摘要：The family of ABX half-Heusler materials, also called filled-tetrahedral structures, is a special class of ternary compounds hosting a variety of material functionalities including thermoelectricity, topological insulation, magnetism, transparent conductivity and superconductivity. This class of compounds can be derived from two substitution approaches, i.e.,from Heusler materials by removing a portion of atoms forming ordered vacancies thus becoming half-Heusler, or from tetrahedral zinc blende compounds by adding atoms on the interstitial sites thus become filled-tetrahedral structures. In this paper, we briefly review the substitution approaches for material design along with their application in the design of half-Heusler compounds; then we will review the high-throughput search of new half-Heusler filled-tetrahedral structures and the study of their physical properties and functionalities.

摘要：Inorganic semiconductors are the essential constituents of information society, having enabled most of the devices for microelectronics, optoelectronics, new energy technology, healthcare devices, artificial intelligence,etc. From the view of condensed matter physics and materials science, inorganic semiconductors are not ***, this special class of materials are keeping inspiring new inventions and consequently new technologies,which in turn promote the design of new semiconductors. The kinds of semiconductors in nature are finite. On one hand, the new techniques need semiconductors with better properties than existing ones, on the other hand, the new computers＇ software and hardware develop so rapid that it is possible to design new semiconductors according to people＇s desire before manufacturing them. In this paper, we review the rational design of inorganic semiconductors by transformation of their elemental constituents,while maintaining their structure motifs.