Publications by authors named "Marc E Zajac"
The unique layer-stacking in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials facilitates the formation of nearly degenerate phases of matter and opens novel routes for the design of low-power, reconfigurable functional materials. Electrochemical ion intercalation between stacked layers offers a promising approach to stabilize bulk metastable phases and to explore the effects of extreme carrier doping and strain. However, in situ characterization methods to study the structural evolution and dynamical functional properties of these intercalated materials remains limited.
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- Ultrafast stimuli can create stable states of matter that can't be achieved under normal conditions, highlighting the need to understand the relationship between ultrafast processes and these states.
- The study uses advanced optical and X-ray techniques to observe how a polar vortex supercrystal forms in a specially designed material when it's excited by light, demonstrating various phases in just a few picoseconds.
- Over time, fluctuations in the structure of the supercrystal are gradually eliminated, leading to the stable formation of a single vortex supercrystal phase, with theoretical models supporting these observations.
Photoinduced charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures occurs on the 100 fs timescale despite weak interlayer coupling and momentum mismatch. However, little is understood about the microscopic mechanism behind this ultrafast process and the role of the lattice in mediating it. Here, using femtosecond electron diffraction, we directly visualize lattice dynamics in photoexcited heterostructures of WSe/WS monolayers.
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