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Molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the rapid crystal growth in pure metals is governed by a barrierless ordering process, correlating to the inherent crystalline structure in the liquid at the growth interface.
Phase transformations driven by compositional change require mass flux across a phase boundary. Lithium migration in LiXFePO4 along the solid/liquid interface now suggests that surface diffusion contributes to tuning phase transformation in anisotropic solids.
Magnetocaloric effects can be used for refrigeration, but application uptake is limited due to large amounts of magnetic material used. Here, a cooling cycle is shown that uses thermal hysteresis, significantly reducing magnetic material quantity.
Reversible structural surface relaxation under laser exposure is observed for monolayers of 2D metal halide perovskites. These structural changes also induce reversible shifts in the photoluminescence peaks of these materials.
A systematic analysis is performed to reveal how deposition conditions and the use of cations and solvents affect the composition and orientation of 2D and quasi-2D metal halide perovskites in thin films.
The model alloy of Au–Ag is studied to decouple the role of stress and corrosion in intergranular cracking caused by metal dissolution. Nanoporous corrosion layers can mechanically inject a crack into grain boundaries of the parent phase.
A system of patterned graphene nanoresonators/nanoribbons can be used as an efficient mid-infrared detector, based on plasmonic resonant absorption and subsequent carrier thermalization.
Combined multimodal atomic force microscopy, ion microscopy, ion mass spectrometry and infrared spectrometry experiments explore the chemical properties of ferroelastic twin domains in hybrid lead halide perovskites.
A large spin–orbit torque, generated in a conductive topological insulator (TI) Bi0.9Sb0.1 is further employed to effectively switch the magnetization of MnGa in a BiSb/MnGa bilayer Hall-bar device at room temperature.
Robust structural superlubricity is experimentally realized in microscale monocrystalline graphite/hBN heterojunctions. The friction anisotropy upon crystal reorientation is orders of magnitude smaller than that of homogeneous graphite contacts.
Sputtered BixSe(1–x) thin films can generate very large current-induced spin–orbit torque, capable to switch both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetized CoFeB-based structures deposited on top, at room temperature.
The nature of structural disorder in photocatalytic black TiO2 is not known. Here, using simulations, it is shown that water formation drives surface reduction, with slowly migrating oxygen vacancies at the {001} facets resulting in the nucleation of disorder.
A combined experimental and theoretical approach identifies the van der Waals material Fe3GeTe2 as a candidate ferromagnetic nodal line semimetal. These results extend the connections between topology and magnetism.
Key optoelectronic properties for donor and acceptor organic semiconductors are identified to obtain organic solar cells with reduced open-circuit voltage losses and high power conversion efficiencies.
Tuning surface structure is key for electrocatalytic performance and stability of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Surface distortion as a structural descriptor can help to clarify the role of surface defects and to design enhanced nanocatalysts.
Degenerately doped semiconductor nanocrystals exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance in the infrared. Semiconducting properties such as band structure modification due to doping and surface states are now shown to strongly affect plasmonic modulation.
Nanoparticle diffusion in the cytoplasm of living cells strongly deviates from random motion. Single-particle tracking analysis show that this is due to non-specific interactions with intracellular components.
Ferroelectricity can be modified by domain wall strain fields that extend over nanometres. Here, with X-ray microscopy, strain fields over several micrometres are observed in BaTiO3, suggesting ferroelectricity is globally altered throughout the material.
How local order affects the excellent piezoelectric properties of Pb-based relaxor ferroelectrics is unclear, but neutron diffuse scattering shows that non-relaxor distortions are implicated, indicating the important role of oxygen atoms.