetoelectric antiferromagnet α-Cr 2 O 3 (Chromia) is known to possess a roughness insensitive net equilibrium magnetization at the (0001) surface, called boundary magnetization (BM), which is coupled to the bulk antiferromagnetic order parameter. In order to verify whether this symmetry sensitive BM persists in alloys, we investigate the impact of diamagnetic dilution on Chromia thin films alloyed with the isostructural α-Al 2 O 3 (Alumina). Single crystalline Cr (2-x) Al (x) O 3 thin films with (0001) surface orientation and varying stoichiometry have been grown by sputter co-deposition in the concentration range between x = 0 and x = 0.6 . For these samples, we find the corundum crystal structure, the antiferromagnetic ordering and the boundary magnetization to be preserved. We also find that the critical temperature T N can be tuned by alloying with α-Al 2 O 3, using the BM as a probe to study the magnetic phase transition. Furthermore, we were able to evaluate the critical exponent and the absolute BM values for different samples. Both properties corroborate that the observed magnetic signals originate from the BM rather than the bulk of the samples.2

We present a study of the magnetic properties of [Co(3.0 nm)/Pt(0.6 nm)]N multilayers as a function of Co/Pt bilayer repetitions N. Magnetometry investigation reveals that samples with N ≥ 15 exhibit two characteristic magnetization reversal mechanisms, giving rise to two different

We present a study of the compositional and temperature dependent magnetic properties of epitaxial CoCr thin films whose composition has a bathtub-like depth profile Co/Co 1→1x c Cr 0→x c /Co 1-x c Cr x c /Co 1-x c →1 Cr x c →0 /Co with the highest Cr concentration ( x c ) at the center of the sample. Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) shows that the effective Curie temperature varies as a function of depth and exhibits a minimum in the center of the structure. Correspondingly, we observe that the effective coupling between the two outer Co layers is strongly dependent on the magnetization of the graded CoCr spacer and can be continuously tuned via x c and temperature T. In particular, for x c = 0.28, magnetometry reveals a transition from one-step to two-steps reversal behavior for temperatures T > 260 K, indicating a transition from a fully correlated magnetic film structure to an uncoupled system containing effectively two independent magnetic sublayers. Corroborating evidence of the temperature dependent coupling of the top and bottom regions for x c = 0.28 was revealed by PNR, which demonstrated the field dependent occurrence of antiparallel magnetization alignment on opposite interfaces at sufficiently high temperatures only.