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Bonding characteristics of liquid boron at 2500K are studied by using high resolution Compton scattering. An excellent agreement is found between the measurements and the corresponding Car-Parinello molecular dynamics simulations. Covalent bond pairs are clearly shown to dominate in liquid boron along with the coexistence of diffuse pairs. Our study reveals the complex bonding pattern of liquid boron, and gives insight into the unusual properties of this high temperature liquid.

A topological crystalline insulator (TCI) is a new phase of topological matter, which is predicted to exhibit distinct topological quantum phenomena, since space group symmetries replace the role of time-reversal symmetry in the much-studied Z$_2$ topological insulators. Utilizing high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we reveal the momentum space nature of interconnectivity of the Fermi surface pockets leading to a saddle point singularity within the topological surface state alone in the TCI Pb$_{0.7}$Sn$_{0.3}$Se. Moreover, we show that the measured momentum-integrated density of states exhibits pronounced peaks at the saddle point energies, demonstrating the van Hove singularities (VHSs) in the topological surface states, whose surface chemical potential, as we show, can be tuned via surface chemical gating, providing access to the topological correlated physics on the surface. Our experimental data reveal a delicate relationship among lattice constant, band gap and spin-orbit coupling strength associated with the topological phase transition in Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$Se. Furthermore, we explore the robustness of the TCI phase with VHS in Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$Se, which shows a variety of distinct topological phase transitions driven by either thermal instability or broken crystalline symmetry, and thus revealing a rich topological phase diagram connectivity in Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$Se for the first time., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figres

A Z2 topological insulator protected by time-reversal symmetry is realized via spin-orbit interaction driven band inversion. For example, the topological phase in the Bi-Sb system is due to an odd number of band inversions. A related spin-orbit system, the (Pb/Sn)Te class, has been known to contain an even number of inversions based on band theory. Here we experimentally investigate the possibility of a mirror symmetry protected topological crystalline insulator phase in the (Pb/Sn)Te class of materials which has been theoretically predicted to exist in its non-alloyed version. Our experimental results show that at a finite-Pb composition above the topological inversion phase transition, the surface exhibits even number of spin-polarized Dirac cone states (as opposed to odd as observed in Bi-Sb alloy or Bi2Se3) revealing mirror protected topological order distinct from that observed in Bi-Sb or Bi2Se3. Our observation of the spin-polarized Dirac surface states in the inverted (Pb/Sn)Te and their absence in the non-inverted compounds related via a topological phase transition (spin-orbit induced band inversion type) provide the experimental groundwork for opening the research on novel topological order in future quantum devices., Comment: 45 pages, 17 Figures, Earlier observation reported at http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1206.2088 (11th June, 2012); Expanded ver.(17 Figs) accepted for publication (in press) in Nature Communications (2012)

We perform systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements on the lead tin telluride Pb1-xSnxTe pseudobinary alloy system. We show that the (001) crystalline surface, which is a crystalline surface symmetric about the (110) mirror planes of the Pb1-xSnxTe crystal, pos- sesses four metallic surface states within its surface Brillouin zone. Our systematic Fermi surface and band topology measurements show that the observed Dirac-like surface states lie on the symmetric momentum-space cuts. We further show that upon going to higher electron binding energies, the surface states' isoenergetic countours in close vicinity of each X point are observed to hybridize with each other, leading to a Fermi surface fractionalization and the Lifshitz transition. In addition, systematic incident photon energy dependent measurements are performed, which enable us to un- ambiguously identify the surface states from the bulk bands. These systematic measurements of the surface and bulk electronic structure on Pb1-xSnxTe, supported by our first principles calculation results, for the first time, show that the Pb1-xSnxTe system belongs to the topological crystalline insulator phase due to the four band inversions at the L points in its Brillouin zone, which has been recently theoretically predicted., Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figures, Submitted May '12

Metallic liquid silicon at 1787K is investigated using x-ray Compton scattering. An excellent agreement is found between the measurements and the corresponding Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show persistence of covalent bonding in liquid silicon and provide support for the occurrence of theoretically predicted liquid-liquid phase transition in supercooled liquid states. The population of covalent bond pairs in liquid silicon is estimated to be 17% via a maximally-localized Wannier function analysis. Compton scattering is shown to be a sensitive probe of bonding effects in the liquid state., Comment: 5pages, 3 postscript figures

We report a first study of low energy electronic structure and Fermi surface topology for the recently discovered iron-based superconductor Ca10(Pt3As8)(Fe2As2)5 (the 10-3-8 phase, with Tc = 8K), via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Despite its triclinic crystal structure, ARPES results reveal a fourfold symmetric band structure with the absence of Dirac-cone-like Fermi dots (related to magnetism) found around the Brillouin zone corners in other iron-based superconductors. Considering that the triclinic lattice and structural supercell arising from the Pt3As8 intermediary layers, these results indicate that those layers couple only weakly to the FeAs layers in this new superconductor, which has implications for the determination of its potentially novel pairing mechanism., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We present first-principles calculations to predict several three dimensional (3D) topological insulators in quaternary chalcogenide compounds which are made of I$_2$-II-IV-VI$_4$ compositions and in ternary compositions of I$_3$-V-VI$_4$ famatinite compounds. Among the large members of these two families, we give examples of naturally occurring compounds which are mainly Cu-based chalcogenides. We show that these materials are candidates of 3D topological insulators or can be tuned to obtain topological phase transition by manipulating the atomic number of the other cation and anion elements. A band inversion can occur at a single point $\Gamma$ with considerably large inversion strength, in addition to the opening of a bulk band gap throughout the Brillouin zone. We also demonstrate that both of these families are related to each other by cross-substitutions of cations in the underlying tetragonal structure and that one can suitably tune their topological properties in a desired manner., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Subband structure and depolarization shifts in an ultra-high mobility GaAs/Al_{0.24}Ga_{0.76}As quantum well are studied using magneto-infrared spectroscopy via resonant subband Landau level coupling. Resonant couplings between the 1st and up to the 4th subbands are identified by well-separated anti-level-crossing split resonance, while the hy-lying subbands were identified by the cyclotron resonance linewidth broadening in the literature. In addition, a forbidden intersubband transition (1st to 3rd) has been observed. With the precise determination of the subband structure, we find that the depolarization shift can be well described by the semiclassical slab plasma model, and the possible origins for the forbidden transition are discussed., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

We have studied a series of InAs/GaSb coupled quantum wells using magneto-infrared spectroscopy for high magnetic fields up to 33T within temperatures ranging from 4K to 45K in both Faraday and tilted field geometries. This type of coupled quantum wells consists of an electron layer in the InAs quantum well and a hole layer in the GaSb quantum well, forming the so-called two dimensional electron-hole bilayer system. Unlike the samples studied in the past, the hybridization of the electron and hole subbands in our samples is largely reduced by having narrower wells and an AlSb barrier layer interposed between the InAs and the GaSb quantum wells, rendering them weakly hybridized. Previous studies have revealed multiple absorption modes near the electron cyclotron resonance of the InAs layer in moderately and strongly hybridized samples, while only a single absorption mode was observed in the weakly hybridized samples. We have observed a pair of absorption modes occurring only at magnetic fields higher than 14T, which exhibited several interesting phenomena. Among which we found two unique types of behavior that distinguishes this work from the ones reported in the literature. This pair of modes is very robust against rising thermal excitations and increasing magnetic fields alligned parallel to the heterostructures. While the previous results were aptly explained by the antilevel crossing gap due to the hybridization of the electron and hole wavefunctions, i.e. conduction-valence Landau level mixing, the unique features reported in this paper cannot be explained within the same concept. The unusual properties found in this study and their connection to the known models for InAs/GaSb heterostructures will be disccused; in addition, several alternative ideas will be proposed in this paper and it appears that a spontaneous phase separation can account for most of the observed features.

We have carried out first principles all-electron calculations of the (001)-projected 2D electron momentum density and the directional Compton profiles along the [100], [001] and [110] directions in the Fe-based superconductor LaOFeAs within the framework of the local density approximation. We identify Fermi surface features in the 2D electron momentum density and the directional Compton profiles, and discuss issues related to the observation of these features via Compton scattering experiments., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We report a study of the cyclotron resonance (CR) transitions to and from the unusual $n=0$ Landau level (LL) in monolayer graphene. Unexpectedly, we find the CR transition energy exhibits large (up to 10%) and non-monotonic shifts as a function of the LL filling factor, with the energy being largest at half-filling of the $n=0$ level. The magnitude of these shifts, and their magnetic field dependence, suggests that an interaction-enhanced energy gap opens in the $n=0$ level at high magnetic fields. Such interaction effects normally have limited impact on the CR due to Kohn's theorem [W. Kohn, Phys. Rev. {\bf 123}, 1242 (1961)], which does not apply in graphene as a consequence of the underlying linear band structure., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Version 2, edited for publication. Includes a number of edits for clarity; also added a paragraph contrasting our work w/ previous CR expts. in 2D Si and GaAs

The carrier of the 2175 Angstrom interstellar extinction feature remains unidentified since its first detection over 40 years ago. In recent years carbon buckyonions have been proposed as a carrier of this feature, based on the close similarity between the electronic transition spectra of buckyonions and the 2175 Angstrom interstellar feature. We examine this hypothesis by modeling the interstellar extinction with buckyonions as a dust component. It is found that dust models containing buckyonions (in addition to amorphous silicates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules, graphite) can closely reproduce the observed interstellar extinction curve. To further test this hypothesis, we call for experimental measurements and/or theoretical calculations of the infrared vibrational spectra of hydrogenated buckyonions. By comparing the infrared emission spectra predicted for buckyonions vibrationally excited by the interstellar radiation with the observed emission spectra of the diffuse interstellar medium, we will be able to derive (or place an upper limit on) the abundance of interstellar buckyonions., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. Lett., in press

Although it is well recognized that gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are obscured and reddened by dust in their host galaxies, the wavelength-dependence and quantity of dust extinction are still poorly known. Current studies on this mostly rely on fitting the afterglow spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with template extinction models. The inferred extinction (both quantity and wavelength-dependence) and dust-to-gas ratios are often in disagreement with that obtained from dust depletion and X-ray spectroscopy studies. We argue that this discrepancy could result from the prior assumption of a template extinction law. We propose an analytical formula to approximate the GRB host extinction law. With the template extinction laws self-contained, and the capability of revealing extinction laws differing from the conventional ones, it is shown that this is a powerful approach in modeling the afterglow SEDs to derive GRB host extinction., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; The Astrophysical Journal, in press (2008 Oct 1 issue)

We present the first measurements of cyclotron resonance of electrons and holes in bilayer graphene. In magnetic fields up to B = 18 T we observe four distinct intraband transitions in both the conduction and valence bands. The transition energies are roughly linear in B between the lowest Landau levels, whereas they follow \sqrt{B} for the higher transitions. This highly unusual behavior represents a change from a parabolic to a linear energy dispersion. The density of states derived from our data generally agrees with the existing lowest order tight binding calculation for bilayer graphene. However in comparing data to theory, a single set of fitting parameters fails to describe the experimental results., Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. Updated version with two added references and minor text editing

Using far-infrared spectroscopy we have studied the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the spin gap modes in the chains of Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$. Two triplet modes T$_1$ and T$_2$ were found in the center of the Brillouin zone at $\Delta_1=9.65$ meV and $\Delta_2=10.86$ meV in zero magnetic field. The T$_1$ mode was excited when the electric field vector ${\bf E}$ of the light was polarized along the b axis (perpendicular to the planes of chains and ladders) and T$_2$ was excited for ${\bf E}\parallel {\bf a}$ (perpendicular to the chains and along the rungs). Up to the maximum magnetic field of 18 T, applied along the chains, the electron $g$ factors of these two modes were similar, $g_{1c}=2.049$ and $g_{2c}=2.044$. Full linewidth at half maximum for both modes was 1 cm$^{-1}$ (0.12 meV) at 4K and increased with $T$. The temperature dependence of mode energies and line intensities was in agreement with the inelastic neutron scattering results from two groups [Matsuda {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 59}, 1060 (1999) and Regnault {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 59}, 1055 (1999)]. The T$_1$ mode has not been observed by inelastic neutron scattering in the points of the $k$-space equivalent to the center of the Brillouin zone. Our study indicates that the zone structure model of magnetic excitations of Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ must be modified to include a triplet mode at 9.65 meV in the center of the magnetic Brillouin zone.

we report an ultrafast synchrotron x-ray phase contrast imaging study of the primary breakup mechanism of a coaxial air-assisted water jet. We demonstrate that there exist great similarities in the phenomenology of primary breakup with that of the secondary breakup. Especially, a membrane-mediated breakup mechanism dominates the breakup process for a wide range of air speeds. This finding reveals the intrinsic connections of these two breakup regimes and has deep implications on the unified theoretical approach in treating the breakup mechanism of high speed liquid jet., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We report infrared studies of the Landau level (LL) transitions in single layer graphene. Our specimens are density tunable and show \textit{in situ} half-integer quantum Hall plateaus. Infrared transmission is measured in magnetic fields up to B=18 T at selected LL fillings. Resonances between hole LLs and electron LLs, as well as resonances between hole and electron LLs are resolved. Their transition energies are proportional to $\sqrt{B}$ and the deduced band velocity is $\tilde{c}\approx1.1\times10^6$ m/s. The lack of precise scaling between different LL transitions indicates considerable contributions of many-particle effects to the infrared transition energies., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

The temperature dependence of the specific heat and spin susceptibility of the spin ladders with cyclic four-spin interactions in the rung-singlet phase is explored by making use of the transfer-matrix renormalization group method. The values of spin gap are extracted from the specific heat and susceptibility, respectively. It is found that for different relative strength between interchain and intrachain interactions, the spin gap is approximately linear with the cyclic four-spin interaction in the region far away from the critical point. Furthermore, we show that the dispersion for the one-triplet magnon branch can be obtained by numerically fitting on the partition function., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

We present a systematic investigation of the magnetoreflectance of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite in magnetic field B up to 18 T . From these measurements, we report the determination of lifetimes tau associated with the lowest Landau levels in the quantum limit. We find a linear field dependence for inverse lifetime 1/tau(B) of the lowest Landau levels, which is consistent with the hypothesis of a three-dimensional (3D) to 1D crossover in an anisotropic 3D metal in the quantum limit. This enigmatic result uncovers the origin of the anomalous linear in-plane magnetoresistance observed both in bulk graphite and recently in mesoscopic graphite samples.

We observed a large HEMD effect in the bilayer manganite (La$_{0.4}$Pr$_{0.6}$)$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_2$O$_7$, a direct consequence of field driven spin-glass insulator to ferromagnetic metal transition. The remnants of the transition can be used to achieve dielectric contrast at room temperature. This discovery suggests that electronic mechanisms such as the metal-insulator transition, charge ordering, and orbital ordering can be exploited to give substantial dielectric contrast in other materials., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We measured the magneto-optical response of (La$_{0.4}$Pr$_{0.6}$)$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_2$O$_7$ in order to investigate the microscopic aspects of the magnetic field driven spin-glass insulator to ferromagnetic metal transition. Application of a magnetic field recovers the ferromagnetic state with an overall redshift of the electronic structure, growth of the bound carrier localization associated with ferromagnetic domains, development of a pseudogap, and softening of the Mn-O stretching and bending modes that indicate a structural change. We discuss field- and temperature-induced trends within the framework of the Tomioka-Tokura global electronic phase diagram picture and suggest that controlled disorder near a phase boundary can be used to tune the magnetodielectric response. Remnants of the spin-glass insulator to ferromagnetic metallic transition can also drive 300 K color changes in (La$_{0.4}$Pr$_{0.6}$)$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_2$O$_7$., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

We perform a direct study of the magnitude of the anomalous splitting in the cyclotron resonance (CR) of a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) as a function of sample disorder. In a series of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wells, identical except for a range of carbon doping in the well, we find the CR splitting to vanish at high sample mobilities but to increase dramatically with increasing impurity density and electron scattering rates. This observation lends strong support to the conjecture that the non-zero wavevector, roton-like minimum in the dispersion of 2D magnetoplasmons comes into resonance with the CR, with the two modes being coupled via disorder., Comment: accepted to PRB Rapid Comm

The dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), an ideal analog of primordial galaxies at high redshifts, differs markedly from that in the Milky Way by exhibiting a steeply rising far-ultraviolet extinction curve, an absence of the 2175 Angstrom extinction feature, and a local minimum at ~12 micron in its infrared emission spectrum, suggesting the lack of ultrasmall carbonaceous grains (i.e. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules) which are ubiquitously seen in the Milky Way. While current models for the SMC dust all rely heavily on silicates, recent observations of the SMC sightline toward Sk 155 indicated that Si and Mg are essentially undepleted and the depletions of Fe range from mild to severe, suggesting that metallic grains and/or iron oxides, instead of silicates, may dominate the SMC dust. However, in this Letter we apply the Kramers-Kronig relation to demonstrate that neither metallic grains nor iron oxides are capable of accounting for the observed extinction; silicates remain as an important contributor to the extinction, consistent with current models for the SMC dust., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; The Astrophysical Journal Letters, in press

Properties of the zigzag spin chains with various nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor interactions are studied by making use of the transfer-matrix renormalization group method. Thermodynamic quantities of the systems (temperature dependence of the susceptibility and the specific heat), as well as the field dependence of the magnetization are analyzed numerically with a high accuracy in the thermodynamic limit. The results have been compared with the recent experimental data on Rb$_2$Cu$_{2}$Mo$_{3}$O$_{12}$., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Published in Physical Review B

We report a comprehensive infrared magneto-spectroscopy study of CeRu$_4$Sb$_{12}$ compound revealing quasiparticles with heavy effective mass m$^*$, with a detailed analysis of optical constants in fields up to 17 T. We find that the applied magnetic field strongly affects the low energy excitations in the system. In particular, the magnitude of m$^*$ $\simeq$ 70 m$_b$ (m$_b$ is the quasiparticle band mass) at 10 K is suppressed by as much as 25 % at 17 T. This effect is in quantitative agreement with the mean-field solution of the periodic Anderson model augmented with a Zeeman term.

We study the temporal growth pattern of surface fluctuations on a series of spinodally unstable polymer films where the degree of instability is controlled by the film thickness. For films in the deep spinodal region, the growth rate function of the surface modes as a function of the wavevector,, fits well to the mean-field theory. As the film thickness is increased and the film instability decreases, the mean-field theory demonstrates marked disagreement with experiment, notwithstanding provision of the known corrections for random thermal noise. We show that the deviations arise from large-amplitude fluctuations induced by homogeneous nucleation, which has not been considered in conventional treatment of thermal noise., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

We have studied far infrared transmission spectra of alpha'-NaV2O5 between 3 and 200cm-1 in polarizations of incident light parallel to a, b, and c crystallographic axes in magnetic fields up to 33T. The triplet origin of an excitation at 65.4cm-1 is revealed by splitting in the magnetic field. The magnitude of the spin gap at low temperatures is found to be magnetic field independent at least up to 33T. All other infrared-active transitions appearing below Tc are ascribed to zone-folded phonons. Two different dynamic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) mechanisms have been discovered that contribute to the oscillator strength of the otherwise forbidden singlet to triplet transition. 1. The strongest singlet to triplet transition is an electric dipole transition where the polarization of the incident light's electric field is parallel to the ladder rungs, and is allowed by the dynamic DM interaction created by a high frequency optical a-axis phonon. 2. In the incident light polarization perpendicular to the ladder planes an enhancement of the singlet to triplet transition is observed when the applied magnetic field shifts the singlet to triplet resonance frequency to match the 68cm-1 c-axis phonon energy. The origin of this mechanism is the dynamic DM interaction created by the 68cm-1 c-axis optical phonon. The strength of the dynamic DM is calculated for both mechanisms using the presented theory., Comment: 21 pages, 22 figures. Version 2 with replaced fig. 18 were labels had been lost

We present data on mobility lifetime, $\tau_t$, quantum lifetime, $\tau_q$, and cyclotron resonance lifetime, $\tau_{CR}$, of a sequence of high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases in the AlGaN/GaN system, covering a density range of $\sim1-4.5\times10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$. We observe a large discrepancy between $\tau_q$ and $\tau_{CR}$ ($\tau_q\sim\tau_{CR}$/6) and explain it as the result of density fluctuations of only a few percent. Therefore, only $\tau_{CR}$ --and not $\tau_q$ -- is a reliable measure of the time between electron scattering events in these specimens. The ratio $\tau_t / \tau_{CR}$ increases with increasing density in this series of samples, but scattering over this density range remains predominantly in the large-angle scattering regime.

Using cyclotron resonance, we measure the effective mass, $m$*, of electrons in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with densities, $n_{2D}\sim 1-6\times10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$. From our extensive data, we extrapolate a band edge mass of $(0.208\pm0.002) m_e$. By comparing our $m$* data with the results of a multi-band \textbf{k.p} calculation we infer that the effect of remote bands is essential in explaining the observed conduction band non-parabolicity (NP). Our calculation of polaron mass corrections -- including finite width and screening - suggests those to be negligible. It implies that the behavior of $m*(n_{2D})$ can be understood solely in terms of NP. Finally, using our NP and polaron corrections, we are able to reduce the large scatter in the published band edge mass values.

Quantum phase transitions induced by an external magnetic field in the Haldane-gapped spin-1 chains are studied in a fermionic field-theoretic description of the model. In the case with broken axial symmetry, two transitions occurs consecutively as increasing the field: $h_c=(m_1 m_2)^{1/2}$ (with $m_1$ and $m_2$ the transverse masses) is the critical Ising point and $\tilde{h}_c^* (> h_c)$ is the commensurate-incommensurate transition point. Although the latter is thermodynamically indiscernible, its property is revealed in the spin correlation functions (both uniform and staggered) which are calculated upon expressing the correlations of coupled Ising pair fields in terms of block-Toeplitz determinants., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures