Anomalous Hall effect in Nd-doped BiSbSTe topological insulator single crystals.

Topological insulators are emerging materials with insulating bulk and symmetry protected nontrivial surface states. One of the most fascinating transport behaviors in a topological insulator is the quantum anomalous Hall effect, which has been observed in magnetic-topological-insulator-based devices. In this work, we report successful doping of rare-earth element Nd into BiSbSTe bulk-insulating topological insulator single crystals, in which the Nd moments are ferromagnetically ordered at ∼100 K.

Nonreciprocal Antisymmetric Magnetoresistance and Unconventional Hall Effect in a Two-Dimensional Ferromagnet.

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnets with high Curie temperatures provide a rich platform for exploring the exotic phenomena of 2D magnetism and the potential of spintronic devices. As a prototypical 2D ferromagnet, FeGeTe has recently been reported to possess a high Curie temperature with ∼ 310 K, making it a promising candidate for advancing 2D nanoelectromechanical systems. However, due to its intricate magnetic ground state and magnetic domains, a thorough study of the transport behavior related to its lattice and domain structures is still lacking.

High-speed mapping of surface charge dynamics using sparse scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy.

Unraveling local dynamic charge processes is vital for progress in diverse fields, from microelectronics to energy storage. This relies on the ability to map charge carrier motion across multiple length- and timescales and understanding how these processes interact with the inherent material heterogeneities. Towards addressing this challenge, we introduce high-speed sparse scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy, which combines sparse scanning and image reconstruction.

Room-Temperature Magnetic Phase Transition in an Electrically Tuned van der Waals Ferromagnet.

Finding tunable van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets that operate at above room temperature is an important research focus in physics and materials science. Most vdW magnets are only intrinsically magnetic far below room temperature and magnetism with square-shaped hysteresis at room temperature has yet to be observed. Here, we report magnetism in a quasi-2D magnet Cr_{1.

Intra-Zero-Energy Landau Level Crossings in Bilayer Graphene at High Electric Fields.

The highly tunable band structure of the zero-energy Landau level (zLL) of bilayer graphene makes it an ideal platform for engineering novel quantum states. However, the zero-energy Landau level at high electric fields has remained largely unexplored. Here we present magnetotransport measurements of bilayer graphene in high transverse electric fields.

Exact Quantum Virial Expansion for the Optical Response of Doped Two-Dimensional Semiconductors.

We introduce a quantum virial expansion for the optical response of a doped two-dimensional semiconductor. As we show, this constitutes a perturbatively exact theory in the high-temperature or low-doping regime, where the electrons' thermal wavelength is smaller than their interparticle spacing. We obtain exact analytic expressions for the photoluminescence and we predict new features such as a nontrivial shape of the attractive branch peak related to universal resonant exciton-electron scattering and an associated energy shift from the trion energy.

High-Performance Indoor Perovskite Solar Cells by Self-Suppression of Intrinsic Defects via a Facile Solvent-Engineering Strategy.

Lead halide perovskite solar cells have been emerging as very promising candidates for applications in indoor photovoltaics. To maximize their indoor performance, it is of critical importance to suppress intrinsic defects of the perovskite active layer. Herein, a facile solvent-engineering strategy is developed for effective suppression of both surface and bulk defects in lead halide perovskite indoor solar cells, leading to a high efficiency of 35.

Realization of High Magnetization in Artificially Designed Ni/NiO Layers through Exchange Coupling.

High-magnetization materials play crucial roles in various applications. However, the past few decades have witnessed a stagnation in the discovery of new materials with high magnetization. In this work, Ni/NiO nanocomposites are fabricated by depositing Ni and NiO thin layers alternately, followed by annealing at specific temperatures.

Robust Switchable Polarization and Coupled Electronic Characteristics of Magnesium-Doped Zinc Oxide.

Ferroelectrics possess a spontaneous polarization that is switchable by an electric field and is critical for the development of low-energy nanoelectronics and neuromorphic applications. However, apart from a few recent developments, the realization of switchable polarization in metal oxides with simpler structures has been a major challenge. Here, we demonstrate the presence of robust switchable polarization at the level of a single nanocrystallite in magnesium-doped zinc oxide thin films with polar wurtzite crystal structures.

Crackling noise microscopy.

Crackling noise is a scale-invariant phenomenon found in various driven nonlinear dynamical material systems as a response to external stimuli such as force or external fields. Jerky material movements in the form of avalanches can span many orders of magnitude in size and follow universal scaling rules described by power laws. The concept was originally studied as Barkhausen noise in magnetic materials and now is used in diverse fields from earthquake research and building materials monitoring to fundamental research involving phase transitions and neural networks.

Spray pyrolysis-derived robust ferroelectric BiFeO thin films.

Scalable and low-cost synthesis of high-quality ferroic films is critical for the development of advanced electronic devices and sensors. Here, we employ solution-based spray pyrolysis to fabricate bismuth ferrite thin films on glass substrates and explore the impact of annealing conditions to attain functional thin films of superior quality and switchable polarization. Optimised thin films display polycrystalline nanostructured grains with the highest X-ray diffraction intensity along the (110) orientation and a mixed Fe valence suggesting the presence of oxygen vacancies.

Effects of Floquet Engineering on the Coherent Exciton Dynamics in Monolayer WS.

Coherent optical manipulation of electronic bandstructures via Floquet Engineering is a promising means to control quantum systems on an ultrafast time scale. However, the ultrafast switching on/off of the driving field comes with questions regarding the limits of the Floquet formalism (which is defined for an infinite periodic drive) through the switching process and to what extent the transient changes can be driven adiabatically. Experimentally addressing these questions has been difficult, in large part due to the absence of an established technique to measure coherent dynamics through the duration of the pulse.

Gigantic Anisotropy of Self-Induced Spin-Orbit Torque in Weyl Ferromagnet CoMnGa.

Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is receiving tremendous attention from both fundamental and application-oriented aspects. CoMnGa, a Weyl ferromagnet that is in a class of topological quantum materials, possesses cubic-based high structural symmetry, the L2 crystal ordering, which should be incapable of hosting anisotropic SOT in conventional understanding. Here we show the discovery of a gigantic anisotropy of self-induced SOT in CoMnGa.

Engineering Sub-Nanometer Hafnia-Based Ferroelectrics to Break the Scaling Relation for High-Efficiency Piezocatalytic Water Splitting.

Reversible control of ferroelectric polarization is essential to overcome the heterocatalytic kinetic limitation. This can be achieved by creating a surface with switchable electron density; however, owing to the rigidity of traditional ferroelectric oxides, achieving polarization reversal in piezocatalytic processes remains challenging. Herein, sub-nanometer-sized Hf Zr O (HZO) nanowires with a polymer-like flexibility are synthesized.

Hyperbolic polaritonic crystals with configurable low-symmetry Bloch modes.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are a kind of artificial structures that can mold the flow of light at will. Polaritonic crystals (PoCs) made from polaritonic media offer a promising route to controlling nano-light at the subwavelength scale. Conventional bulk PhCs and recent van der Waals PoCs mainly show highly symmetric excitation of Bloch modes that closely rely on lattice orders.

Repairing and Preventing Photooxidation of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus with β-Carotene.

Few-layer black phosphorus (FLBP), a technologically important 2D material, faces a major hurdle to consumer applications: spontaneous degradation under ambient conditions. Blocking the direct exposure of FLBP to the environment has remained the key strategy to enhance its stability, but this can also limit its utility. In this paper, a more ambitious approach to handling FLBP is reported where not only is FLBP oxidation blocked, but it is also repaired postoxidation.

Metastable Polymorphic Phases in Monolayer TaTe.

Polymorphic phases and collective phenomena-such as charge density waves (CDWs)-in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) dictate the physical and electronic properties of the material. Most TMDs naturally occur in a single given phase, but the fine-tuning of growth conditions via methods such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) allows to unlock otherwise inaccessible polymorphic structures. Exploring and understanding the morphological and electronic properties of new phases of TMDs is an essential step to enable their exploitation in technological applications.

Metasurface-Controlled Photonic Rashba Effect for Upconversion Photoluminescence.

We demonstrate the effect of spin-momentum locking of upconversion photoluminescence emitted from rare-earth doped nanocrystals coupled to a phase-gradient dielectric metasurface. We observe different directionalities for left and right circular polarized light and associate this experimental observation with realized for upconverted photoluminescence that is manifested in the spin-dependent splitting of emitted light in the momentum space.

Coexistence of logarithmic and SdH quantum oscillations in ferromagnetic Cr-doped tellurium single crystals.

We report the synthesis of transition-metal-doped ferromagnetic elemental single-crystal semiconductors with quantum oscillations using the physical vapor transport method. The 7.7 atom% Cr-doped Te crystals (Cr:Te) show ferromagnetism, butterfly-like negative magnetoresistance in the low temperature (<3.

Giant piezoresistivity in a van der Waals material induced by intralayer atomic motions.

The presence of the van der Waals gap in layered materials creates a wealth of intriguing phenomena different to their counterparts in conventional materials. For example, pressurization can generate a large anisotropic lattice shrinkage along the stacking orientation and/or a significant interlayer sliding, and many of the exotic pressure-dependent properties derive from these mechanisms. Here we report a giant piezoresistivity in pressurized β'-InSe.

Spin Reorientation Transition and Negative Magnetoresistance in Ferromagnetic NdCrSb Single Crystals.

High-quality NdCrSb single crystals are grown using a Sn-flux method, for electronic transport and magnetic structure study. Ferromagnetic ordering of the Nd and Cr magnetic sublattices are observed at different temperatures and along different crystallographic axes. Due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction between the two magnetic sublattices, the Cr moments rotate from the axis to the axis upon cooling, resulting in a spin reorientation (SR) transition.

Negative-mass exciton polaritons induced by dissipative light-matter coupling in an atomically thin semiconductor.

Dispersion engineering is a powerful and versatile tool that can vary the speed of light signals and induce negative-mass effects in the dynamics of particles and quasiparticles. Here, we show that dissipative coupling between bound electron-hole pairs (excitons) and photons in an optical microcavity can lead to the formation of exciton polaritons with an inverted dispersion of the lower polariton branch and hence, a negative mass. We perform direct measurements of the anomalous dispersion in atomically thin (monolayer) WS crystals embedded in planar microcavities and demonstrate that the propagation direction of the negative-mass polaritons is opposite to their momentum.

Superconductivity in single-crystalline ZrTe ( ≤ 0.5) nanoplates.

Superconductivity with an unusual filamented character below 2 K has been reported in bulk ZrTe crystals, a well-known charge density wave (CDW) material, but still lacks in its nanostructures. Here, we systemically investigated the transport properties of controllable chemical vapor transport synthesized ZrTe nanoplates. Intriguingly, superconducting behavior is found at = 3.