Lithiation Induced Phases in 1T'-MoTe Nanoflakes.

Multiple polytypes of MoTe with distinct structures and intriguing electronic properties can be accessed by various physical and chemical approaches. Here, we report electrochemical lithium (Li) intercalation into 1T'-MoTe nanoflakes, leading to the discovery of two previously unreported lithiated phases. Distinguished by their structural differences from the pristine 1T' phase, these distinct phases were characterized using polarization Raman spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Prism-based scanning X-ray microscopy.

A commentary is provided on a new type of prism deflection scanning X-ray microscope, providing context and some future potential applications of this new type of microscope.

Role of ferroelectric polarization during growth of highly strained ferroelectric materials.

In ferroelectric thin films and superlattices, the polarization is intricately linked to crystal structure. Here we show that it can also play an important role in the growth process, influencing growth rates, relaxation mechanisms, electrical properties and domain structures. This is studied by focusing on the properties of BaTiO thin films grown on very thin layers of PbTiO using x-ray diffraction, piezoforce microscopy, electrical characterization and rapid in-situ x-ray diffraction reciprocal space maps during the growth using synchrotron radiation.

The chemical fingerprint of hair melanosomes by infrared nano-spectroscopy.

In situ characterization of the chemical and structural properties of black and white sheep hair was performed with a spatial resolution of 25 nm using infrared nano-spectroscopy. Comparing data sets from two types of hair allowed us to isolate the keratin FTIR fingerprint and so mark off chemical properties of the hair's melanosomes. From a polarization sensitive analysis of the nano-FTIR spectra, we showed that keratin intermediate filaments (IFs) present anisotropic molecular ordering.

Chain Breakage in the Supercooled Liquid - Liquid Transition and Re-entry of the λ-transition in Sulfur.

Amorphous sulfur was prepared by rapid compression of liquid sulfur at temperatures above the λ-transition for to preserve the high-temperature liquid structure. We conducted synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to diagnose the structural evolution of amorphous sulfur from room temperature to post-λ-transition temperature. Discontinuous changes of the first and second peaks in atomic pair-distribution-function, g(r), were observed during the transition from amorphous to liquid sulfur.