Achieving Extraordinary Power Factors in GeTe Epitaxial Films through Carrier Transport Engineering.

GeTe-based films have attracted tremendous attention from the thermoelectric community owing to their excellent thermoelectric performance. It is vital to reduce the hole density and maintain a high carrier mobility for GeTe films; however, this remains a significant challenge. To overcome this drawback, we succeeded in fabricating high-crystalline quality GeTe-based films and remarkably improve their electrical properties using molecular beam epitaxy under a low substrate temperature and optimized Te/GeTe flux ratios.

Quantum Phase Transition in the One-Dimensional Water Chain.

The concept of quantum phase transitions (QPTs) plays a central role in the description of condensed matter systems. In this Letter, we perform high-quality wave-function-based simulations to demonstrate the existence of a quantum phase transition in a crucially relevant molecular system, namely, water, forming linear chains of rotating molecules. We determine various critical exponents and reveal the water chain QPT to belong to the (1+1)-dimensional Ising universality class.

Chiral Anomaly in Interacting Condensed Matter Systems.

The chiral anomaly is a fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon which is of great importance to both particle physics and condensed matter physics alike. In the context of QED, it manifests as the breaking of chiral symmetry in the presence of electromagnetic fields. It is also known that anomalous chiral symmetry breaking can occur through interactions alone, as is the case for interacting one-dimensional systems.

Structural Features and Properties' Characterization of Polylactic Acid/Natural Rubber Blends with Epoxidized Soybean Oil.

Because of the effort to preserve petroleum resources and promote the development of eco-friendly materials, bio-based polymers produced from sustainable resources have attracted great attention. Among them, polylactide (PLA) and natural rubber (NR) present prominent polymers with unique barrier and mechanical features. A series of samples with improved phase compatibility were obtained by blending PLA and NR using a double-rotor mixer.