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The synthesis of thin films of magnetic topological materials is necessary to achieve novel quantized Hall effects and electrodynamic responses. EuIn2As2 is a recently predicted topological axion insulator that has an antiferromagnetic ground state and an inverted band structure but that has only been synthesized and studied as a single crystal. We report on the synthesis of c-axis oriented EuIn2As2 films by molecular beam epitaxy on sapphire substrates. By careful tuning of the substrate temperature during growth, we stabilize the Zintl phase of EuIn2As2 expected to be topologically non-trivial. The magnetic properties of these films reproduce those seen in single crystals but their resistivity is enhanced when grown at lower temperatures. We additionally find that the magnetoresistance of EuIn2As2 is negative even up to fields as high as 31T but while it is highly anisotropic at low fields, it becomes nearly isotropic at high magnetic fields above 5T. Overall, the transport characteristics of EuIn2As2 appear similar to those of chalcogenide topological insulators, motivating the development of devices to gate tune the Fermi energy to reveal topological features in quantum transport.

Spatial confinement of electronic topological surface states (TSS) in topological insulators poses a formidable challenge because TSS are protected by time-reversal symmetry. In previous works formation of a gap in the electronic spectrum of TSS has been successfully demonstrated in topological insulator/magnetic material heterostructures, where ferromagnetic exchange interactions locally lifts the time-reversal symmetry. Here we report an experimental evidence of exchange interaction between a topological insulator Bi2Se3 and a magnetic insulator EuSe. Spin-polarized neutron reflectometry reveals a reduction of the in-plane magnetic susceptibility within a 2 nm interfacial layer of EuSe, and the combination of SQUID magnetometry and Hall measurements points to the formation of an antiferromagnetic layer with at least five-fold enhancement of N\'eel's temperature. Abrupt resistance changes in high magnetic fields indicate interfacial exchange coupling that affects transport in a TSS. High temperature local control of TSS with zero net magnetization unlocks new opportunities for the design of electronic, spintronic and quantum computation devices, ranging from quantization of Hall conductance in zero fields to spatial localization of non-Abelian excitations in superconducting topological qubits.

This study attempts to replicate a finding reported by Stoll & Dye (2019) that the bias towards accumulating perceptual evidence from the inferior hemifield (relative to the superior visual field) is greater in people who use a sign language than in those who are sign-naive. The replication deviates from the original in that it is conducted online and will recruit signers who use languages other than ASL. The study will also include an extension whereby sign language fluency is used to predict the extent of the hemifield bias.

Topological crystalline insulator surface states can acquire an energy gap when time reversal symmetry is broken by interfacing with a magnetic insulator. Such hybrid topological-magnetic insulator structures can be used to generate novel anomalous Hall effects and to control the magnetic state of the insulator in a spintronic device. In this work, the energy gap of topological surface states in proximity with a magnetic insulator is measured using Landau level spectroscopy. The measurements are carried out on Pb1-xSnxSe/EuSe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy exhibiting record mobility and a low Fermi energy enabling this measurement. We find an energy gap that does not exceed 20meV and we show that is due to the combined effect of quantum confinement and magnetic proximity. The presence of magnetism at the interface is confirmed by magnetometry and neutron reflectivity. The recovered energy gap sets an upper limit for the Fermi level needed to observe the quantized anomalous Hall effect using magnetic proximity heterostructures.

In topological semimetals, nodes appear at symmetry points in the Brillouin zone as a result of band inversion, and yield quasi-relativistic massless fermions at low energies. Cd3As2 is a three-dimensional topological semimetal that hosts two Dirac cones responsible for a variety of quantum phenomena. In this work, we demonstrate the strain tuning of the Dirac nodes of Cd3As2 through a combination of magnetooptical infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution X-ray diffraction studies performed on epitaxial films. In these thin films, we observe a giant enhancement of the node separation in momentum space by close to a factor of 4. A combination of experimental measurements and theoretical modelling allows relate the origin of this enhancement to a strengthening of the topological band inversion driven by lattice strain. Our results demonstrate how strain can be used as a knob to tune the topological properties of semimetals and to potentially enhance their performance and response for various applications.

Topological crystalline insulators -- topological insulators whose properties are guaranteed by crystalline symmetry -- can potentially provide a promising platform for terahertz optoelectronic devices, as their properties can be tuned on demand when layered in heterostructures. We perform the first optical-pump terahertz-probe spectroscopy of topological crystalline insulators, using them to study the dynamics of Pb1-xSnxSe as a function of temperature. At low temperatures, excitation of Dirac fermions leads to an increase in terahertz transmission; from this negative photoconductivity, the intrasubband relaxation rate of 6 ps is extracted. At high temperatures where only massive fermions exist, the free-carrier losses induced by the pump reduce the terahertz transmission for the duration of the 27 ps interband lifetime. Both effects are present at temperatures near the topological-to-trivial transition. Our experimental observations provide critical details for potential applications of Pb1-xSnxSe and provide a direct measurement of the topological character of Pb1-xSnxSe heterostructures.

We report the measurements and analysis of weak antilocalization (WAL) in Pb1-xSnxSe topological quantum wells in a new regime where the elastic scattering length is larger than the magnetic length. We achieve this regime through the development of high-quality epitaxy and doping of topological crystalline insulator (TCI) quantum wells. We obtain elastic scattering lengths that exceeds 100nm and become comparable to the magnetic length. In this transport regime, the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka model is no longer valid. We employ the model of Wittmann and Schmid to extract the coherence time from the magnetoresistance. We find that despite our improved transport characteristics, the coherence time may be limited by scattering channels that are not strongly carrier dependent, such as electron-phonon or defect scattering., Accepted PRB

The reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), which belongs to dual fuel mode (DFM) combustion has been considered as a promising way to achieve high fuel conversion efficiency and low emissions. By this strategy, a fuel reactivity gradient is formed in the combustion chamber which offers the probability of controlling combustion phasing. In this study, the role of fuel reactivity gradient was examined numerically by comparing a DFM (i.e., RCCI) combustion with other hypothetical cases under one specific load condition. Firstly, a chemical reaction mechanism was developed aiming at a modelling study on dual fuel and blend fuel combustion in internal combustion (IC) engines fueled by gasoline/diesel and gasoline/biodiesel. Ignition delays were validated for 100% diesel, 100% gasoline and 100% biodiesel under 102 conditions in total. Subsequently, the validated reaction mechanism which consists of 107 species and 425 reactions was implemented in coupled KIVA4-CHEMKIN code. Three dimensional validations were further conducted under 3 conditions including pure diesel combustion, and gasoline/diesel DFM combustion with both single and double injection strategies in the engine. To investigate the fuel reactivity gradient, the gasoline/diesel DFM combustion with single injection was compared with other three hypothetical cases, one of which was DFM without fuel reactivity gradient, two were the blend fuel mode but with different start of injection (SOI) timings. The results showed that the fuel reactivity gradient could retard the ignition timing, reduce heat release rate, and ease peak pressure rise rate. In addition, low levels of NOx and soot emissions were observed for the DFM combustion. The gasoline/biodiesel reaction mechanism will be employed in future work.

Decal transfer is an effective method for fabricating membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), due to its low interfacial resistance and applicability for mass production. Here we introduce a modified decal method which makes it possible and convenient to achieve complete decal transferring. The composition of catalyst inks, drying process and transfer pressure are optimized in detail. During catalyst ink preparation, the viscosity is adjusted by altering the composition of the solvents to obtain catalyst layers (before transfer) with continuous thickness. In addition, MEAs whose catalyst layers (before transfer) were dried in four different ways are tested for application in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The transfer pressure is also optimized on the basis of the two previous conditions and the MEAs fabricated by this modified method show simplicity to achieve complete transfer in decal method, good repeatability and improvement in cell performance.

The present study aims to bridge the gap on hydrogen assisted biodiesel combustion, and to investigate its impacts on the engine performance, combustion and emission characteristics. Simulations were conducted on a diesel engine fueled by biodiesel with supplementary hydrogen inductions of 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 3% vol of H2 in air. A skeletal reaction mechanism was developed to include the reaction kinetics of biodiesel and hydrogen, with the CO, NOx and soot formation mechanisms embedded. The developed reaction mechanism was validated by performing the ignition delay calculations against the detailed biodiesel reaction mechanism, as well as the 3D numerical simulations against the experimental results. Good agreements in terms of ignition delay, cylinder pressure and heat release rate predictions were obtained. Key simulation results review that with the increase of hydrogen induction, a substantial increase in the peak cylinder pressure and heat release rate can be obtained under 50% and 100% load conditions, indicating an improved performance. But a reduced performance is observed at light load (10% loads) conditions due to the poor ignition and combustion processes. In terms of emissions, a general decreased trend is observed for both CO and soot emissions at all the engine speeds and loads, and a more remarkable reduction is found at 100% engine load conditions. Furthermore, due to the enhanced combustion, NOx emissions are increased slightly at 50% and 100% engine loads.

A blend of 20% (v/v) ethanol/methyl soyate was prepared and added to diesel fuel as an oxygenated additive at volume percent levels of 15 and 20% (denoted as BE15 and BE20). We also prepared a blend containing 20% methyl soyate in diesel fuel (denoted as B20). The fuel blends that did not have any other additive were stable for up to 3 months. Engine performance and emission characteristics of the three different fuels in a diesel engine were investigated and compared with the base diesel fuel. Observations showed that particulate matter (PM) emission decreased with increasing oxygenate content in the fuels but nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions increased. The diesel engine fueled by BE20 emitted significantly less PM and a lower Bosch smoke number but the highest NOx among the fuel blends tested. All the oxygenate fuels produced moderately lower CO emissions relative to diesel fuel. The B20 blend emitted less total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions compared with base diesel fuel. This was opposite to the fuel blends containing ethanol (BE15, BE20), which produced much higher THC emission.