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Alpha-Synuclein (AS) is the protein playing the major role in Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurological disorder characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and the accumulation of AS into amyloid plaques. The aggregation of AS into intermediate aggregates, called oligomers, and their pathological relation with biological membranes are considered key steps in the development and progression of the disease. Here we propose a multi-technique approach to study the effects of AS in its monomeric and oligomeric forms on artificial lipid membranes containing GM1 ganglioside. GM1 is a component of functional membrane micro-domains, called lipid rafts, and has been demonstrated to bind AS in neurons. With the aim to understand the relation between gangliosides and AS, here we exploit the complementarity of microscopy (Atomic Force Microscopy) and neutron scattering (Small Angle Neutron Scattering and Neutron Reflectometry) techniques to analyze the structural changes of two different membranes (Phosphatidylcholine and Phosphatidylcholine/GM1) upon binding with AS. We observe the monomer-and oligomer-interactions are both limited to the external membrane leaflet and that the presence of ganglioside leads to a stronger interaction of the membranes and AS in its monomeric and oligomeric forms with a stronger aggressiveness in the latter. These results support the hypothesis of the critical role of lipid rafts not only in the biofunctioning of the protein, but even in the development and the progression of the Parkinson's disease. and SANS-YS instruments of the Budapest Neutron Center. High purity functionalization of the Si block surface by the staff of the BioMEMS group of Inst. Tech. Physics and Mater.

The multilayer of approximate structure MgO(100)/[ n fe 51 Rh 49 (63 Å)/ 57 fe 51 Rh 49 (46 Å)] 10 deposited at 200 °C is primarily of paramagnetic A1 phase and is fully converted to the magnetic B2 phase by annealing at 300 °C for 60 min. Subsequent irradiation by 120 keV Ne + ions turns the thin film completely to the paramagnetic A1 phase. Repeated annealing at 300 °C for 60 min results in 100% magnetic B2 phase, i.e. a process that appears to be reversible at least twice. The A1 → B2 transformation takes place without any plane-perpendicular diffusion while Ne + irradiation results in significant interlayer mixing. Besides the traditional "faster-smaller-cheaper" directive, a new requirement has recently arisen for the newly developed devices: the energy efficiency. The electricity consumption of information technology is expected to reach 13% of the global utilization in the next decade 1,2 , of which nearly 50% is due to unwanted heat dissipation. Therefore, the study of novel materials and developing new operation principles for energy-saving applications in information technology are essential for supporting sustainable development. From this point of view, the fine control of magnetism is a great step towards reducing energy consumption of information storage by orders of magnitude 3-11. The Fe-Rh system is an excellent playground for developing energy-efficient magnetic devices 12,13. The equilibrium phase diagram of solid Fe-Rh 14,15 includes a great variety of phases of different magnetic behaviour. The disordered bcc A2 (α or δ, prototype W) phases are, depending on temperature, ferro-or paramagnetic (PM). The ordered bcc B2 (α' or α'' , prototype CsCl) phases show ferro-, antiferro-or paramagnetism at different temperatures and concentrations. The disordered fcc A1 (γ, prototype Cu) phase is PM at all investigated temperatures. The existence of a monoclinic antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state was predicted by DFT calculations in the equiatomic FeRh alloy in 2016 16. However, this phase could not be identified in thin films by Wolloch and co-workers 17. Using nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS), these latter authors analysed the lattice dynamical contribution to the phase stability in FeRh and demonstrated that the AFM ground state was stabilized by phonon softening. With increasing temperature, the nearly equiatomic FeRh alloy of B2 structure undergoes a metamagnetic transition from the low-temperature AFM α'' to the high-temperature ferromagnetic (FM) α' phase close to room temperature (RT) 18-27. In the AFM phase, Fe atoms carry a magnetic moment of 3.3 μ B of alternating direction while the Rh atoms possess inconsiderable magnetic moment 22. Conversely, in the FM phase, Fe and Rh atoms carry parallel moments of 3.2 μ B and 0.9 μ B , respectively 28-30. This magnetic transition is accompanied with a reduction of the resistivity and an ~ 0.6% isotropic strain of the crystal lattice 21,31. By introducing strain in the FeRh crystal lattice, this phenomenon can be reversed and the mag...

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Owing to their strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, FePd, CoPd, and their Co(Fe)Pt counterparts are candidate materials for ultrahigh density magnetic recording. The stability and magnetic properties of such films are largely dependent on the orientation and local distribution of the L10 FePd phase fraction. Therefore, the formation and transformation of the L10 phase in such thin films have been the subject of continued interest. Highly ordered epitaxial FePd(001) thin films (with an L10 phase fraction of 0.81) were prepared by molecular-beam epitaxy on a MgO(001) substrate. The effect of postgrown room temperature, 130 keV He+ irradiation was investigated at fluences up to 14.9×1015 ions/cm2. X-ray diffraction and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy revealed that with increasing fluence, the L10 FePd phase decomposes into the face centered cubic phase with random Fe and Pd occupation of the sites. A partially ordered local environment exhibiting a large hyperfine magnetic field also develops. Upon He+ irradiation, the lattice parameter c of the FePd L10 structure increases and the long range order parameter S steeply decreases. The Fe–Fe nearest-neighbor coordination in the Fe-containing environments increases on average from Fe47Pd53 to Fe54Pd46, indicating a tendency of formation iron-rich clusters. The equilibrium parameters corresponding to the equiatomic L10 phase were found at different fluences by conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy and by x-ray diffraction a difference, from which a plane-perpendicular compressive stress and a corresponding in-plane tensile stress are conjectured. The steep increase in the interface roughness above 7.4×1015 ions/cm2 is interpreted as a percolation-type behavior related to the high diffusion anisotropy in the L10 phase.