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Melting in two dimensions can successfully be explained with the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young (KTHNY) scenario which describes the formation of the high-symmetry phase with the thermal activation of topological defects within an (ideally) infinite monodomain. With all state variables being well defined, it should hold also as freezing scenario where oppositely charged topological defects annihilate. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism, on the other hand, shows that spontaneous symmetry breaking alongside a continuous phase transition cannot support an infinite monodomain but leads to polycrystallinity. For any nonzero cooling rate, critical fluctuations will be frozen out in the vicinity of the transition temperature. This leads to domains with different director of the broken symmetry, separated by a defect structure, e.g., grain boundaries in crystalline systems. After instantaneously quenching a colloidal monolayer from a polycrystalline to the isotropic fluid state, we show that such grain boundaries increase the probability for the formation of dislocations. In addition, we determine the temporal decay of defect core energies during the first few Brownian times after the quench. Despite the fact that the KTHNY scenario describes a continuous phase transition and phase equilibrium does not exist, melting in polycrystalline samples starts at grain boundaries similar to first-order phase transitions. published

Grain boundaries in materials have substantial influences on device properties, for instance on mechanical stability or electronic minority carrier lifetime in multicrystalline silicon solar cells. This applies especially to asymmetric, less ordered or faceted interface portions. Here, we present the complex atomic interface structure of an asymmetric S9 tilt grain boundary in silicon, observed by high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM) and explained by atomistic modeling and computer simulation. Structural optimization of interface models for the asymmetric S9 and related symmetrical S9 and S3 tilt grain boundaries, by means of molecular-statics simulations with empirical silicon potentials in combination with first-principles calculations, results in a faceted asymmetric interface structure, whose grain-boundary energy is so low that it is likely to exist. The simulated local atomic structures match the observed HR-STEM images very well.

An important step forward for the understanding of high-temperature superconductivity has been the discovery of iron-based superconductors. Among these compounds, iron pnictides could be used for high-field magnet applications, resulting more advantageous over conventional superconductors, due to a high upper critical field as well as its low anisotropy at low temperatures. However, the principal obstacle in fabricating high quality superconducting wires and tapes is given by grain boundaries. In order to study these effects, the dc transport and voltage-noise properties of Co-doped BaFe₂As₂ superconducting films with artificial grain boundary junctions have been investigated. A specific procedure allows the separation of the film noise from that of the junction. While the former shows a standard 1/f behaviour, the latter is characterized by an unconventional temperature-dependent multi-Lorentzian voltage-spectral density. Moreover, below the film superconducting critical temperature, a peculiar noise spectrum is found for the grain boundary junction. Possible theoretical interpretation of these phenomena is proposed.

International audience; ZnO thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering on c-plane sapphire may exhibit a columnar growth with an average column diameter depending on the deposition temperature. In this case two epitaxial relationships coexist and adjacent columns are rotated, one from the other, by 90° around the [0001] direction. The long range rotation between domains is in agreement with the theoretical epitaxial relationships, but the local angles oscillate between 27° and 32° due to the formation of interfaces, which settle into low energy configurations with grain boundary dislocations of a Burgers vectors and 5/7 aligned structural units for the 32.2° tilt angle.

We report on the fabrication procedure and the transport properties of submicron grain boundary biepitaxial YBCO Josephson junctions. These first results are very encouraging and justify further expectations on improved performances for such types of devices. A reduced and more controlled faceting along the grain boundary interface, for instance, will better preserve intrinsic d-wave effects, and favour the study of fluxons dynamics.