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Stoichiometric Cr2Se3 single crystals are particular layer-structured antiferromagnets, which possess a noncollinear spin configuration, weak ferromagnetic moments, moderate magnetoresistance (MR ∼14.3%), and poor metallic conductivity below the antiferromagnetic phase transition. Here, we report an interesting >16 000% colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect in Ti (1.5 atomic percent) lightly doped Cr2Se3 single crystals. Such a CMR is approximately 1143 times larger than that of the stoichiometric Cr2Se3 crystals and is rarely observed in layered antiferromagnets and is attributed to the frustrated spin configuration. Moreover, the Ti doping not only dramatically changes the electronic conductivity of the Cr2Se3 crystal from a bad metal to a semiconductor with a gap of ∼15 meV but also induces a change in the magnetic anisotropy of the Cr2Se3 crystal from strong out-of-plane to weak in-plane. Further, magnetotransport measurements reveal that the low-field MR scales with the square of the reduced magnetization, which is a signature of CMR materials. The layered Ti:Cr2Se3 with the CMR effect could be used as two-dimensional (2D) heterostructure building blocks to provide colossal negative MR in spintronic devices.

Linear magnetoresistance (LMR) is a special case of a magnetic-field induced resistivity response, which has been reported in highly disordered semiconductor systems and in topological materials. In this work, we observe LMR effect in half-metallic perovskite Sr2CrMoO6 thin films, of which the maximum MR value exceeds +1600% at 2 K and 14 T. It is an unusual behavior in ferrimagnetic double perovskite material like Sr2CrMoO6, which are known for intrinsic tunneling-type negative magnetoresistance. In the thin films, the high carriers’ density (~1022 cm−3) and ultrahigh mobility (~104 cm2 V−1 s−1) provide a low-resistivity (~10 nΩ·cm) platform for spin-polarized current. Our DFT calculations and magnetic measurements further support the half-metal band structure. The LMR effect in Sr2CrMoO6 could possibly originate from transport behavior that is governed by the guiding center motion of cyclotron orbitals, where the magnetic domain structure possibly provides disordered potential. The ultrahigh mobility and LMR in this system could broaden the applications of perovskites, and introduce more research on metallic oxide ferri-/ferro-magnetic materials.

We report the synthesis of transition-metal-doped ferromagnetic elemental single-crystal semiconductors with quantum oscillations using the physical vapor transport method. The 7.7 atom% Cr-doped Te crystals (Cr_Te) show ferromagnetism, butterfly-like negative magnetoresistance in the low temperature (< 3.8 K) and low field (< 0.15 T) region, and high Hall mobility, e.g., 1320 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 30 K and 350 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 300 K, implying that Cr_Te crystals are ferromagnetic elemental semiconductors. When B // c // I, the maximum negative MR is -27% at T = 20 K and B = 8 T. In the low temperature semiconducting region, Cr_Te crystals show strong discrete scale invariance dominated logarithmic quantum oscillations when the direction of the magnetic field B is parallel to the [100] crystallographic direction and show Landau quantization dominated Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations for B // [210] direction, which suggests the broken rotation symmetry of the Fermi pockets in the Cr_Te crystals. The findings of coexistence of multiple quantum oscillations and ferromagnetism in such an elemental quantum material may inspire more study of narrow bandgap semiconductors with ferromagnetism and quantum phenomena., 25 pages, 25 figures

We report the existence of ferromagnetism in the thiospinel compound CuCo2S4 with Tc ∼ 125 K. The magneto-electronic transport of the CuCo2S4 demonstrates a metallic conductivity and positive magnetoresistance at high temperature. At low temperature, in the ferromagnetic state, there is evidence of spin-transport coupling with magnetic domains giving a region of negative magnetoresistance near the coercive field. The electronic band structure of CuCo2S4 was calculated using density-functional theory (DFT), which shows a ferromagnetic metallic state, in agreement with experiment. With nickel doping, both the spinel CuCo1.5Ni0.5S4 and CuCoNiS4 display paramagnetism down to the lowest measured temperature (3 K). This indicates that, as in other itinerant magnetic sulfides, the exchange interactions are highly sensitive to electron/hole doping. The tunable magnetism in the spinel CuCo2S4, together with its high conductivity, suggests that this thiospinel material could be a candidate for spintronic applications.

In quantum materials, the Fermi surface and physical behaviors are particularly sensitive to the crystal quality and composition, while it is difficult to obtain a large quantity of quasi-continuou...

The concept of composite material has been increasingly applied for the significant improvement in the thermoelectric performance because of the predictable effective medium properties and the unique interfacial correlated thermal and electrical transport mechanism. Herein, we report that the graphene inclusion can lead to a significant reduction in thermal conductivity and improve the overall thermoelectric figure-of-merit in SnSe. We demonstrate a systematic investigation on the microstructures and electrical and thermoelectric properties of the SnSe/graphene composite. HRTEM reveals the uniform distribution of graphene nanosheets in the SnSe matrix, forming a sharp interface with refined SnSe grain sizes and defects nearby the interfaces. Thermal conductivity decreases with graphene addition and can significantly reduce to as low as ∼0.18 W m-1 K-1, resulting in an enhanced figure of merit (ZT) of the SnSe/graphene composite by at least 50% compared with pristine SnSe. The significant reduction in thermal conductivity is attributed to the phonon scattering by densely distributed phase interfaces as well as defects and grain boundaries. The carbon element is also believed to potentially reduce long-range tin diffusion by acting as a confinement barrier to restrict heat and ion diffusion. Our work proves that the graphene secondary phase could enhance the ZT of the SnSe matrix, which might pave the way for achieving high-performance thermoelectric properties in carbon-induced composite materials.

Stoichiometric Cr

Novel compounds with two-dimensional square lattices formed by group IV or V elements (Si, Sn, Ge, Bi, and Sb) have been attracting a great deal of attention in recent times, mainly because of the possible emergence of various topological phases therein. Here, we successfully grow the single crystals of Sn-square-net based material $\mathrm{Sc}{\mathrm{Sn}}_{2}$, and systematically perform their magnetization and magnetotransport measurements. Clear quantum oscillations emerge in the magnetization isotherms along different field orientations, from which nonzero Berry phases are extracted, implying that $\mathrm{Sc}{\mathrm{Sn}}_{2}$ harbors three-dimensional Fermi surfaces and nontrivial electronic states. Similar to many other topological semimetals with extremely large magnetoresistance, $\mathrm{Sc}{\mathrm{Sn}}_{2}$ shows field-induced resistivity enhancement as well, which has been proven to be not of a gap opening origin. Besides, at low temperature, large magnetoresistance with a quasilinear field dependence is observed. Our analysis of the magnetotransport data finds that the quasilinear magnetoresistance in $\mathrm{Sc}{\mathrm{Sn}}_{2}$ cannot be understood by several familiar mechanisms proposed in the literature. These findings are expected to have far reaching implications for both the fundamental understanding and magnetoresistance device application of topological semimetal materials.

Topological insulators (TIs) are emergent materials with unique band structure, which allow the study of quantum effect in solids, as well as contribute to high-performance quantum devices. To achieve the better performance of TIs, here, we present a codoping strategy using synergistic rare-earth (RE) Sm and transition-metal Fe dopants in ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ single crystals, which combine the advantages of both a transition-metal-doped TI [high ferromagnetic ordering temperature and observed quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE)], and a RE doped TI (large magnetic moments and significant spin-orbit coupling). In the as-grown single crystals, clear evidences of ferromagnetic ordering were observed. The angle-resolve photoemission spectroscopy indicates the ferromagnetism opens a \ensuremath{\sim}44 meV band gap at the surface Dirac point. Moreover, the mobility of the carriers at 3 K is $\ensuremath{\sim}7400\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{2}/\mathrm{Vs}$, and we thus observed an ultra-strong Shubnikov--de Haas oscillation in the longitudinal resistivity, as well as the Hall steps in transverse resistivity 14 T. Our transport and angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy results suggest that the RE and transition metal codoping in the ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ system is a promising avenue to implement the QAHE, as well as harnessing the massive Dirac fermion in electrical devices.

As personal electronic devices increasingly rely on cloud computing for energy-intensive calculations, the power consumption associated with the information revolution is rapidly becoming an important environmental issue. Several approaches have been proposed to construct electronic devices with low-energy consumption. Among these, the low-dissipation surface states of topological insulators (TIs) are widely employed. To develop TI-based devices, a key factor is the maximum temperature at which the Dirac surface states dominate the transport behavior. Here, we employ Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations (SdH) as a means to study the surface state survival temperature in a high-quality vanadium doped Bi1.08Sn0.02Sb0.9Te2S single crystal system. The temperature and angle dependence of the SdH show that: (1) crystals with different vanadium (V) doping levels are insulating in the 3–300 K region; (2) the SdH oscillations show two-dimensional behavior, indicating that the oscillations arise from the pure surface states; and (3) at 50 K, the V0.04 single crystals (Vx:Bi1.08-xSn0.02Sb0.9Te2S, where x = 0.04) still show clear sign of SdH oscillations, which demonstrate that the surface dominant transport behavior can survive above 50 K. The robust surface states in our V doped single crystal systems provide an ideal platform to study the Dirac fermions and their interaction with other materials above 50 K.

We report the crystal growth, structure analysis and magnetic phase transitions in the single crystal Sm 0.15 Dy 0.85 FeO 3 . The high-quality of the crystal is verified by X-ray diffraction technique. Our research reveals that: 1) the iron sublattice spin reorientation (SR) transition emerges at 25 K, and ends at 10 K; 2) the rare earth antiferromagnetic (AF) order transition happens at 2.6 K; 3) there is a special wasp-waist hysteresis loop at low temperatures. Knowledge of such phase transitions in rare earth orthoferrite system is of potential importance for applications and theoretical studies.

Fluorine-doped Fe(Se, Te) has been successfully synthesized using the melting method. A dual-oscillation effect was found in the F-doped sample, which combined both microstructural oscillation and chemical compositional oscillation. The microstructural oscillation could be attributed to alternate growth of tetragonal β-Fe(Se, Te) and hexagonal δ-Fe(Se, Te), which formed a pearlite-like structure and led to the enhancement of δ l flux pinning due to the alternating distributed nonsuperconducting δ-Fe(Se, Te) phase. The chemical compositional oscillations in β-Fe(Se, Te) phase were because of the inhomogeneously distributed Se and Te, which changes the pinning mechanism from surface pinning in the undoped sample to Δκ pinning in the 5% F-doped one. As a result, the critical current, upper critical field, and thermally activated flux-flow activation energy of FeSe0.45Te0.5F0.05 were enhanced by 7, 2, and 3 times, respectively. Our work revealed the physical insights into F-doping resulting in high-performance Fe(Se, Te) superconductors and inspired a new approach to optimize superconductivities in iron-based superconductors through phase and element manipulations.

Single-phase (00 l)-oriented Bi2Te3 topological insulator thin films have been deposited on (111)-oriented ferroelectric 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single-crystal substrates. Taking advantage of the nonvolatile polarization charges induced by the polarization direction switching of PMN-PT substrates at room temperature, the carrier density, Fermi level, magnetoconductance, conductance channel, phase coherence length, and quantum corrections to the conductance can be in situ modulated in a reversible and nonvolatile manner. Specifically, upon the polarization switching from the positively poled Pr+ state (i.e., polarization direction points to the film) to the negatively poled Pr- (i.e., polarization direction points to the bottom electrode) state, both the electron carrier density and the Fermi wave vector decrease significantly, reflecting a shift of the Fermi level toward the Dirac point. The polarization switching from Pr+ to Pr- also results in significant increase of the conductance channel α from -0.15 to -0.3 and a decrease of the phase coherence length from 200 to 80 nm at T = 2 K as well as a reduction of the electron-electron interaction. All these results demonstrate that electric-voltage control of physical properties using PMN-PT as both substrates and gating materials provides a simple and a straightforward approach to realize reversible and nonvolatile tuning of electronic properties of topological thin films and may be further extended to study carrier density-related quantum transport properties of other quantum matter.

Rare-earth monopnictides are predicted to be nontrivial semimetal candidates and show pressure-induced superconductivity. Here, we grow LuBi single crystal and study the magnetization, transport behaviors and electronic band structures to reveal its topological semimetal feature and superconductivity under pressure. At 0 GPa, the quantum oscillations indicate that there are several topologically nontrivial carrier pockets around the Fermi level, among which the hole ones are isotropic in shape, while the electron ones are anisotropic and responsible for the angular magnetoresistance. Upon compression, the superconductivity emerges in the titled compound, showing a similar pressure dependence as that observed in LaBi. Our calculation suggests that the electronic band structures are robust at low- and high-pressure respectively and thus the topological features are always preserved. Besides, the nearly pressure-independent density of state in LuBi indicates that the conventional electron-phonon coupling appears to play a minor role in the superconductivity.

Good specimen quality is a key factor in achieving successful scanning transmission electron microscope analysis. Thin and damage-free specimens are prerequisites for obtaining atomic-resolution imaging. Topological insulator single crystals and thin films in the chalcogenide family such as Sb2Te3 are sensitive to electron and ion beams. It is, therefore, challenging to prepare a lamella suitable for high-resolution imaging from these topological insulator materials using standard focused ion-beam instruments. We have developed a modified method to fabricate thin focused ion-beam (FIB) lamellae with minimal ion-beam damage and artifacts. The technique described in the current study enables the reliable preparation of high-quality transmission electron microscope (TEM) specimens necessary for studying ultra-thin surface regions. We have successfully demonstrated that the careful selection of FIB milling parameters at each stage minimizes the damage layer without the need for post-treatment.

Magnetic resonances not only play crucial roles in artificial magnetic materials but also offer a promising way for light control and interaction with matter. Recently, magnetic resonance effects have attracted special attention in plasmonic systems for overcoming magnetic response saturation at high frequencies and realizing high-performance optical functionalities. As novel states of matter, topological insulators (TIs) present topologically protected conducting surfaces and insulating bulks in a broad optical range, providing new building blocks for plasmonics. However, until now, high-frequency (e.g. visible range) magnetic resonances and related applications have not been demonstrated in TI systems. Herein, we report for the first time, to our knowledge, a kind of visible range magnetic plasmon resonances (MPRs) in TI structures composed of nanofabricated Sb2Te3 nanogrooves. The experimental results show that the MPR response can be tailored by adjusting the nanogroove height, width, and pitch, which agrees well with the simulations and theoretical calculations. Moreover, we innovatively integrated monolayer MoS2 onto a TI nanostructure and observed strongly reinforced light–MoS2 interactions induced by a significant MPR-induced electric field enhancement, remarkable compared with TI-based electric plasmon resonances (EPRs). The MoS2 photoluminescence can be flexibly tuned by controlling the incident light polarization. These results enrich TI optical physics and applications in highly efficient optical functionalities as well as artificial magnetic materials at high frequencies., Topological insulators: visible range magnetic resonances Nanostructured antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) can support visible range magnetic resonances and dramatically enhance the weak interactions of light with 2D materials. Hua Lu and workers from China and Australia used focused ion beam milling to write a grating of periodic nanogrooves into single-crystalline Sb2Te3, a well-known topological insulator. They then placed a flake of the 2D material MoS2 on top. Characterization showed the existence of a kind of magnetic plasmon resonances (MPRs) with a resonant wavelength that redshifts with increasing nanogroove height and pitch and blueshifts with increasing nanogroove width. Visible photoluminescence experiments showed that the MPRs can dramatically increase the emission from the MoS2, which could be tuned by changing the polarization angle of the incident excitation light. The findings are expected to aid the development of nanoscale optical devices made from layered nanomaterials.

We report on the growth of high-quality stoichiometric layered Cr

Synergic effect of electronic correlation and spin-orbit coupling is an emerging topic in topological materials. Central to this rapidly developing area are the prototypes of strongly correlated heavy-fermion systems. Recently, some Ce-based compounds are proposed to host intriguing topological nature, among which the electronic properties of CeSb are still under debate. In this paper, we report a comprehensive study combining magnetic and electronic transport measurements, and electronic band structure calculations of this compound to identify its topological nature. Quantum oscillations are clearly observed in both magnetization and magnetoresistance at high fields, from which one pocket with a nontrivial Berry phase is recognized. Angular-dependent magnetoresistance shows that this pocket is elongated in nature and corresponds to the electron pocket as observed in LaBi. Nontrivial electronic structure of CeSb is further confirmed by first-principle calculations, which arises from spin splitting in the fully polarized ferromagnetic state. These features indicate that magnetic-field can induce nontrivial topological electronic states in this prototypical Kondo semimetal.

Rare-earth monopnictides display rich physical behaviors, featuring most notably spin and orbital orders in their ground state. Here, we grow ErBi single crystal and study its magnetic, thermal, and electrical properties. An analysis of the magnetic entropy and magnetization indicates that the weak magnetic anisotropy in ErBi possibly derives from the mixing effect, namely the anisotropic ground state of $\mathrm{E}{\mathrm{r}}^{3+}(4{f}^{11})$ mingles with the isotropic excited state through exchange interaction. At low temperature, an extremely large magnetoresistance $(\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{4}%)$ with a parabolic magnetic-field dependence is observed, which can be ascribed to the nearly perfect electron-hole compensation and ultrahigh carrier mobility. When the magnetic field is rotated in the $ab$ $(ac)$ plane and the current flows in the $b$ axis, the angular magnetoresistance in ErBi shows a twofold (fourfold) symmetry. Similar case has been observed in LaBi where the anisotropic Fermi surface dominates the low-temperature transport. Our theoretical calculation suggests that near the Fermi level ErBi shares similarity with LaBi in the electronic band structures. These findings indicate that the angular magnetoresistance of ErBi could be mainly determined by its anisotropic Fermi surface topology. Besides, contributions from several other possibilities, including the spin-dependent scattering, spin-orbit scattering, and demagnetization correlation to the angular magnetoresistance of ErBi are also discussed.

Reversible and nonvolatile electric-field control of the physical properties of topological insulators is essential for fundamental research and development of practical electronic devices. Here, we report the integration of topological insulator films with ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystals in the form of ferroelectric field-effect devices that allow us to tune the electronic properties of topological insulator films in a reversible and nonvolatile manner. Specifically, gating of Cr-doped Bi2Se3 films with the PMN-PT layer is shown to provide a means to reversibly tune and modulate the carrier density and carrier type, as well as its other properties, such as the conductance, magnetoconductance, Fermi level, phase coherence length, and screening factor of electron–electron interaction by polarization switching at room temperature. These findings provide a simple and direct approach for probing the quantum transport properties of topological insulator films through ferroelectric gating by using PMN-PT. The combination of topological insulators with both ferroelectrically and piezoelectrically active PMN-PT thus offers a promising step toward exploring topological insulator/ferroelectric(piezoelectric) hybrid devices that could utilize not only the ferroelectric field-effect of topological insulator/PMN-PT structures but also the unique properties of respective materials. Electric gating can tune the properties of topological insulators, modifying the carriers’ density and type and Fermi level. Several gating materials can be used, but finding materials that allow the manipulation of these properties in a reversible and nonvolatile way at room temperature while being compatible with solid-state electronics is difficult. Now, an international team of researchers led by Ren-Kui Zheng, Yu Wang and Yu-Kuai Liu demonstrated the ferroelectric gating of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 doped with Cr, using single crystals of the perovskite material Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3. They fabricated field-effect transistors in which they achieved electric-field control of the carrier density and type and of the Fermi level of the topological insulator through polarization switching of the ferroelectric layer. These results represent a step forward in the development of practical electronic devices based on topological insulators.

We studied samarium-dysprosium rare-earth orthoferrites Sm x Dy 1−x FeO 3 (SDFO, x = 0–1, interval 0.1) with 11 different x concentration values. All of the SDFO single crystals were successfully grown by a hetero-seed and hetero-feed optical-floating-zone technique in flowing air. The XRD powder patterns illustrate that the lattice mismatch of two samples with Δx = 0.1 is about 0.1–0.2% in ac plane, which is considered appropriate for our hetero-seed and hetero-feed crystal growth. Thus, we could successfully grow the series of SDFO single crystals continuously, for example, the x = 0.8 single crystal was grown on the x = 0.7 seed rod. X-ray back-reflection Laue photographs indicate good quality of all the as-grown SDFO single crystals. Composition analysis of SDFO single crystals were conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which demonstrate the accurate cation stoichiometry for each crystal. Moreover, we show that such crystal system possesses particular anisotropic magnetic property. The hetero-seed growth method and hetero-feed single crystal relay growth based on optical-floating-zone technique will be useful in high-throughput crystal materials growth.

We report the synthesis of a single-phase rare-earth perovskite ErFe0.75Cr0.25O3 polycrystalline and its magnetic properties. A transition occurs at temperature T N = 120 K below which we observe a weak magnetic moment from the canted antiferromagnetism. Interestingly, ErFe0.75Cr0.25O3 reveals the compensation-like behavior at T comp−like = 27 K, where the net magnetic moments of transition-metal ions are antiparallel and equal to the induced net moment of Er3+ ions, and the paramagnetic contribution of Er3+ moment presenting a nonzero magnetization. The temperature-dependent magnetization measurement shows a spin reorientation transition from Γ4 to Γ1 at 6 K. Furthermore, it is also observed that there is a spin-flop transition at low temperature induced by external magnetic field in Γ1 state (antiferromagnetic state). The interaction between (Fe/Cr)-3d and Er-4f electrons drives an extremely interesting spin reorientation transition which is highly sensitive to magnetic field and temperature.

Although the band topology of ZrGeSe has been studied via magnetic torque technique, the electronic transport behaviors related to the relativistic Fermions in ZrGeSe are still unknown. Here, we first report systematic electronic transport properties of high-quality ZrGeSe single crystals under magnetic fields up to 14 T. Resistivity plateaus of temperature dependent resistivity curves both in the presence and absence of magnetic fields as well as large, non-saturating magnetoresistance in low-temperature region were observed. By analyzing the temperature- and angular-dependent Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and fitting it via the Lifshitz-Kosevich (LK) formula with the Berry phase being taken into account, we proved that Dirac fermions dominate the electronic transport behaviors of ZrGeSe and the presence of non-trivial Berry phase. First principles calculations demonstrate that ZrGeSe possesses Dirac bands and normal bands near Fermi surface, resulting in the observed magnetotransport phenomena. These results demonstrate that ZrGeSe is a topological nodal-line semimetal, which provides a fundamentally important platform to study the quantum physics of topological semimetals., 21 pages, 6 figures

We investigated the magnetotransport properties of Fe-doped topological insulator $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{1.96}\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}_{0.04}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{3}$ single crystals. With doping, the band structure changes significantly and multiple Fermi pockets become evident in the Shubnikov--de Haas oscillations, in contrast to the single frequency detected for pure $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{3}$. Using complementary density functional theory calculations, we identify an additional bulk hole pocket introduced at the \ensuremath{\Gamma} point which originates from the chemical distortion associated with the Fe dopant. Experimentally, both doped and undoped samples are hole-carrier dominated; however, Fe doping also reduces the carrier density and mobility. The angle dependent quantum oscillations of $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{1.96}\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}_{0.04}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{3}$ were analyzed to characterize the complex Fermi surface and isolate the dimensionality of each SdH feature. Among those components, we found two oscillations frequencies, which related to two Fermi pockets are highly angle dependent. Moreover, the fermiology changes via Fe doping and may also provide a different Berry phase, as demonstrated by the Landau fan diagram, thus indicating a rich complexity in the underlying electronic structure.

Strongly correlated perovskite transition-metal oxides have received considerable attention due to their intriguing physical properties, including a metal-insulator transition that can be used in devices. Key questions remain, though, including whether in-plane tensile strain helps or hinders the transition. This study uses both static and dynamic lattice strain to manipulate the transport properties of NdNiO${}_{3}$ films systematically. The electric-field-tunable ferroelastic/piezoelectric strain approach can be used not only to obtain deeper insight into the intrinsic properties of nickelate films, but also as a simple, energy-efficient means to construct multistate resistive memory.

Single-phase (00 l)-oriented Bi

We study magnetotransport in a rare earth doped topological insulator, Sm0.1Sb1.9Te3 single crystals, under magnetic fields up to 14 T. It is found that that the crystals exhibit Shubnikov de Haas oscillations in their magneto-transport behaviour at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. The SdH oscillations result from the mixed contributions of bulk and surface states. We also investigate the SdH oscillations in different orientations of the magnetic field, which reveals a three dimensional Fermi surface topology. By fitting the oscillatory resistance with the Lifshitz Kosevich theory, we draw a Landau-level fan diagram that displays the expected nontrivial phase. In addition, the density functional theory calculations shows that Sm doping changes the crystal structure and electronic structure compared with pure Sb2Te3. This work demonstrates that rare earth doping is an effective way to manipulate the Fermi surface of topological insulators. Our results hold potential for the realization of exotic topological effects in magnetic topological insulators., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

We report a comprehensive study of magneto-transport properties in MoSi$_2$ bulk and thin films. Textured MoSi$_2$ thin films of around 70 nm were deposited on silicon substrates with different orientations. Giant magnetoresistance of 1000% was observed in sintered bulk samples while MoSi$_2$ single crystals exhibit a magnetoresistance (MR) value of 800% at low temperatures. At the low temperatures, the MR of the textured thin films show weak anti-localization behaviour owing to the spin orbit coupling effects. Our first principle calculation show the presence of surface states in this material. The resistivity of all the MoSi$_2$ thin films is significantly low and nearly independent of the temperature, which is important for electronic devices.

We study magneto-transport phenomena in two rare-earth doped topological insulators, SmxFexSb2-2xTe3 and SmxBi2-xTe2Se single crystals. The magneto-transport behaviours in both compounds exhibit a novel crossover between weak anti-localization (positive magnetoresistance) and weak localization (negative magnetoresistance) with changes in temperatures and magnetic fields. The weak localization is caused by rare-earth-doping induced magnetization, and the weak anti-localization originates from topologically protected surface states. The transition from weak localization to weak anti-localization demonstrates a gap opening at the Dirac point of the surface states in the quantum diffusive regime. This work demonstrates an effective way to manipulate the magneto-transport properties of the topological insulators by rare-earth element doping. Magnetometry measurements indicate that the Sm-dopant alone is paramagnetic, whereas the co-doped Fe-Sm state has short-range antiferromagnetic order. Our results demonstrate the potential to realize exotic topological effects and magneto-electric effects in gapped surface states of rare earth doped topological insulators.

We report temperature-induced spin reorientation and magnetization jump effects in the rare earth (RE) orthoferrite Ho 0.5 Pr 0.5 FeO 3 single crystal. The single crystal of about 6 mm in diameter and 50 mm in length was successfully grown by optical floating zone method. Both X-ray diffraction and Laue photograph confirmed the homogeneity and high quality of the crystal. Magnetic properties of Ho 0.5 Pr 0.5 FeO 3 single crystal are studied over a wide temperature range from 2 to 300 K. Spin reorientation transition from Γ 2 to Γ 4 phase is observed in the temperature range of 75–90 K. At lower temperature, the Ho 0.5 Pr 0.5 FeO 3 shows an abrupt jump of magnetization along the a -axis, which occurs only in the field-cooling process, and is sensitive to external applied magnetic field. By analyzing the jump temperature and magnitude of the magnetization, we conclude that it is caused by the spin reversal of the rare earth ions. The isothermal magnetization versus field hysteresis loop measurements along a axis explain the spin configuration variation from 3 K to 60 K.

We report on the growth of high-quality stoichiometric layered Cr2Se3 single crystals with metallic and noncollinear antiferromagnetic ground state using the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method. The crystals show weak ferromagnetism in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions below the Neel temperature (T N), however, the field-cooled out-of-plane magnetization at 500 Oe and 10 K (∼0.24 μ B/f.u.) is approximately 15 times larger than that of the in-plane one, indicating strong c-axis easy uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, which is further supported by the in-plane and out-of-plane isothermal anisotropic magnetic hysteresis loops and the angular dependent magnetoresistance (MR). The latter also reveals a decrease of the coercive field of the crystal upon the tilting of the weak ferromagnetic easy axis away from the direction of the magnetic field. Further, the out-of-plane isothermal MR are negative below T N and show butterfly shapes for T < 10 K and couple with the magnetic hysteresis M(H) loop. These results may help researchers better understand the interplay between the weak ferromagnetism and the magnetotransport properties of 2D itinerant noncollinear antiferromagnetic systems.

We successfully grew single crystals of Si- and Ge-square-net compounds of NbSiSb and NbGeSb whose excellent crystalline quality are verified using single-crystal x-ray diffraction, rocking curves, scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Since these two compounds share major crystallographic similarity with the topological nodal-line semimetals of ZrSiS family, we employ density functional theory (DFT) calculations and magnetotransport measurements to demonstrate their band structures as well as the electron scattering mechanisms. DFT calculations show that the fermiology shows strong anisotropy from the crystallographic c-axis to the ab-plane and weak anisotropy within the ab plane, which is consistent with the strong anisotropic magnetotransport behaviors. Following the Kohler's scaling rule we prove that similar interband and intraband electron-phonon scattering mechanisms work in both the NbSiSb and NbGeSb compounds. The study of electronic transport mechanism in the presence of external magnetic field renders deep insight into topological behavior together with it's Fermi surface, and the high similarity of crystallography and strong difference in band structures between the present single crystals and that of ZrSiS family provides the possibility to tune the band structure via element doping, 19 pages

The surfaces of Sb2Te3 topological insulator crystals were implanted using a 40 keV chromium ion beam. To facilitate uniform doping, the Sb2Te3 was passivated with a thin TiO2 film before the implantation step. The resulting chemical structure was studied using atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy. A fluence of 7 × 1015 ions/cm2 at 40 keV lead to amorphization of the Sb2Te3 surface, with chromium predominantly incorporated in the amorphous layer. Heating to 200 °C caused the amorphous region to recrystallize and led to the formation of a thin chromium-rich interfacial layer. Near-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates a uniform valence state of Cr3+ throughout, with no evidence of metallic clustering. High-temperature superparamagnetic behavior was detected up to 300 K, with an increased magnetic moment below 50 K.