Cyclooctatetraenide-based single-ion magnets featuring bulky cyclopentadienyl ligand.

We report a family of organometallic rare-earth complexes with the general formula (COT)M(Cp) (where (COT) = cyclooctatetraenide, (Cp) = 1,2,4-tri(-butyl)cyclopentadienide, M = Y(iii), Nd(iii), Dy(iii) and Er(iii)). Similarly to the prototypical Er(iii) analog featuring pentamethylcyclopentadienyl ligand (Cp*), (COT)Er(Cp) behaves as a single-ion magnet. However, the introduction of the sterically demanding (Cp) imposes geometric constraints that lead to a simplified magnetic relaxation behavior compared to the (Cp*) containing complexes.

New insights into correlated materials in the time domain-combining far-infrared excitation with x-ray probes at cryogenic temperatures.

Modern techniques for the investigation of correlated materials in the time domain combine selective excitation in the THz frequency range with selective probing of coupled structural, electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom using x-ray scattering techniques. Cryogenic sample temperatures are commonly required to prevent thermal occupation of the low energy modes and to access relevant material ground states. Here, we present a chamber optimized for high-field THz excitation and (resonant) x-ray diffraction at sample temperatures between 5 and 500 K.

Virus lasers for biological detection.

The selective amplification of DNA in the polymerase chain reaction is used to exponentially increase the signal in molecular diagnostics for nucleic acids, but there are no analogous techniques for signal enhancement in clinical tests for proteins or cells. Instead, the signal from affinity-based measurements of these biomolecules depends linearly on the probe concentration. Substituting antibody-based probes tagged for fluorescent quantification with lasing detection probes would create a new platform for biomarker quantification based on optical rather than enzymatic amplification.

Planar broadband and high absorption metamaterial using single nested resonator at terahertz frequencies.

A planar broadband metamaterial absorber with high absorptivity working at terahertz frequencies was designed and fabricated in this work. Two nested back-to-back split-ring resonators (BSRRs) constitute a single resonator, which achieves three strong resonances, with two of them merged into a broadband peak. Cobalt silicide and parylene-C were innovatively applied as ground plane and dielectric spacer.

Polarization-independent dual-band terahertz metamaterial absorbers based on gold/parylene-C/silicide structure.

We design, fabricate, and characterize dual-band terahertz (THz) metamaterial absorbers with high absorption based on structures consisting of a cobalt silicide (Co-Si) ground plane, a parylene-C dielectric spacer, and a metal top layer. By combining two periodic metal resonators that couple separately within a single unit cell, a polarization-independent absorber with two distinct absorption peaks was obtained. By varying the thickness of the dielectric layer, we obtain absorptivity of 0.