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Topological insulators (TIs) are materials with an insulating bulk characterized by a gapped band structure, along with gapless metallic surface states having a Dirac cone with a helical spin structure in momentum space. The helical spin--momentum locking of the surface states arises from intrinsic spin--orbit coupling (SOC) and provides topological protection to the surface states against scattering from external perturbations, like defects and non-magnetic impurities. Breaking the topological protection of surface states of topological insulators is an essential prerequisite for exploring their applications. Rare-earth ions typically exhibit larger magnetic moments than transition-metal ions and thus promise the opening of a wider exchange gap in the Dirac surface states of topological insulators. Bi$_2$Se$_3$ is an interesting material; on the one hand, it has semiconducting properties when it is thin sheets; on the other hand, it's a topological insulator when the structure has a minimum of six quintuple layers (QLs), with diverse applications in photothermal, thermoelectric, and optical properties. Here, we have developed a controlled colloidal synthesis with low temperature and a cost-effective process for the synthesis of undoped and Eu-doped 2D layered Bi$_2$Se$_3$ nanosheets. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements demonstrated a correlation between the shift of Dirac point position and the dopant content, which has been theoretically established by the band structure calculation. At low temperatures below 10K, for the 10\% Eu-doped sample, magnetic data suggests an antiferromagnetic ordering in the sample, which may be the contribution of the mixed valence state of Europium. Our results support that antiferromagnetic exchange interaction can exist in topological surface states in rare-earth Eu-doped Bi$_2$Se$_3$, which can open a new window to novel quantum phenomena.

Van Hove singularities enhance many-body interactions and induce collective states of matter ranging from superconductivity to magnetism. In magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, van Hove singularities appear at low energies and are malleable with density, leading to a sequence of Lifshitz transitions and resets observable in Hall measurements. However, without a magnetic field, linear transport measurements have limited sensitivity to the band's topology. Here, we utilize nonlinear longitudinal and transverse transport measurements to probe these unique features in twisted bilayer graphene at zero magnetic field. We demonstrate that the nonlinear responses, induced by the Berry curvature dipole and extrinsic scattering processes, intricately map the Fermi surface reconstructions at various fillings. Importantly, our experiments highlight the intrinsic connection of these features with the moir\'e bands. Beyond corroborating the insights from linear Hall measurements, our findings establish nonlinear transport as a pivotal tool for probing band topology and correlated phenomena.

Fog harvesting relies on intercepting atmospheric or industrial fog by placing a porous obstacle, e.g., a mesh and collecting the deposited water. In the face of global water scarcity, such fog harvesting has emerged as a viable alternative source of potable water. Typical fog harvesting meshes suffer from poor collection efficiency due to aerodynamic bypassing of the oncoming fog stream and poor collection of the deposited water from the mesh. One pestering challenge in this context is the frequent clogging up of mesh pores by the deposited fog water, which not only yields low drainage efficiency but also generates high aerodynamic resistance to the oncoming fog stream, thereby negatively impacting the fog collection efficiency. Minimizing the clogging is possible by rendering the mesh fiber superhydrophobic, but that entails other detrimental effects like premature dripping and flow-induced re-entrainment of water droplets into the fog stream from the mesh fiber. Herein, we improvise on the traditional interweaved metal mesh designs by defining critical parameters, viz., mesh pitch, shade coefficient, and fiber wettability, and deduce their optimal values from numerically and experimentally observed morphology of collected fog-water droplets under various operating scenarios. We extend our investigations over a varying range of mesh-wettability, including superhydrophilic and hydrophobic fibers, and go on to find optimal shade coefficients which would theoretically render clog-proof fog harvesting meshes. The aerodynamic, deposition, and overall collection efficiencies are characterized. Hydrophobic meshes with square pores, having fiber diameters smaller than the capillary length scale of water, and an optimal shade coefficient, are found to be the most effective design of such clog-proof meshes., Comment: Arani and Arkadeep contributed equally. Corresponding author: Prof. Ranjan Ganguly (Email: ranjan.ganguly@jadavpuruniversity.in). All work carried out in the Advanced Materials Research and Applications (AMRA) Laboratory, India

Observation of blue-shifted X-ray absorption lines indicates the presence of wind from the accretion disk in X-ray binaries. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) driving is one of the possible wind launching mechanisms. Recent theoretical development makes magnetic accretion-ejection self-similar solutions much more generalized, and wind can be launched even at much lower magnetization compared to equipartition value, which was the only possibility beforehand. Here, we model the transmitted spectra through MHD driven photoionized wind - models which have different values of magnetizations. We investigate the possibility of detecting absorption lines by the upcoming instruments XRISM and Athena. Attempts are made to find the robustness of the method of fitting asymmetric line profiles by multiple Gaussians. We use photoionization code XSTAR to simulate the transmitted model spectra. Fake observed spectra are finally produced by convolving model spectra with instruments' responses. Since the line asymmetries are apparent in the convolved spectra as well, this can be used as an observable diagnostic to fit for, in future XRISM and Athena spectra. We demonstrate some amount of rigor in assessing the equivalent widths of the major absorption lines, including the Fe XXVI Ly$\alpha$ doublets which can be clearly distinguished in the superior quality, future high resolution spectra. Disk magnetization becomes another crucial MHD variable that can significantly alter the absorption line profiles. Low magnetization pure MHD outflow models are dense enough to be observed by the existing or upcoming instruments. Thus these models become simpler alternatives to MHD-thermal models. Fitting with multiple Gaussians is a promising method to handle asymmetric line profiles, as well as the Fe XXVI Ly$\alpha$ doublets., Comment: 17 pages (including 4 pages of Appendix), 13 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A