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Conversion of spin to charge current was observed in SrTiO3 doped with Nd (Nd:STO), which exhibited a metallic behavior even with low concentration doping. The obvious variation of DC voltages for Py/Nd:STO, obtained by inverting the spin diffusion direction, demonstrated that the detected signals contained the contribution from the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) induced by the spin dependent scattering from Nd impurities with strong spin-orbit interaction. The DC voltages of the ISHE for Nd:STO were measured at different microwave frequency and power, which revealed that spin currents were successfully injected into doped STO layer by spin pumping. The linear relation between the ISHE resistivity and the resistivity induced by impurities implied that the skew scattering was the dominant contribution in this case, and the spin Hall angle was estimated to be 0.17%. This work demonstrated that extrinsic spin dependent scattering in oxides can be used in spintroics besides that in heavy elements doped metals.

The (001) surface of SrTiO3 were transformed from insulating to conducting after Ar+ irradiation, producing a quasi two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). This conducting surface layer can introduce Rashba spin orbital coupling due to the broken inversion symmetry normal to the plane. The spin splitting of such a surface has recently been demonstrated by magneto-resistance and angular resolved photoemission spectra measurements. Here we present experiments evidencing a large spin-charge conversion at the surface. We use spin pumping to inject a spin current from NiFe film into the surface, and measure the resulting charge current. The results indicate that the Rashba effect at the surface can be used for efficient charge-spin conversion, and the large efficiency is due to the multi-d-orbitals and surface corrugation. It holds great promise in oxide spintronics., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

Besides its predicted promising high electron mobilities at room temperature, PtSe2 bandgap sensitively depends on the number of monolayers combined by van der Waals interaction according to our calculations. We understand this by using bandstructure calculations based on the density functional theory. It was found that the front orbitals of VBM and CBM are contributed mainly from pz and px+y orbitals of Se which are sensitive to the out-plane and in-plane lattice constants, respectively. The van der Waals force enhances the bonding out-of-plane, which in-turn influences the bonding in-plane. We found that the thickness dependent bandgap has the same origin as the strain dependent bandgap, which is from the change of the front orbital interactions. The work shows the flexibilities of tuning the electronic and optical properties of this compound in a wide range., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures

We develop a method for universally resolving the important issue of separating the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) from spin rectification effect (SRE) signal. This method is based on the consideration that the two effects depend on the spin injection direction: The ISHE is an odd function of the spin injection direction while the SRE is independent on it. Thus, inversion of the spin injection direction changes the ISHE voltage signal, while SRE voltage remains. It applies generally to analyzing the different voltage contributions without fitting them to special line shapes. This fast and simple method can be used in a wide frequency range, and has the flexibility of sample preparation., Comment: 4 figures

We calculated the electron mobility of 14 two dimensional semiconductors with composition of MX$_2$, where M (= Mo, W, Sn, Hf, Zr and Pt) is the transition metal, and X is S, Se and Te. We treated the scattering matrix by deformation potential approximation. Long wave longitudinal acoustical and optical phonon scatterings are included. Piezoelectric scattering in the compounds without inversion symmetry is also taken into account. We found that out of the 14 compounds, WSe$_2$, PtS$_2$ and PtSe$_2$, are promising regarding to the possible high electron mobility and finite band gap. The phonon limited mobility in PtSe$_2$ reaches about 3000 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ at room temperature which is the highest among the compounds. The bandgap under the local density approximation is 1.25 eV. Our results can be a guide for experiments to search for better two-dimensional materials for future semiconductor devices.

The electronic structures of four Laves phase iron compounds (e.g. YFe$_2$, ZrFe$_2$, LuFe$_2$ and HfFe$_2$) have been calculated by the state-of-the-art full potential electronic structure code. The magnetic moments collapse under hydrostatic pressure. This feature is found to be universal in these materials. Its electronic origin is provided by the sharp peaks in the density of states near the Fermi level. It is shown that a first order quantum phase transition can be expected under pressure in Y(Zr, or Lu)Fe$_2$, while a second order one in HfFe$_2$. The bonding characteristics are discussed to elucidate the equilibrium lattice constant variation. The large spontaneous volume magnetostriction gives one of the most important character of these compounds. Invar anomalies in these compounds can be partly explained by the current work when the fast continuous magnetic moment decrease at the decrease of the lattice constant was properly considered. This work may remind the experimentalists of these "old" compounds and exploration of the quantum properties under high pressures are greatly encouraged.

Electronic structure and magnetic properties of ZrFe$_2$ with a cubic Laves phase are investigated by calculations based on the density functional theory. The total magnetic moment (m) of 3.14 $\mu_B$ per formula unit (\emph{f.u.}) is obtained at the experimental lattice constant (7.06 \AA), which is larger than 3.06 $\mu_B$/\emph{f.u.} obtained at the theoretical equilibrium lattice constant (6.85 \AA). The localized $3d$ magnetic moment is in negative diffusive sp background moment. We predict a two-step magnetic collapse under pressure: one is from 3.06 $\mu_B$/\emph{f.u.} to 1.26 $\mu_B$/\emph{f.u.} at about 3.6 GPa, and the other is from 0.5 $\mu_B$/\emph{f.u.} to nonmagnetic state at about 15 GPa. We understand this process by the changes of density of states. The magnetic moment decreases under the pressure in the vicinity of the experimental lattice constant with $d\ln m/dp=-0.038$ GPa$^{-1}$. The spontaneous volume magnetostriction is 0.015. We suggest that the Invar effect of this alloy may be understood when considering the magnetic moment variation according to the Weiss $2\gamma$-model.

We calculated the longitudinal acoustic phonon limited electron mobility of 14 two dimensional semiconductors with composition of MX$_2$, where M (= Mo, W, Sn, Hf, Zr and Pt) is the transition metal, and X is S, Se and Te. We treated the scattering matrix by deformation potential approximation. We found that out of the 14 compounds, MoTe$_2$, HfSe$_2$ and HfTe$_2$, are promising regarding to the possible high mobility and finite band gap. The phonon limited mobility can be above 2500 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ at room temperature.

The integration of ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 with the Ge matrix is promising for spin injection in a silicon-compatible geometry. In this paper, we report the preparation of magnetic Mn5Ge3 nanocrystals embedded inside the Ge matrix by Mn ions implantation at elevated temperature. By X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, we observe crystalline Mn5Ge3 with variable size depending on the Mn ion fluence. The electronic structure of Mn in Mn5Ge3 nanocrystals is 3d6 configuration, the same as in bulk Mn5Ge3. A large positive magnetoresistance has been observed at low temperatures. It can be explained by the conductivity inhomogeneity in the magnetic/semiconductor hybrid system., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

Electronic structures of carbides with the rocksalt structure were calculated by full potential electronic codes solving the Kohn-Sham equation. Bonding characters were analyzed by constructing tight-binding Hamiltonian based on maximally-localized Wannier functions. It was found that the cations in these compounds act as an electron provider and the frame is formed by the carbon atoms. The electronic states in the vicinity of the Fermi level are mainly from the p-orbitals of C. Pressure and doping are two efficient ways to tune the magnetic and electronic properties of these compounds. It turns out that a spin gapless semiconductor can be obtained by applying hydrostatic pressure up to tens of gigaPascal. Higher pressure induced an insulator to metal transition because of band broadening. Compounds of IA group (Na, K, Rb, Cs) were magnetic semiconductor at ambient conditions. Alloying with IIA elements decrease the magnetic moment according to the law of $3-x$, where $x$ is the relative atomic ratio of the IIA elements to the IA ones. The behaviors of the compounds under the pressure and the doping effects can be understood by a rigid band model., Comment: 10 Pages, 8 figures

Electronic structures of MC where M is the alkali and alkaline earth metals with the rocksalt structure are calculated by full potential density functional codes. We find that the spin magnetic moment in the compounds is mainly contributed by the spin polarized p-orbitals of carbon. The large distance between the carbon makes the p-orbitals localized, which induces magnetic instability according to the Stoner criterion. The electronic structure can be mapped to the rigid band model. SrC, BaC and RaC are half-metals, while KC, RbC and CsC are magnetic semiconductors

In this comment on 'First-principles studies on magnetic properties of rocksalt structure MC(M=Ca, Sr, and Ba) under pressure'[Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 182501 (2011)]" we found that their results of the original paper are from nonconverged calculation with respect to the k-point mesh, because they used too few k-points. This gives meaningless results presented in Fig. 1, 2 and 3 in the paper. We recalculated the correpsonding curves.