Development of high-energy lithium-based batteries with good safety remains a challenge due to the nonuniform lithium electrodeposition during repeated charge and discharge cycles. We report on the effectiveness of lithium bromide (LiBr) salt in common liquid electrolyte (i.e. propylene carbonate (PC)) on the stability of lithium electrodeposition. From galvanostatic cycling measurements, we find that the

The magnetic domains of embedded micromagnets with 2 m  2 m dimensions defined in epitaxial La 0:7 Sr 0:3 MnO 3 (LSMO) thin films and LaFeO 3 =LSMO bilayers were investigated using soft x-ray magnetic microscopy. Square micromagnets aligned with their edges parallel to the easy axes of LSMO provide an ideal experimental geometry for probing the influence of interface exchange coupling on the magnetic domain patterns. The observation of unique domain patterns not reported for ferromagnetic metal microstructures, namely divergent antiferromagnetic vortex domains and ''Z''-type domains, suggests the simultaneous presence of spin-flop coupling and local exchange bias in this system.

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The driving forces for the (111) to (100) texture transformation often observed during annealing of thin face-centered cubic metal films were investigated. Thin passivated silver films were produced with and without Ti adhesion layers. Stresses were measured in situ during heating to induce the texture transformation, and the texture was characterized using x-ray diffraction. Sufficiently thin films did not transform and sufficiently thick films transformed fully. Intermediate thickness films transformed to an extent dependent on thickness, leading to stable mixed textures. In the prevailing thermodynamic model, texture transformation is attributed to minimization of strain and interface energies. However, calculations using the measured stresses, known elastic constants, and estimated interface energies in this model reveal that the stresses are not sufficient to cause the texture transformation and, furthermore, that variations in interface energy cannot lead to the observed behavior. The results suggest that neither the interface energy nor the stress plays decisive roles in the texture transformation.

We report on electrochemical properties of Li/Li 1.2 Ni 0.15 Co 0.1 Mn 0.55 O 2 secondary batteries in electrolytes designed to stabilize electrodeposition of lithium. Ethylene carbonate (EC): dimethyl carbonate (DMC) containing a LiPF 6 /LiF salt blend stabilizes lithium electrodeposition and enables Li/Li 1.2 Ni 0.15 Co 0.1 Mn 0.55 O 2 batteries with a high discharge capacity of 270mAh g-1 at 0.05mA cm-2. Cells containing the LiF-reinforced electrolytes also exhibit excellent capacity retention over 500 cycles with Columbic efficiencies approaching 100%. Post-mortem SEM analysis of the lithium anode shows more compact deposition in the presence of the LiF salt additive, while XPS depth profile analysis of cathodes show a more uniform distribution of Mn over the first 180 nm from the electrode/electrolyte interface. The results imply that LiF reinforced electrolytes simultaneously facilitate stable lithium electrodeposition and reduce Mn dissolution.