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Nanomagnetic hyperthermia (NMH) is intensively studied with the prospect of cancer therapy. A major challenge is to determine the dissipated power during in vivo conditions and conventional methods are either invasive or inaccurate. We present a non-calorimetric method which yields the heat absorbed during hyperthermia: it is based on accurately measuring the quality factor change of a resonant radio frequency circuit which is employed for the irradiation. The approach provides the absorbed power in real-time, without the need to monitor the sample temperature as a function of time. As such, it is free from the problems caused by the non-adiabatic heating conditions of the usual calorimetry. We validate the method by comparing the dissipated power with a conventional calorimetric measurement. We present the validation for two types of resonators with very different filling factors: a solenoid and a so-called birdcage coil. The latter is a volume coil, which is generally used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) under in vivo condition. The presented method therefore allows to effectively combine MRI and thermotherapy and is thus readily adaptable to existing imaging hardware., 7 pages, 3 figures+Supplementary Material (2 pages, 3 figures)

Chemical modification such as intercalation or doping of novel materials is of great importance for exploratory material science and applications in various fields of physics and chemistry. Herein, the systematic intercalation of chemically exfoliated few-layer graphene with potassium is reported while monitoring the sample resistance using microwave conductivity. It is found that the conductivity of the samples increases by about an order of magnitude upon potassium exposure. The increased number of charge carriers deduced from the electron spin resonance (ESR) intensity also reflects this increment. The doped phases exhibit two asymmetric Dysonian lines in ESR, a usual sign of the presence of mobile charge carriers. The width of the broader component increases with the doping steps; however, the narrow components seem to have a constant line width.

Recent interest in potassium-doped p-terphenyl has been fueled by reports of superconductivity at Tc values surprisingly high for organic compounds. Despite these interesting properties, studies of the structure–function relationships within these materials have been scarce. Here, we isolate a phase-pure crystal of potassium-doped p-terphenyl: [K(222)]2[p-terphenyl3]. Emerging antiferromagnetism in the anisotropic structure is studied in depth by magnetometry and electron spin resonance. Combining these experimental results with density functional theory calculations, we describe the antiferromagnetic coupling in this system that occurs in all 3 crystallographic directions. The strongest coupling was found along the ends of the terphenyls, where the additional electron on neighboring p-terphenyls antiferromagnetically couple. This delocalized bonding interaction is reminiscent of the doubly degenerate resonance structure depiction of polyacetylene. These findings hint toward magnetic fluctuation-induced superconductivity in potassium-doped p-terphenyl, which has a close analogy with high Tc cuprate superconductors. The new approach described here is very versatile as shown by the preparation of two additional salts through systematic changing of the building blocks., C.N. thanks Sheldon and Dorothea Buckler for their generous support. Support for this research was provided by the Center for Precision Assembly of Superstratic and Superatomic Solids, an NSF MRSEC (award numbers DMR-1420634 and DMR-2011738), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (award number FA9550-18-1-0020). R.H.S. acknowledges support from the Columbia Nano Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship. X.R. acknowledges support from the NSF CAREER award (NSF DMR-1751949). A.K.B. is supported by the Arnold O. Beckman Fellowship in Chemical Sciences. I.S. is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number CHE-1807654. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction was performed at the Shared Materials Characterization Laboratory at Columbia University, maintained using funding from Columbia University for which we are grateful. Work in Lausanne was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Work in Spain was supported by MICIU (Spain) through Grants PGC2018-096955-B-C44 and PGC2018-093863-B-C22 and Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR1506 and 2017SGR1289). E.C. acknowledges support from the Spanish MINECO through the Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program (SEV-2015-0496) and P.A. from the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program (MDM-2017-0767). S.C. was supported by FONDECYT (Chile) through project 11107163.

Microwave reflectance probed photoconductivity (or $\mu$-PCD) measurement represents a contactless and non-invasive method to characterize impurity content in semiconductors. Major drawbacks of the method include a difficult separation of reflectance due to dielectric and conduction effects and that the $\mu$-PCD signal is prohibitively weak for highly conducting samples. Both of these limitations could be tackled with the use of microwave resonators due to the well-known sensitivity of resonator parameters to minute changes in the material properties combined with a null measurement. A general misconception is that time resolution of resonator measurements is limited beyond their bandwidth by the readout electronics response time. While it is true for conventional resonator measurements, such as those employing a frequency sweep, we present a time-resolved resonator parameter readout method which overcomes these limitations and allows measurement of complex material parameters and to enhance $\mu$-PCD signals with the ultimate time resolution limit being the resonator time constant. This is achieved by detecting the transient response of microwave resonators on the timescale of a few 100 ns \emph{during} the $\mu$-PCD decay signal. The method employs a high-stability oscillator working with a fixed frequency which results in a stable and highly accurate measurement., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures+Supplementary Materials

The microwave cavity perturbation method is often used to determine material parameters (electric permittivity and magnetic permeability) at high frequencies and it relies on measurement of the resonator parameters. We present a method to determine the $Q$-factor and resonance frequency of microwave resonators which is conceptually simple but provides a sensitivity for these parameters which overcomes those of existing methods by an order of magnitude. The microwave resonator is placed in a feedback resonator setup, where the output of an amplifier is connected to its own input with the resonator as a band pass filter. After reaching steady-state oscillation, the feedback circuit is disrupted by a fast microwave switch and the transient signal, which emanates from the resonator, is detected using down-conversion. The Fourier transform of the resulting time-dependent signal yields directly the resonance profile of the resonator. Albeit the method is highly accurate, this comes with a conceptual simplicity, ease of implementation and lower circuit cost. We compare existing methods for this type of measurement to explain the sensitivity of the present technique and we also make a prediction for the ultimate sensitivity for the resonator $Q$ and $f_0$ determination., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures+Supplementary Material

Microwave impedance measurements indicate a non-linear absorption anomaly in single wall carbon nanotubes at low temperatures (below $20$ K). We investigate the nature of the anomaly using a time resolved microwave impedance measurement technique. It proves that the anomaly has an extremely slow, a few hundred second long dynamics. This strongly suggests that the anomaly is not caused by an intrinsic electronic effect and that it is rather due to a slow heat exchange between the sample and the environment.

Magnetic nanoparticle based hyperthermia emerged as a potential tool for treating malignant tumours. The efficiency of the method relies on the knowledge of magnetic properties of the samples; in particular, knowledge of the frequency dependent complex magnetic susceptibility is vital to optimize the irradiation conditions and to provide feedback for material science developments. We study the frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility of an aqueous ferrite suspension for the first time using non-resonant and resonant radiofrequency reflectometry. We identify the optimal measurement conditions using a standard solenoid coil, which is capable of providing the complex magnetic susceptibility up to 150 MHz. The result matches those obtained from a radiofrequency resonator for a few discrete frequencies. The agreement between the two different methods validates our approach. Surprisingly, the dynamic magnetic susceptibility cannot be explained by an exponential magnetic relaxation behavior even when we consider a particle size-dependent distribution of the relaxation parameter., 5 pages, 4 figures, plus Supplementary Materials

Characterization of electronic properties of novel materials is of great importance for exploratory materials development and also for the discovery of new correlated phases. As several novel compounds are available in powder form only, contactless methods, which also work on air sensitive samples, are higly desired. We present that the microwave cavity perturbation technique is a versatile tool to study conductivity in such systems. The examples include studies on semiconducting-metallic crossover in carbon nanotubes upon alkali doping, study of vortex motion in the K$_3$C$_{60}$ superconductor, and the characterization of various alkali atom doped phases of black phosphorus.