LaGaSO: A Rare-Earth Gallium Oxysulfide with Disulfide Ions.

Band gap engineering using multiple anions is an established approach to novel photocatalysts that exhibit suitable band gap energies for water splitting and high photocorrosion resistance. However, few studies have been conducted on photocatalysts with polyanions, including polychalcogenide ions. Here, we present a new quaternary gallium oxysulfide with disulfide pairs (S), LaGaSO, grown out of a KI molten salt.

Heteroepitaxial Growth of a TaN Thin Film with Clear Anisotropic Optical Properties.

TaN is a promising semiconductor photocatalyst which can generate H gas from water under visible light illumination. It is expected that TaN exhibits a strong anisotropy in its physical properties stemming from its highly anisotropic crystal structure. However, such anisotropic properties have not been verified experimentally due to the difficulty in synthesizing a large single crystal.

Flux Crystal Growth, Crystal Structure, and Magnetic Properties of a Ternary Chromium Disulfide BaCrS with Unusual CrS Tetramer Units.

A new ternary chromium disulfide, BaCrS, has been grown out of BaCl molten salt. Single-crystal structure analysis revealed that it crystallizes in the centrosymmetric space group 2/ with lattice parameters: = 12.795(3) Å, = 11.

Room-Temperature Antiferroelectricity in Multiferroic Hexagonal Rare-Earth Ferrites.

The antiferroelectric (AFE) phase, in which nonpolar and polar states are switchable by an electric field, is a recent discovery in promising multiferroics of hexagonal rare-earth manganites (ferrites), -Mn(Fe)O. However, this phase has so far only been observed at 60-160 K, which restricts key investigations into the microstructures and magnetoelectric behaviors. Herein, we report the successful expansion of the AFE temperature range (10-300 K) by preparing -DyFeO films through epitaxial stabilization.

Strain-induced creation and switching of anion vacancy layers in perovskite oxynitrides.

Perovskite oxides can host various anion-vacancy orders, which greatly change their properties, but the order pattern is still difficult to manipulate. Separately, lattice strain between thin film oxides and a substrate induces improved functions and novel states of matter, while little attention has been paid to changes in chemical composition. Here we combine these two aspects to achieve strain-induced creation and switching of anion-vacancy patterns in perovskite films.