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Although individual γ-Fe2O3 and α-Fe2O3 have been widely fabricated for gas sensors, their mixed phase of α/γ-Fe2O3 might deliver excellent sensing properties. In this study, a facile solvothermal method was used to fabricate Fe-alkoxide. After thermal treatment, it was converted into γ-Fe2O3, α-Fe2O3 and their mixed-phase α/γ-Fe2O3 with a nanosheets-assembled flower-like structure. We studied the influence of calcination temperature on the phase and sensing properties on acetone detection. The α/γ-Fe2O3 which annealed at 400 °C included 18% α-Fe2O3 and it exhibited excellent sensing performance towards acetone compared to that of γ-Fe2O3 and α-Fe2O3. It showed a response of 353 to acetone with a concentration of 200 ppm, and a low limit of detection of 0.5 ppm at 160 °C. In addition, the change in responses with acetone concentration from 50 to 200 ppm shows a good linear relationship. Moreover, this material has good reproducibility and selectivity as well as a fast response time of 22 s and recovery time of 14 s to 200 ppm. Therefore, our mixed phase of α/γ-Fe2O3 possesses great prospects for acetone detection.

We investigate the effect of added (NaCl) salt and varying flow rate on the phase behaviour and flow response of a model surfactant Lα phase, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/octanol/water, using small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and polarised optical microscopy in microfluidics, supported by NMR, viscosity, conductivity and zeta potential measurements. A long (∼3 m) tubular microchannel device is employed to quantify the spatiotemporal structural evolution of the system towards multilamellar vesicles (MLV). The effect of salt is rationalised in terms of changes in membrane bending rigidity and phase stability. It is shown that ∼1.8 w/w% NaCl addition results in MLV formation within the shortest time (or equivalent lengthscale) and yields near-centrosymmetric scattering profiles characteristic of MLVs (at a reference 1 mL h−1 flow rate and ≃90 s−1 shear rate). Further salt addition yields biphasic systems that remain strongly aligned under flow, while lower salt content also increases scattering anisotropy, accompanied by higher membrane rigidity and solution viscosity. Increasing flow rate causes greater initial Lα alignment, and thus flow anisotropy, but also faster evolution towards isotropy and MLV formation.

Multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) occur at or nearby the centre of the multicomponent phase space, and they have the unique potential to be tailored with a blend of several desirable properties for the development of materials of future. The lack of universal phase diagrams for MPEAs has been a major challenge in the accelerated design of products with these materials. This study aims to solve this issue by employing data-driven approaches in phase prediction. A MPEA is first represented by numerical fingerprints (composition, atomic size difference , electronegativity , enthalpy of mixing , entropy of mixing , dimensionless $$\Omega$$ Ω parameter, valence electron concentration and phase types ), and an artificial neural network (ANN) is developed upon the datasets of these numerical descriptors. A pyMPEALab GUI interface is developed on the top of this ANN model with a computational capability to associate composition features with remaining other input features. With the GUI interface, an user can predict the phase(s) of a MPEA by entering solely the information of composition. It is further explored on how the knowledge of phase(s) prediction in composition-varied $$\hbox {Al}_x$$ Al x CrCoFeMnNi and $$\hbox {CoCrNiNb}_x$$ CoCrNiNb x can help in understanding the mechanical behavior of these MPEAs. Graphic Abstract

Jian tea bowls are greatly appreciated not only due to their thick and lustrous black glazes, but also their exquisite streaked and mottled patterns. Researches on the firing process and colouring mechanism of typical hare’s fur and oil spot Jian glazes have continuously been carried out in the past decades; however, there are few reports about other scarce types of black-glazed porcelains excavated from the Jian kiln site. In this work, we report on a multi-technique analysis of the surface and cross-sectional structure, phase, morphology and chemical composition of three rare types of Jian tea bowls (tea-dust-glazed ware, grey-glazed ware and pearl-glazed ware) combining optical and spectroscopic methods such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical microscopy (OM), Portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), laser-Raman spectroscopy (LRS) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with an X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS). Results revealed that the tea dust glaze was one high-temperature iron-based crystalline glaze, and its glaze was characterized by a transparent glass matrix; irregular pits completely or partially filled by TiO2; and that ε-Fe2O3 and residual quartz were randomly distributed all over the surface, which produced the appearance of tea-dust. The grey-glazed porcelain was fired at a lower temperature in the dragon kiln than that of the traditional hare’s fur and oil spot samples, its glaze contained some residual quartz, and anorthite crystals showed a serried distribution along the thickness. The pearl-glazed porcelain was fired through a secondary glazing process via artificial stippling quartz powder. This work provides guidance for the firing process of three rare types of Jian wares and has not only scientific but also cultural profound significance, which reveals the features of their historical heritage.

This work were studied the effect of technological parameters of detonation spraying on the phase composition and tribological characteristics on the bases of NiCr and Al2O3 coatings. As well as there was obtained and investigated multilayer coating on the bases of NiCr/NiCr- Al2O3/Al2O3 . It was determined that during detonation spraying the phase composition of Al2O3 coatings strongly depends on the degree of filling the borehole with a gas mixture. The a - Al2O3 -phase content in the coatings increases when the degree of filling is 63% and 54%. Only one CrNi3 phase is observed on the diffractograms and only increase of reflex intensity (020) at barrel filling by 58% is observed by sputtering on the bases of NiCr coatings in different degrees of barrel filling. The results of the coating nanohardness study showed that the hardness of the Al2O3 coating increases depending on the content of a- Al2O3 in it. Al2O3 coating has the maximum nanohardness values and is 16.42 GPa at the borehole is filled to 63%. The nanohardness of NiCr coating has the maximum values at barrel filling by 58% and consisting of 8.02 GPa.

The triangular lattice with Ising magnetic moments is an archetypical example of geometric frustration. In the case of dipolar-coupled out-of-plane moments, the geometric frustration results in a disordered classical spin-liquid state at higher temperatures while the system is predicted to transition to an anti-ferromagnetic stripe ground state at low temperatures. In this work we fabricate artificial triangular Ising spin systems without and with uniaxial in-plane compression to tune the nature and temperature of the correlations. We probe the energy scale and nature of magnetic correlations by grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering. In particular, we apply a newly-developed empirical structure-factor model to describe the measured short-range correlated spin-liquid state, and find good agreement with theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that grazing-incidence neutron scattering on our high-quality samples, in conjunction with detailed modeling of the scattering using the Distorted Wave Born Approximation, can be used to experimentally quantify the spin-liquid-like correlations in highly-frustrated artificial spin systems., Nanoscale Horizons, 6 (6), ISSN:2055-6756, ISSN:2055-6764

The paper presents the results of studying the phase composition of iron-nickel alloys obtained by unsteady electrolysis. It was found that the use of a unipolar pulse current leads to a significant increase in the crystallization overvoltage at the crystallization front at the moment of the pulse action, which affects the component composition of the coatings. The phase composition of the alloys formed at the cathode differs from that shown in the iron-nickel equilibrium diagram.

The article presents the study results of detonation spraying parameters on the phase composition and tribological properties of NiCr-Al2O3 powder coatings. The spraying was carried out at a ratio of the acetylene-oxygen mixture O2 /C2H2=1.856. The detonation barrel filling volume with an explosive gas mixture varied from 30% to 68%. It is determined that the phase composition of the NiCr-Al2O3 coatings varies depending on the degree of detonation barrel filling. With an increase in the detonation barrel’s filling volume, the intensity of the NiCr diffraction peaks is decreased, and the intensity of the a-Al2O3 reflexes is increased, which indicates an increase in the content of the Al2O3 phase. When low filling volume, there is determined a low coating density and uneven roughness. The tribological test results showed that with an increase in the detonation barrel filling volume, there is a decrease in the wear volume, which confirms the increase in the coatings wear resistance. Determined that the lowest friction coefficient was recorded in the sample obtained at the barrel filling volume 68%. The coatings’ high wear resistance is associated with an increase in the alpha phase volume fraction of a-Al2O3 and coatings density.

The Hall scattering factor, $r$, is a key quantity for establishing carrier concentration and drift mobility from Hall measurements; in experiments it is usually assumed to be 1. In this paper we use a combination of analytical and \textit{ab initio} modelling to determine $r$ in graphene. While at high carrier densities $r \approx 1$ in a wide temperature range, at low doping the temperature dependence of $r$ is very strong with values as high as 4 below 300~K. These high values are due to the linear bands around the Dirac cone and the carrier scattering rates due to acoustic phonons. At higher temperatures $r$ can instead become as low as $0.5$ due to the contribution of both holes and electrons and the role of optical phonons. Finally, we provide a simple analytical model to compute accurately $r$ in graphene in a wide range of temperatures and carrier densities.

We present an all-dielectric chiral photonic crystal that guides the propagation of electromagnetic waves without backscattering for dual bands. The chiral photonic crystal unit cell is composed of four dielectric cylinders with increasing inner diameter clockwise or anticlockwise, which leads to chirality. It is demonstrated that the proposed chiral photonic crystal can generate dual band gaps in the gigahertz frequency range and has two types of edge states, which is similar to topologically protected edge states. Hence, the interface formed by the proposed 2D chiral photonic crystal can guide the propagation of electromagnetic waves without backscattering, and this complete propagation is immune to defects (position disorder or frequency disorder). To illustrate the applicability of the findings in communication systems, we report a duplexer and a power divider based on the presented all-dielectric chiral photonic crystal.

Laser-clad AlCrFeCoNi high entropy alloy (HEA) coatings, produced on the surface of AISI 316 L stainless steel, were pack-borided at 1000 °C for 4 h in open air, high-purity Ar and vacuum environments. The HEA, which had an initial hardness of 6.14 ± 2.06 GPa, formed a complex boride layer consisting of (CoFe)B2, (CrFe)B2 and Cr2Ni3B6 phases on its surface, with hardness ranging from 15.95 ± 0.7 to 20.15 ± 4.50 GPa as a result of the boriding process. While the greatest boride layer thickness was obtained in the sample borided in vacuum, the highest surface hardness was obtained in the sample borided in air. The borided coatings showed improved wear resistance and lower friction values compared to the untreated control samples, both at 25 °C and 650 °C. The borided coatings also showed reduced coefficients of friction at 650 °C. The wear losses at 650 °C significantly exceeded those at 25 °C.

Digital optical holograms can achieve nanometre-scale resolution as a result of recent advances in metasurface technologies. This has raised hopes for applications in data encryption, data storage, information processing and displays. However, the hologram bandwidth has remained too low for any practical use. To overcome this limitation, information can be stored in the orbital angular momentum of light, as this degree of freedom has an unbounded set of orthogonal helical modes that could function as information channels. Thus far, orbital angular momentum holography has been achieved using phase-only metasurfaces, which, however, are marred by channel crosstalk. As a result, multiplex information from only four channels has been demonstrated. Here, we demonstrate an orbital angular momentum holography technology that is capable of multiplexing up to 200 independent orbital angular momentum channels. This has been achieved by designing a complex-amplitude metasurface in momentum space capable of complete and independent amplitude and phase manipulation. Information was then extracted by Fourier transform using different orbital angular momentum modes of light, allowing lensless reconstruction and holographic videos to be displayed. Our metasurface can be three-dimensionally printed in a polymer matrix on SiO2 for large-area fabrication.

In this work, consider the aspects of obtaining powder coatings that possessing certain working properties obtained by detonation spraying. Experimental research were carried on the effect of technological parameters of the detonation spraying process on the phase composition and properties of Ti-Si-C coatings. It is determined that when the volume of filling the detonation barrel with an explosive mixture increases to 70% in the detonation wave flow, the Ti3SiC2 powder partially decomposes into TiC consequently the high-speed shock interaction of heated to high temperatures. Installed that when filling the barrel with an explosive mixture of 50% and 60%, a low extent of decomposition of Ti3SiC2 powder can be achieved. It is determined that an increase in the volume content of the TiC phase in the composition of coatings bring to a decrease in the hardness of the Ti-C-Si coating.

The article were studied the effect of detonation spraying on the structure and properties of Al2O3 coatings. It was determined that reducing the delay time between shots is leading to increase the hardness and elastic module of Al2O3 coatings. It was found on the basis of X-ray diffraction analysis that the main reason for the increasing in hardness with a decreasing in the delay time between shots is associated with increasing in the volume fraction of α -Al2O3 phase. The studies of X-ray diffraction presented that the highest content of the phase is achieved when the coatings are formed with a delay time between shots of 0.25 s. It was found that increasing in the volume fraction of the α -Al2O3 phase is caused by the secondary recrystallization γ → α , which occurs due to the heating of particles during coating formation, i.e. due to increasing in temperature above 1100 ◦C in single spots of the coating when they are put each other.

International audience; X-ray diffraction and calorimetric investigations were performed for 80GeS(2)-20Ga(2)S(3), 82GeS(2)-18Ga(2)S(3)and 84GeS(2)-16Ga(2)S(3)chalcogenide glasses. It is shown that structure of these glasses is characterized by short range ordering. It is established that Ga(2)S(3)and GeS(2)phases can be crystallized in Ge-Ga-S system. Transformation of voids in crystallized (80GeS(2)-20Ga(2)S(3))(100-and x445;)(CsCl)(x),x = 0; 5; 10; 15 chalcogenide glasses was studied by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy. The CsCl content in GeS2-Ga(2)S(3)glassy matrix changed the defect-related component in positron lifetime spectra and confirmed the structural void agglomeration in comparison with the base glass. A larger amount of CsCl in (80GeS(2)-20Ga(2)S(3))(85)(CsCl)(15)glass resulted in void fragmentation due to loosening of the structure.

The lamellar-to-multilamellar vesicle (MLV) transformation in a model surfactant system, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), octanol and brine, is investigated under continuous and oscillatory microfluidic contraction–expansion flows, employing polarised optical microscopy and small angle neutron scattering (SANS), with sample volume probed down to ≃20 nL. We determine the lamellar-to-MLV transition requirements at varying flow velocity, oscillation amplitude, frequency, and number of oscillatory cycles. The spatio-temporal evolution of the hierarchical fluid structure is elucidated: lamellar sheets initially align with flow direction upon entering a constriction and then perpendicularly upon exiting; the formation of MLVs at the nanoscale is first observed by SANS within a few (

We examine the formation and growth of isolated myelin figures and microscale multilamellar tubules from isotropic micellar solutions of an anionic surfactant. Upon cooling, surfactant micelles transform into multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) whose contact is found to trigger the unidirectional growth of myelins. While the MLV diameter grows as dMLV ∝ t1/2, myelins grow linearly in time as LM ∝ t1, with a fixed diameter. Combining time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and optical microscopy, we demonstrate that the microscopic growth of spherical MLVs and cylindrical myelins stems from the same nanoscale molecular mechanism, namely, the surfactant exchange from micelles into curved lamellar structures at a constant volumetric rate. This mechanism successfully describes the growth rate of (nonequilibrium) myelin figures based on a population balance at thermodynamic equilibrium.

Certain cold-worked martensitic Ti-alloys exhibit tunable linear thermal expansion along a specific sample direction. These intriguing properties are related to the anisotropic thermal expansion of the orthorhombic αʺ martensite. However, the tailored expansion obtained in this way is limited to the single-phase martensitic temperature field, below the reverse transformation of martensite into austenite. Here, we demonstrate that the orthorhombic αʺiso formed by diffusion can also regulate the thermal expansion using a prototypical Ti22Nb alloy. More importantly, the temperature range in which the tailored linear thermal expansion occurs is enormously broadened relative to the cold-worked martensitic alloy. We clarify the formation path of nano-sized αʺiso during thermal cycling and resolve the crystallographic relationship with the parent phase. These findings provide new routes for designing low/negative thermal expansion Ti-alloys with large operating temperature ranges.

International audience; New bound in continuum states and long-lived resonances in one photonic triangular pyramid with two semi-infinite leads are reported, together with general theorems giving their existence conditions. The pyramid is composed of connected open loops (of length L). When bound in continuum states exist within state continua, they induce long-lived resonances for specific values of some modified lengths of the 6 open loops constituting the pyramid. This enables to tune these resonances by means of these lengths. The results obtained in this work take due account of the state number conservation between the final system and the reference one constituted by the independent pyramid and semi-infinite leads. The respect of this conservation enables to find all the states of the final system and among them the bound in continuum ones. This is one of the originalities of this work. The other new general results are the different sets of bound in continuum states and long-lived resonances, as well as the theorems giving their existence conditions. These results may have a big impact on general investigations of bound in continuum states, long-lived resonances and communication technology improvements.

Based on detailed EBSD analyses, Kurtuldu et al. (Acta Mater. 70:240–248, 2014) have explained the grain refinement of Au-12.5 wt pctCu-12.5 wt pctAg (yellow gold) by the addition of minute amounts of Ir in terms of “icosahedral quasicrystal (iQC)-mediated nucleation”, i.e., Ir induced the formation of Icosahedral short range order (ISRO) of atoms in the liquid, leading to the formation of iQC on which the fcc-phase forms. In the present contribution, we show that: (i) this mechanism is also responsible of the grain refinement in Au-20.5 wt pctCu-4.5 wt pctAg (pink gold) with Ir addition; (ii) ISRO also influences the morphology and growth kinetics of the fcc phase: at solidification rate of a few mm/s, $$\langle 100\rangle $$ dendrites are replaced by a cellular-type morphology growing along $$\langle 111\rangle $$ when 100 wt ppm of Ir is added to the melt; (iii) iQC-mediated nucleation is accompanied by a spinodal decomposition of the liquid, which is revealed at high cooling rate by the formation of Cu-rich particles or dendrites, some of them being also twinned, in parallel to iQC-mediated grain refinement and twin formation.

Proposals for realizing Majorana fermions in condensed matter systems typically rely on magnetic fields, which degrade the proximitizing superconductor and plague the Majoranas' detection. We propose an alternative scheme to realize Majoranas based only on phase-biased superconductors. The phases (at least three of them) can be biased by a tiny magnetic field threading macroscopic superconducting loops, focusing and enhancing the effect of the magnetic field onto the junction, or by supercurrents. We show how a combination of the superconducting phase winding and the spin-orbit phase induced in closed loops (Aharonov-Casher effect) facilitates a topological superconducting state with Majorana end states. We demontrate this scheme by an analytically tractable model as well as simulations of realistic setups comprising only conventional materials., Comment: 5+3 pages, 3+3 figures

We show that the cubic compound PtBi2, is a topological semimetal hosting a sixfold band touching point in close proximity to the Fermi level. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we map the bandstructure of the system, which is in good agreement with results from density functional theory. Further, by employing a low energy effective Hamiltonian valid close to the crossing point, we study the effect of a magnetic field on the sixfold fermion. The latter splits into a total of twenty Weyl cones for a Zeeman field oriented in the diagonal, [111] direction. Our results mark cubic PtBi2, as an ideal candidate to study the transport properties of gapless topological systems beyond Dirac and Weyl semimetals., 15 pages, 6 figures; this is the final, published version

In this study, the birefringence (delta n) and macroscopic order parameter (Q) of lyotropic nematic calamitic (N-C) mesophase were obtained in the reentrant isotropic (I-RE)-N-C-isotropic (I) phase transition range by only examining its optical transmittance under a polarising microscope. Moreover, the microscopic order parameter (S) was found by obtaining absorption coefficients from these transmittances. Generally, the macroscopic order parameter was larger than the microscopic one. The difference between them was small near the I-RE-N-C phase transition and the maximum birefringence region whereas it was relatively high near the N-C-I phase transition.

Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like topological spin textures often observed in structurally chiral magnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Among them, Co-Zn-Mn alloys with a $\beta$-Mn-type chiral structure host skyrmions above room temperature. In this system, it has recently been found that skyrmions persist over a wide temperature and magnetic field region as a long-lived metastable state, and that the skyrmion lattice transforms from a triangular lattice to a square one. To obtain perspective on chiral magnetism in Co-Zn-Mn alloys and clarify how various properties related to the skyrmion vary with the composition, we performed systematic studies on Co$_{10}$Zn$_{10}$, Co$_9$Zn$_9$Mn$_2$, Co$_8$Zn$_8$Mn$_4$ and Co$_7$Zn$_7$Mn$_6$ in terms of magnetic susceptibility and small-angle neutron scattering measurements. The robust metastable skyrmions with extremely long lifetime are commonly observed in all the compounds. On the other hand, preferred orientation of a helimagnetic propagation vector and its temperature dependence dramatically change upon varying the Mn concentration. The robustness of the metastable skyrmions in these materials is attributed to topological nature of the skyrmions as affected by structural and magnetic disorder. Magnetocrystalline anisotropy as well as magnetic disorder due to the frustrated Mn spins play crucial roles in giving rise to the observed change in helical states and corresponding skyrmion lattice form., Comment: 70 pages, 19 figures

In this study, the influences of boron (B) atom doping for various sites of Stone-Wales (SW) defects on the thermal conductivity (TC) and mechanical properties of armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) are systematically examined at room temperature using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Firstly, the effects of SW defect and B doping with different concentrations on the TC and mechanical properties are investigated randomly. Additionally, it is observed that as SW defect and B doping exist together in AGNR, the effect of B doping on the TC and mechanical properties is far less than others. Secondly, the influences of four different B doping sites, which are located at the edge and center sites of SW defect, on the TC and mechanical properties of AGNR are examined. MD simulation results show that B doping in the central sites of SW defect indicates higher mechanical properties and TC than those in the edge sites of SW defect. In addition, B doping in the central sites of SW defect further improved the TC and mechanical properties of AGNR compared to random SW defect with B doping. On the other hand, B doping in the edge sites of defective AGNR indicates lower TC and mechanical properties than those in random B doping in defective AGNR. The results of this study may be considered helpful for future works of thermal and mechanical management of AGNRs based nanodevices and to develop thermoelectric applications of AGNRs.

International audience; In 1952, Frank (Proc R Soc Lond Ser-Math Phys Sci 215:43-46, 1952) already postulated that Icosahedral Short Range Order (ISRO) of atoms in the liquid could possibly explain the large nucleation undercoolings measured in metallic alloys by Turnbull and Fisher (J Chem Phys 17:71-73, 1949). About thirty years later, this conjecture was proven to be key for the understanding of Quasicrystals (QC) formation (Shechtman et al. in Phys Rev Lett 53:20, 1951-3, 1984). More recently, it has been found that a few tens to thousand ppm of solute elements in Al-base and Au-base alloys can influence the nucleation and growth of the primary fcc phase via mechanisms involving ISRO and QC formation. ISRO has also been found to limit the mobility, and thus diffusion, of atoms in the liquid. This can lead to out-of-equilibrium conditions, e.g., the formation of metastable phases or supersaturated solid solution, at reduced velocity compared to alloys where ISRO is not predominantly present. Finally, there are several experimental evidences that ISRO is also responsible for twinned dendrites formation in Al alloys. The present contribution summarizes these recent findings and points out the implications that these might have in the field of solidification and additive manufacturing.

Manganese-bearing intermetallic compounds (IMCs) are important for limiting micro-galvanic corrosion of magnesium-aluminum alloys and can initiate cracks under tensile load. Here, we use electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), deep etching, and focussed ion beam (FIB) tomography to investigate the types of Al-Mn phases present, their faceted growth crystallography, and their three-dimensional distribution at different locations in high-pressure die cast (HPDC) AZ91D. The Al-Mn particle size distributions were well-described by lognormal distributions but with an additional population of externally solidified crystals (ESCs) formed in the shot chamber analogous to α-Mg ESCs. The large Al8Mn5 particles were cyclic twinned. Differences in the particle size distributions and number density in the center compared with the HPDC skin are identified, and the spatial relationship between Mg17Al12 and Al-Mn particles is explored.

Ferroelectricity in ultrasonically exfoliated flakes of the layered Aurivillius oxide Bi5Ti3Fe0.5Co0.5O15 with a range of thicknesses is studied. These flakes have relatively large areas (linear dimensions many times the film thickness), thus classifying them as 2D materials. It is shown that ferroelectricity can exist in flakes with thicknesses of only 2.4 nm, which equals one‐half of the normal crystal unit cell. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) demonstrates that these very thin flakes exhibit both piezoelectric effects and that the ferroelectric polarization can be reversibly switched. A new model is presented that permits the accurate modeling of the field‐on and field‐off PFM time domain and hysteresis loop responses from a ferroelectric during switching in the presence of charge injection, storage, and decay through a Schottky barrier at the electrode–oxide interface. The extracted values of spontaneous polarization, 0.04(±0.02) C m−2 and electrostrictive coefficient, 2(±0.1) × 10−2 m4 C−2 are in good agreement with other ferroelectric Aurivillius oxides. Coercive field scales with thickness, closely following the semi‐empirical scaling law expected for ferroelectric materials. This constitutes the first evidence for ferroelectricity in a 2D oxide material, and it offers the prospect of new devices that might use the useful properties associated with the switchable ferroelectric spontaneous polarization in a 2D materials format.

Majorana zero modes are leading candidates for topological quantum computation due to non-local qubit encoding and non-abelian exchange statistics. Spatially separated Majorana modes are expected to allow phase-coherent single-electron transport through a topological superconducting island via a mechanism referred to as teleportation. Here we experimentally investigate such a system by patterning an elongated epitaxial InAs-Al island embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. With increasing parallel magnetic field, a discrete sub-gap state in the island is lowered to zero energy yielding persistent 1e-periodic Coulomb blockade conductance peaks (e is the elementary charge). In this condition, conductance through the interferometer is observed to oscillate in a perpendicular magnetic field with a flux period of h/e (h is Planck’s constant), indicating coherent transport of single electrons through the islands, a signature of electron teleportation via Majorana modes., Theories predict teleportation of phase-coherent single electrons through a topological superconducting island. Here, the authors report persistent Coulomb blockade conductance peaks due to coherent transport of single electrons through patterned InAs-Al islands embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer.

In this article, synthesis, characterization and mesomorphic properties of a new calamitic liquid crystal, 2,5-(dimethoxy)-2-[[(4-(dodecyloxy)phenyl)imino]methyl]benzene) (DDPIMB) are described. The phase transition temperatures of the DDPIMB mesomorphic compound have been carried out by differential scanning calorimetry and optical polarizing microscopy. Geometry optimization calculations have been made for the two possible isomers as cis and trans of DDPIMB using the DFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. According to the theoretical calculation results, trans isomerism was found more stable than cis isomerism. Therefore, all theoretical calculations were made for the trans-isomer and compared to the observed results. Vibrational assignments of the observed infrared spectra of title compound were carried out based on the calculated potential energy distributions (PEDs). The electronic properties of the DDPIMB were shown on the TD-DFT/B3LYP level. The optical behavior of the liquid crystal DDPIMB was determined through basic optical parameters, nonlinear optics (NLO) properties and dipole moments. Moreover, frontier molecular orbitals and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) were determined to define the chemical activity of the headline molecule. The obtained results showed that this liquid crystal is a candidate material that can be used in NLO, optics and optoelectronic technology.

Magnetic Weyl semimetals are a newly discovered class of topological materials that may serve as a platform for exotic phenomena, such as axion insulators or the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Here, we use angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to discover Weyl cones in CoS2, a ferromagnet with pyrite structure that has been long studied as a candidate for half-metallicity, which makes it an attractive material for spintronic devices. We directly observe the topological Fermi arc surface states that link the Weyl nodes, which will influence the performance of CoS2 as a spin injector by modifying its spin polarization at interfaces. In addition, we directly observe a minority-spin bulk electron pocket in the corner of the Brillouin zone, which proves that CoS2 cannot be a true half-metal., This work was supported by NSF through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center DMR-1420541, by Princeton University through the Princeton Catalysis Initiative, and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF9064 to L.M.S. F.d.J. acknowledges funding from the Spanish MCI/AEI through grant no. PGC2018-101988-B-C21. M.G.V. and F.J. acknowledge funding from the Basque Government through grant PIBA 2019-81. M.G.V. and I.R. acknowledge the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (grant number PID2019-109905GB-C21). N.B.M.S. was supported by Microsoft. A.B. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019-105488GB-I00). The work of S.S. was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant no. 159690. D.P. acknowledges the support from the Chinese Scholarship Council. J.A.K. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF-Grant no. 200021_165910).

International audience; Lattice dynamics of low-dimensional BaVS3 is reported across the metal-insulator Peierls transition occurring at TP=69 K using a combination of the thermal diffuse scattering of x rays, inelastic x-ray scattering, and density-functional theory calculations. The nondetection of a Kohn anomaly points to a unique situation of an order-disorder Peierls instability with a quasielastic critical scattering which has been fully characterized. These observations are discussed in the scope of a Peierls instability dominated by strong electron-phonon coupling and/or nonadiabatic effects.

Significance Elucidating the role of different degrees of freedom in a phase transition is crucial in the comprehension of complex materials. A phase transformation that attracts significant interest is the insulator-to-metal transition of Mott insulators, in which the electrons are thought to play the dominant role. Here, we use ultrafast laser spectroscopy and theoretical calculations to unveil that the correlated insulator La2CuO4, precursor to high-temperature superconductivity, is unstable toward metallization when its crystal structure is displaced along the coordinates of specific vibrational modes. This, in turn, supports the involvement of the lattice in this phase transition. Our results pave the way toward the geometrical design of metallic states in Mott insulators, with technological potential for ultrafast switching devices at room temperature., The role of the crystal lattice for the electronic properties of cuprates and other high-temperature superconductors remains controversial despite decades of theoretical and experimental efforts. While the paradigm of strong electronic correlations suggests a purely electronic mechanism behind the insulator-to-metal transition, recently the mutual enhancement of the electron–electron and the electron–phonon interaction and its relevance to the formation of the ordered phases have also been emphasized. Here, we combine polarization-resolved ultrafast optical spectroscopy and state-of-the-art dynamical mean-field theory to show the importance of the crystal lattice in the breakdown of the correlated insulating state in an archetypal undoped cuprate. We identify signatures of electron–phonon coupling to specific fully symmetric optical modes during the buildup of a three-dimensional (3D) metallic state that follows charge photodoping. Calculations for coherently displaced crystal structures along the relevant phonon coordinates indicate that the insulating state is remarkably unstable toward metallization despite the seemingly large charge-transfer energy scale. This hitherto unobserved insulator-to-metal transition mediated by fully symmetric lattice modes can find extensive application in a plethora of correlated solids.

International audience; In-air epitaxy of nanostructures (Aerotaxy) has recently emerged as a viable route for fast, large-scale production. In this study, we use small-angle X-ray scattering to perform direct in-flight characterizations of the first step of this process, i.e., the engineered formation of Au and Pt aerosol nanoparticles by spark generation in a flow of N-2 gas. This represents a particular challenge for characterization because the particle density can be extremely low in controlled production. The particles produced are examined during production at operational pressures close to atmospheric conditions and exhibit a lognormal size distribution ranging from 5-100 nm. The Au and Pt particle production and detection are compared. We observe and characterize the nanoparticles at different stages of synthesis and extract the corresponding dominant physical properties, including the average particle diameter and sphericity, as influenced by particle sintering and the presence of aggregates. We observe highly sorted and sintered spherical Au nanoparticles at ultra-dilute concentrations (< 5 x 10(5) particles/cm(3)) corresponding to a volume fraction below 3 x 10(-10), which is orders of magnitude below that of previously measured aerosols. We independently confirm an average particle radius of 25 nm via Guinier and Kratky plot analysis. Our study indicates that with high-intensity synchrotron beams and careful consideration of background removal, size and shape information can be obtained for extremely low particle concentrations with industrially relevant narrow size distributions.

Accepted: 2018-05-07, 資料番号: SA1180071000

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are commonly classified as quasi-two-dimensional materials, meaning that their electronic structure closely resembles that of an individual layer, which results in resistivity anisotropies reaching thousands. Here, we show that this rule does not hold for 1T-TaS2 - a compound with the richest phase diagram among TMDs. While the onset of charge density wave order makes the in-plane conduction non-metallic, we reveal that the out-of-plane charge transport is metallic and the resistivity anisotropy is close to one. We support our findings with ab-initio calculations predicting a pronounced quasi-one-dimensional character of the electronic structure. Consequently, we interpret the highly debated metal-insulator transition in 1T-TaS2 as a quasi-one-dimensional instability, contrary to the long-standing Mott localisation picture. In a broader context, these findings are relevant for the newly born field of van der Waals heterostructures, where tuning interlayer interactions (e.g. by twist, strain, intercalation, etc.) leads to new emergent phenomena., 41 page including supplementary information, 5 main figures, 13 supplementary figures. To be published in npj 2D Materials and Applications

Application of the laser in machining has been demonstrated to improve the machinability in several metals and alloys. A very high heating and cooling rate during laser treatment tends to modify the microstructure significantly. In some materials, the change in the microstructural features affects the machinability of the materials. In this work, microstructure evolution due to laser treatment and its effect on the machinability of Ti6Al4V was studied using advanced characterization techniques. The microstructure of the surface and subsurface of the cylindrical Ti6Al4V rod was modified using a high-power laser source with varying laser scanning speeds. The laser treatment resulted in three distinctly different microstructures along the radial direction of the rod; these were classified as the lath dominant zone, a mixture of laths with equiaxed grains and equiaxed grains surrounded by bands. Rapid heating and cooling during laser scanning lead to the formation of the martensite phase and local strain development. Further, at the boundaries of laths, compressive twins (57 deg $$ \left\langle {\bar{1}2\bar{1}0} \right\rangle $$ ) were formed because of laser heating. These twins are different from tensile twins (94.8 deg $$ \left\langle {\bar{1}2\bar{1}0} \right\rangle $$ ), which are formed at the machined subsurface during deformation. The formation of a martensite phase and local strain development due to laser treatment resist the formation of localized shear bands along the thickness of machined chips during machining. This in turn also repels the crack propagation along the shear band developed during machining and enhances the machinability of the material.

We measured the velocity Vstep of isolated elementary spiral steps and the distance Leq between adjacent equivalent spiral steps on ice basal faces by advanced optical microscopy. We determined the step kinetic coefficient β from Vstep measured under various supersaturations. We performed similar experiments under various temperatures T, and determined the temperature dependence of β of ice basal faces, for the first time, in the temperature range of −26.0 to −2.7 °C. When −6.2 ≤ T ≤ −2.7 °C, the value of β decreased significantly with decreasing T. In contrast, when −15.0 ≤ T ≤ −6.2 °C, the value of β increased with decreasing T, and had the maximum at T ≈ −15 °C. When −26.0 ≤ T ≤ −15.0 °C, the value of β decreased monotonically with decreasing T. Such complicated temperature dependence of β strongly implies the existence of unknown phenomena in the temperature range examined. To obtain a clue to the complicated behavior of β, we also measured dependence of Leq on surface supersaturation Δμsurf. When −13...

The authors thank the EPSRC for provision of a doctoral studentship to RC (DTG012 EP/K503162-1). There are relatively few sarcosine metal halide complexes. Of these, tris sarcosine calcium chloride (TSCC) ((C3NO2H7)3CaCl2) stands out as an unusual example of a molecular ferroelectric. Here we report the syntheses of eight new related sarcosine-metal halide complexes by slow evaporation. The newly reported materials can be categorised into four different structure types, viz. 3:1 complexes such as (C3NO2H7)3CaBr2, hydrated 3:1 complexes such as (C3NO2H7)3MnI2.2H2O, hydrated 2:1 complexes such as (C3NO2H7)2MgCl2.2H2O, and a 4:1 complex (C3NO2H7)4CaI2.2H2O. The crystal structures of all examples have been determined at multiple temperatures but no evidence is found for any structural transitions to polar phases, either by single crystal X-ray diffraction or by differential scanning calorimetry. The specific compositional reasons behind the apparently unique ferroelectric behaviour of TSCC therefore remain to be ascertained. Postprint

CoCrFeMnNi multi-principal element alloy films were grown by direct current magnetron sputtering in a mixture of argon and air. The air fraction was varied from 4 to 50%, which resulted in a change of the phase state of the growing film. A 〈100〉 preferred orientation face centered cubic metal (doped with O and N) structure develops below 12% of air. Between 12 and 30% air, a two phase 〈100〉 preferred orientation face centered cubic metal + oxynitride (B1) structure forms. Above 30% of air a single phase B1 oxynitride structure is observed. Compared to nitrogen, oxygen is preferentially incorporated into the growing structures. The 〈100〉 preferential orientation is the result of selective nucleation (below 30% of air) or competing growth (above 30% of air) of the forming crystals. Detailed microscopic analysis shows a complex structure for both the metal and the oxynitride phase in the films deposited at low and high air fraction. In both cases, the films are characterized by local structures ordered on a few nanometer scale and their formation is explained as a result of spinodal decomposition of the as-formed homogenous structure which occurs during film growth.

K0.5Na0.5NbO3 is considered as one of the most promising lead-free piezoelectric ceramics in the field of wearable electronics because of its excellent piezoelectric properties and environmental friendliness. In this work, the temperature-dependent longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d33* was investigated in K0.5Na0.5NbO3 single crystals via the Landau–Ginzburg–Devonshire theory. Results show that the piezoelectric anisotropy varies with the temperature and the maximum of d33max* deviates from the polar direction of the ferroelectric phase. In the tetragonal phase, d33maxt* parallels with cubic polarization direction near the tetragonal-cubic transition region, and then gradually switches toward the nonpolar direction with decreasing temperatures. The maximum of d33o* in the orthorhombic phase reveals a distinct varying trend in different crystal planes. As for the rhombohedral phase, slight fluctuation of the maximum of d33r* was observed and delivered a more stable temperature-dependent maximum d33maxr* and its corresponding angle θmax in comparison with tetragonal and orthorhombic phases. This work not only sheds some light on the temperature-dependent phase transitions, but also paves the way for the optimization of piezoelectric properties in piezoelectric materials and devices.

We developed a pitch-catch system based on electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) for pipe inspection, which moves inside the pipe in the axial direction. The first higher mode, T(0,2), of the torsional guided wave is transmitted and detected, and variations of amplitude and phase are measured while moving the EMATs. Several aluminum pipes containing dish-shaped defects are inspected, and the amplitude and phase show enough detection sensitivity. It is found that the phase measurement has better potential as a tool for quantitative inspection. The applicability of the technique for steel pipe is also confirmed.

International audience; In this paper, we present a dynamic microfluidic tensiometer able to perform measurements over more than four decades and which is suitable for high throughput experimentations. This tensiometer is able to withstand hard conditions such as high pressure, high temperature, high salinity, and crude oil. It is made of two coaxial capillaries in which two immiscible fluids are injected. Depending on the flow rate of each phase, either droplets or jetting will be obtained. The transition between these two regimes relies on the Rayleigh-Plateau instability. This transition can be theoretically computed thanks to a linear analysis based on the convective and absolute instabilities theory. From this model, the interfacial tension between the two phases can be calculated.

The present paper investigates the use of electric current treatment in improving the drawability of plain carbon steel wire for high strength steel applications. The mechanical properties for wires of composition\ud 0.80C-0.65Mn-0.27Si wt.% of diameters 4.09 and 3.00 mm dry drawn from 10.00 mm rods are characterised. The total number of passes for 4.09 and 3.00 mm diameter wires are 7 and 10 respectively resulting in true strains of 1.79 and 2.41. Samples are treated with electric currents in-between the two drawing stages of 4.09 and 3.00 mm, and tested at both stages in tension, torsion and reverse bending along with control samples for comparison. The applied currents are pulsed at a frequency of 100 Hz with each pulse being approximated by a square wave of loading width 80μs and modest current densities of 7.96 Amm-2. Thus the infuence of electric current on the drawability of plain carbon steel wire is assessed between stages of reduction.

It is a well known and important problem in the aircraft engine industry that alloy Ti-6242 shows a significant reduction in fatigue life, termed dwell debit, if a stress dwell is included in the fatigue cycle, whereas Ti-6246 does not; the mechanistic explanation for the differing dwell debit of these alloys has remained elusive for decades. In this work, crystal plasticity modelling has been utilised to extract the thermal activation energies for pinned dislocation escape for both Ti alloys based on independent experimental data. This then allows the markedly different cold creep responses of the two alloys to be captured accurately and demonstrates why the observed near-identical rate sensitivity under non-dwell loading is entirely consistent with the dwell behaviour. The activation energies determined are then utilised within a recently developed thermally-activated discrete dislocation plasticity model to predict the strain rate sensitivities of the two alloys associated with nano-indentation into basal and prism planes. It is shown that Ti-6242 experiences a strong crystallographic orientation-dependent rate sensitivity while Ti-6246 does not which is shown to agree with recently published independent measurements; the dependence of rate sensitivity on indentation slip plane is also well captured. The thermally-activated discrete dislocation plasticity model shows that the incorporation of a stress dwell in fatigue loading leads to remarkable stress redistribution from soft to hard grains in the classical cold dwell fatigue rogue grain combination in alloy Ti-6242, but that no such load shedding occurs in alloy Ti-6246. The key property controlling the behaviour is the time constant of the thermal activation process relative to that of the loading. This work provides the first mechanistic basis to explain why alloy Ti-6242 shows a dwell debit but Ti-6246 does not.

We explore the effect of inhomogeneity on electronic properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model on a square lattice using dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The inhomogeneity is introduced via modulated lattice hopping such that in the extreme inhomogeneous limit the resulting geometry is a Lieb lattice, which exhibits a flat-band dispersion. The crossover can be observed in the uniform sublattice magnetization which is zero in the homogeneous case and increases with the inhomogeneity. Studying the spatially resolved frequency-dependent local self-energy, we find a crossover from Fermi-liquid to non-Fermi-liquid behavior happening at a moderate value of the inhomogeneity. This emergence of a non-Fermi liquid is concomitant of a quasi-flat band. For finite doping the system with small inhomogeneity displays $d$-wave superconductivity coexisting with incommensurate spin-density order, inferred from the presence of oscillatory DMFT solutions. The $d$-wave superconductivity gets suppressed for moderate to large inhomogeneity for any finite doping while the incommensurate spin-density order still exists., 12 Pages, 10 figures

A combination of strong Cooper pairing and weak superconducting fluctuations is crucial to achieve and stabilize high-Tc superconductivity. We demonstrate that a coexistence of a shallow carrier band with strong pairing and a deep band with weak pairing, together with the Josephson-like pair transfer between the bands to couple the two condensates, realizes an optimal multicomponent superconductivity regime: it preserves strong pairing to generate large gaps and a very high critical temperature but screens the detrimental superconducting fluctuations, thereby suppressing the pseudogap state. Surprisingly, we find that the screening is very efficient even when the inter-band coupling is very small. Thus, a multi-band superconductor with a coherent mixture of condensates in the BCS regime (deep band) and in the BCS-BEC crossover regime (shallow band) offers a promising route to higher critical temperatures., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, including supplemental materials