Non-trivial topological phases in transition metal rich half-Heusler oxides.

Topological insulators with gapless surface states and insulating bulk in non-centrosymmetric cubic systems have been extensively explored following the discovery of two-dimensional quantum spin hall effect in zincblende HgTe. In such systems the negative band inversion strength EBIS(= EΓ6-EΓ8<0) governs the robustness of the non-trivial topological states at ambient conditions. Hence, realizing large negative values of EBIShas been a guiding motivation of several investigations reported in literature.

Altermagnetic surface states: towards the observation and utilization of altermagnetism in thin films, interfaces and topological materials.

The altermagnetism influences the electronic states allowing the presence of non-relativistic spin-splittings. Since altermagnetic spin-splitting is present along specific -paths of the 3D Brillouin zone, we expect that the altermagnetic surface stateswill be present on specific surface orientations. We unveil the properties of the altermagnetic surface states considering three representative materials belonging to the orthorhombic, hexagonal and tetragonal space groups.

Correlation-Driven Topological Transition in Janus Two-Dimensional Vanadates.

The appearance of intrinsic ferromagnetism in 2D materials opens the possibility of investigating the interplay between magnetism and topology. The magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) describing the easy axis for magnetization in a particular direction is an important yardstick for nanoscale applications. Here, the first-principles approach is used to investigate the electronic band structures, the strain dependence of MAE in pristine VSiZ (Z = P, As) and its Janus phase VSiGePAs and the evolution of the topology as a function of the Coulomb interaction.

Functionalized tellurene; a candidate large-gap 2D topological insulator.

The discovery of group IV and V elemental xene's with topologically non-trivial characters in their honeycomb lattice structure (HLS) has led to extensive efforts in realising analogous behaviour in group VI elemental monolayers. Theoretically; it was concluded that, group VI elemental monolayers cannot exist in HLS. However, some recent experimental evidence suggests that group VI elemental monolayers can be realised in HLS.

Superior Room-Temperature Ammonia Sensing Using a Hydrothermally Synthesized MoS/SnO Composite.

Layered two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, due to their semiconducting nature and large surface-to-volume ratio, have created their own niche in the field of gas sensing. Their large recovery time and accompanied incomplete recovery result in inferior sensing properties. Here, we report a composite-based strategy to overcome these issues.

Dimensional engineering of a topological insulating phase in Half-Heusler LiMgAs.

We propose a novel technique of dimensional engineering to realize low dimensional topological insulator from a trivial three dimensional parent. This is achieved by confining the bulk system to one dimension along a particular crystal direction, thus enhancing the quantum confinement effects in the system. We investigate this mechanism in the Half-Heusler compound LiMgAs with face-centered cubic (FCC) structure.

Emergence of -, --band inversion in zincblende gold iodide topological insulator and its thermoelectric properties.

We employcalculations to investigate the topological states (TS) and thermoelectric (TE) transport properties of three dimensional (3D) gold iodide (AuI) which belongs to the zincblende family. We explore, semi-metal (SM) to topological conductor (TC) and topological insulator (TI) phase transitions. Under pristine conditions, AuI exhibits Dirac SM nature but, under the influence of mild isotropic compressive pressure the system undergoes electronic quantum phase transition driving it into non-trivial topological state.

Action Potential: A Vortex Phenomena; Driving Membrane Oscillations.

Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model has been one of the most successful electrical interpretation of nerve membrane which led to revolutions in the field of computational neuroscience. On the contrary, experimental observations indicate that, an Action Potential (AP) is accompanied with certain physiological changes in the nerve membrane such as, production and absorption of heat; variation of axon diameter, pressure and length. Although, in the early 1900's a Pressure Wave Theory was proposed by E.

Volume expansive pressure (VEP) driven non-trivial topological phase transition in LiMgBi.

Topological Insulators (TI) exhibit robust spin-locked dissipationless Fermion transport along the surface states. In the current study, we use first-principles calculations to investigate a Topological Phase Transition (TPT) in a Half-Heusler (HH) compound LiMgBi driven by a Volume Expansive Pressure (VEP) which is attributed to the presence of, intrinsic voids, thermal perturbations and/or due to a phenomena known as cavity nuclei. We find that, the dynamically stable face-centred cubic (FCC) structure of LiMgBi (which belongs to the F4[combining macron]3m[216] space group), undergoes TPT beyond a critical VEP (at 4.