Many transition-metal oxides show very large ("colossal") magnitudes of the dielectric constant and thus have immense potential for applications in modern microelectronics and for the development of new capacitance-based energystorage devices. In the present work, we thoroughly discuss the mechanisms that can lead to colossal values of the dielectric constant, especially emphasising effects generated by external and internal interfaces, including electronic phase separation. In addition, we provide a detailed overview and discussion of the dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 and related systems, which is today's most investigated material with colossal dielectric constant. Also a variety of further transition-metal oxides with large dielectric constants are treated in detail, among them the system La2−xSrxNiO4 where electronic phase separation may play a role in the generation of a colossal dielectric constant. a

The phase‐down scenario of conventional refrigerants used in gas–vapor compressors and the demand for environmentally friendly and efficient cooling make the search for alternative technologies more important than ever. Magnetic refrigeration utilizing the magnetocaloric effect of magnetic materials could be that alternative. However, there are still several challenges to be overcome before having devices that are competitive with those based on the conventional gas–vapor technology. In this paper a rigorous assessment of the most relevant examples of 14 different magnetocaloric material families is presented and those are compared in terms of their adiabatic temperature and isothermal entropy change under cycling in magnetic‐field changes of 1 and 2 T, criticality aspects, and the amount of heat that they can transfer per cycle. The work is based on magnetic, direct thermometric, and calorimetric measurements made under similar conditions and in the same devices. Such a wide‐ranging study has not been carried out before. This data sets the basis for more advanced modeling and machine learning approaches in the near future.

We present a comprehensive study on three selected Heusler alloy systems. Ni-Mn-X(-Co) systems with X ¼ Al, In, Sn are compared with respect to the relevant magnetocaloric properties of their magnetostructural phase transition, namely martensitic transition temperature as well as its field dependence, magnetization change, and width of the thermal hysteresis. The latter one is strongly determining the reversibility of the magnetocaloric effect. Therefore the understanding of how to tailor it by extrinsic and intrinsic factors is of great importance. Our study of the magnetocaloric properties leads to the conclusion that the width of thermal hysteresis can be correlated to the magnetization change of the phase transition. Consequently, the adiabatic temperature change under cycling can largely vary despite similar values of isothermal entropy change for Ni-Mn-In-Co and Ni-Mn-Sn-Co. This result therefore shows the importance of tailoring sharpness, thermal hysteresis, and field dependence of the phase transition to achieve high values for the isothermal entropy change as well as a large magnetocaloric cooling effect in the different Heusler alloys.

Polycrystalline samples of La 2−x R x RuO 5 (R = Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy) have been prepared, applying a soft-chemistry route based on the thermal decomposition of citric acid precursors. By powder x-ray and neutron diffraction the crystal structures have been investigated in detail. For the unsubstituted parent compound La 2 RuO 5 , synchrotron x-ray diffraction patterns reveal a broad structural phase transition regime around 170 K without any significant hysteresis. This structural transition is linked with a drastic reduction of the magnetic susceptibility. A similar behavior was also observed for the lanthanide-substituted compounds La 2−x R x RuO 5. Magnetic measurements reveal the coexistence of two weakly interacting magnetic sublattices. The effect of rare-earth substitution on the magnetic phase transition is resulting from structural modifications caused by the smaller radius of the R 3+ ions. These ions are predominantly located within the LaO-layers, which are alternating with LaRuO 4 layers. The transition temperatures determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are compared to data derived from the susceptibility measurements.

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