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This paper presents a two-stage method for beam hardening artifact correction of dental cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT). The proposed artifact reduction method is designed to improve the quality of maxillofacial imaging, where soft tissue details are not required. Compared to standard CT, the additional difficulty of dental CBCT comes from the problems caused by offset detector, FOV truncation, and low signal-to-noise ratio due to low X-ray irradiation. To address these problems, the proposed method primarily performs a sinogram adjustment in the direction of enhancing data consistency, considering the situation according to the FOV truncation and offset detector. This sinogram correction algorithm significantly reduces beam hardening artifacts caused by high-density materials such as teeth, bones, and metal implants, while tending to amplify special types of noise. To suppress such noise, a deep convolutional neural network is complementarily used, where CT images adjusted by the sinogram correction are used as the input of the neural network. Numerous experiments validate that the proposed method successfully reduces beam hardening artifacts and, in particular, has the advantage of improving the image quality of teeth, associated with maxillofacial CBCT imaging.

Kitaev quantum spin liquid is a topological magnetic quantum state characterized by Majorana fermions of fractionalized spin excitations, which are identical to their own antiparticles. Here, we demonstrate emergence of Majorana fermions thermally fractionalized in the Kitaev honeycomb spin lattice {\alpha}-RuCl3. The specific heat data unveil the characteristic two-stage release of magnetic entropy involving localized and itinerant Majorana fermions. The inelastic neutron scattering results further corroborate these two distinct fermions by exhibiting quasielastic excitations at low energies around the Brillouin zone center and Y-shaped magnetic continuum at high energies, which are evident for the ferromagnetic Kitaev model. Our results provide an opportunity to build a unified conceptual framework of fractionalized excitations, applicable also for the quantum Hall states, superconductors, and frustrated magnets.

Anderson proposed structural topology in frustrated magnets hosting novel quantum spin liquids (QSLs). The QSL state is indeed exactly derived by fractionalizing the spin excitation into spinless Majorana fermions in a perfect two dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, the so-called Kitaev lattice, and its experimental realisation is eagerly being pursued. Here we, for the first time, report the Kitaev lattice stacking with van der Waals (vdW) bonding in a high quality {\alpha}-RuCl$_3$ crystal using x-ray and neutron diffractions. Even in absence of apparent monoclinic distortion, the system exhibits antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering below 6.5 K, likely due to minute magnetic interaction from trigonal distortion and/or interlayer coupling additionally to the Kitaev Hamiltonian. We also demonstrate 2D Ising-like critical behaviors near the N\'eel temperature in the order parameter and specific heat, capturing the characteristics of short-range spin-spin correlations underlying the Kitaev model. Our findings hold promise for unveiling enigmatic physics emerging from the Kitaev QSL.

We studied the novel multiferroic material Sr$_2$FeSi$_2$O$_7$, and found 3 absorption modes above the magnetic ordering transition temperature using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. These absorption modes can be explained as the optical transitions between the spin-orbit coupling and crystal field split 3d$^6$ Fe$^{2+}$ ground state term in this material. Consideration of the compressed tetrahedral environment of the Fe$^{2+}$ site is crucial to understand the excitations. We point out, however, discrepancies between the single-site atomic picture and the experimental results., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Submitted. Small correction to figure 3 and corresponding discussion

Comprehensive x-ray scattering studies, including resonant scattering at Mn L-edge, Tb L- and M-edges, were performed on single crystals of TbMn2O5. X-ray intensities were observed at a forbidden Bragg position in the ferroelectric phases, in addition to the lattice and the magnetic modulation peaks. Temperature dependences of their intensities and the relation between the modulation wave vectors provide direct evidences of exchange striction induced ferroelectricity. Resonant x-ray scattering results demonstrate the presence of multiple magnetic orders by exhibiting their different temperature dependences. The commensurate-to-incommensurate phase transition around 24 K is attributed to discommensuration through phase slipping of the magnetic orders in spin frustrated geometries. We proposed that the low temperature incommensurate phase consists of the commensurate magnetic domains separated by anti-phase domain walls which reduce spontaneous polarizations abruptly at the transition., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures