Overview
The contributions of the microscopic degrees of freedom to the free energy landscape are disentangled by electronic structure theory. The intrinsic origin of energy barriers responsible to dissipative losses and the extrinsic contributions accessible on atomistic length scales will be identified. Particular emphasis is put on the role of partial disorder. It will be explored how dynamic (electromagnetic or mechanic) stimuli can help to control the transformation within the hysteresis loop. Key materials are multicomponent Ni-Mn-(In,Sn,Ti) Heusler systems and La(Fe,Si)13Hy as synthesized in projects A04, B01, B04. Predictions will be compared with experimental results obtained in projects A03, B01, B05, A12, by diffraction (projects B01, B04) and spectroscopy (project B05).
