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Magnetoelectric actuation is a burgeoning topic nowadays given the need for energy-efficient devices. Magnetoelectric actuation refers to the control of magnetic properties of materials using voltage. Several mechanisms contribute to the magnetoelectric response including surface charging, ionic migration (referred to as ‘magneto-ionics’), reduction/oxidation reactions, and ferroelectric/ferromagnetic coupling. In magneto-ionics, certain ions (e.g., oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, or lithium) migrate within a material when an external voltage is applied. Since electric fields, rather than electric currents, drive ionic motion, this process is more energy efficient. Potential applications of magneto-ionics include magnetic memory devices, neuromorphic computing, and adaptive magnetic materials. Electrodeposited films, micro- and nanostructures are promising candidates for oxygen magneto-ionic investigations, particularly those with high surface-to-volume (S/V) ratios. Ferromagnetic Ni, Co and their alloys can be electrodeposited from aqueous solutions. It has been demonstrated that mesoporous Ni-Cu films with ultranarrow pore walls enable the entire film (and not just the utmost surface) to contribute...

Modeling materials from first principles, i.e., without the need to fit or depend on experimental data, has taken on great importance in the last twenty years. Such methodology allows a deeper understanding of the physico-chemical phenomena dictating how materials behave. Density-functional theory (DFT) has been the tool of choice for computing the properties of materials at the nanoscale for decades. Indeed, ground-state properties such as phase diagrams, magnetism, or band gaps (determining whether a material is an insulator, semiconductor, or metal) and structures as well as more advanced properties such as charge carrier mobilities, ionic conductivity, or light emission/absorption spectra are all reachable within DFT and its extensions.   Because such computations are very demanding, both in terms of CPU power and human efforts, in the last 15 years additional tools have been developed to handle hundreds of thousands of such calculations and store them efficiently in databases. For example, the Materials...