Pressure engineering of van der Waals compound RhI; Bandgap narrowing, metallization, and remarkable enhancement of photoelectric activity

Fang, Y.*; Kong, L.*; Wang, R.*; Zhang, Z.*; Li, Z.*; Wu, Y.*; Bu, K.*; Liu, X.*; Yan, S.*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Materials Today Physics (Internet), 34, p.101083_1 - 101083_7, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2023.101083

The layered van der Waals halides are particularly sensitive to external pressure, suggesting a feasible route to pinpoint their structure with extraordinary behavior. However, a very sensitive pressure response usually lead to a detrimental phase transition and/or lattice distortion, making the approach of materials manipulation in a continuous manner remain challenging. Here, the extremely weak interlayer coupling and high tunability of layered RhI crystals are observed. A pressure-driven phase transition occurs at a moderate pressure of 5 GPa, interlinking to a change of layer stack mode. Strikingly, such a phase transition does not affect the tendency of quasi-linear bandgap narrowing, and a metallization with an ultra-broad tunability of 1.3 eV redshift is observed at higher pressures. Moreover, the carrier concentration increases by 4 orders of magnitude at 30 GPa, and the photocurrent enhances by 5 orders of magnitude at 7.8 GPa. These findings create new opportunities for exploring, tuning, and understanding the van der Waals halides by harnessing their unusual feature of a layered structure, which is promising for future devices based on materials-by-design that are atomically thin.

Estimating fine melt pool, coarse melt pool, and heat affected zone effects on the strengths of additive manufactured AlSi10Mg alloys

Lam, T.-N.*; Lee, A.*; Chiu, Y.-R.*; Kuo, H.-F.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; Jain, J.*; Lee, S. Y.*; Huang, E.-W.*

Materials Science & Engineering A, 856, p.143961_1 - 143961_9, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2022.143961

Solving the puzzles of the decay of the heaviest known proton-emitting nucleus Bi

Doherty, D. T.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Seweryniak, D.*; Woods, P. J.*; Carpenter, M. P.*; Auranen, K.*; Ayangeakaa, A. D.*; Back, B. B.*; Bottoni, S.*; Canete, L.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(20), p.202501_1 - 202501_6, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.202501

Formation of clusters in dilute neutron-rich matter

Tanaka, Junki*; Yang, Z.*; Typel, S.*; Adachi, Satoshi*; Bai, S.*; van Beek, P.*; Beaumel, D.*; Fujikawa, Yuki*; Han, J.*; Heil, S.*; et al.

Science, 371(6526), p.260 - 264, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe4688

By employing quasi-free -cluster-knockout reactions, we obtained direct experimental evidence for the formation of clusters at the surface of neutron-rich tin isotopes. The observed monotonous decrease of the reaction cross sections with increasing mass number, in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction, implies a tight interplay between -cluster formation and the neutron skin.

International network of nuclear structure and decay data evaluators

Dimitriou, P.*; Basunia, S*; Bernstein, L.*; Chen, J.*; Elekes, Z.*; Huang, X.*; Hurst, A.*; Iimura, Hideki; Jain, A. K.*; Kelley, J.*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 239, p.15004_1 - 15004_4, 2020/09

BB2020-0008.pdf:0.34MB

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202023915004

The Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) includes the most extensive and comprehensive set of nuclear structure and decay data evaluations performed by the international network of Nuclear Structure and Decay Data evaluators (NSDD) under the auspices of the IAEA. In this report we describe some of the recent NSDD activities and provide future perspectives.

Fine structure in the decay of U

Sun, M. D.*; Liu, Z.*; Huang, T. H.*; Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Ding, B.*; Wang, J. G.*; Liu, X. Y.*; Lu, H. Y.*; Hou, D. S.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 800, p.135096_1 - 135096_5, 2020/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.135096

Decomposition studies of group 6 hexacarbonyl complexes, 1; Production and decomposition of Mo(CO) and W(CO)

Usoltsev, I.*; Eichler, R.*; Wang, Y.*; Even, J.*; Yakushev, A.*; Haba, Hiromitsu*; Asai, Masato; Brand, H.*; Di Nitto, A.*; Dllmann, Ch. E.*; et al.

Radiochimica Acta, 104(3), p.141 - 151, 2016/03

https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2015-2445

Conditions of the production and decomposition of hexacarbonyl complexes of short-lived Mo and W isotopes were investigated to study thermal stability of the heaviest group 6 hexacarbonyl complex Sg(CO). A tubular flow reactor was tested to decompose the hexacarbonyl complexes and to extract the first bond dissociation energies. A silver was found to be the most appropriate reaction surface to study the decomposition of the group 6 hexacarbonyl. It was found that the surface temperature at which the decomposition occurred was correlated to the first bond dissociation energy of Mo(CO) and W(CO), indicating that the first bond dissociation energy of Sg(CO) could be determined with this technique.

Development of a new continuous dissolution apparatus with a hydrophobic membrane for superheavy element chemistry

Oe, Kazuhiro*; Attallah, M. F.*; Asai, Masato; Goto, Naoya*; Gupta, N. S.*; Haba, Hiromitsu*; Huang, M.*; Kanaya, Jumpei*; Kaneya, Yusuke*; Kasamatsu, Yoshitaka*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 303(2), p.1317 - 1320, 2015/02

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3469-3

A new technique for continuous dissolution of nuclear reaction products transported by a gas-jet system was developed for superheavy element (SHE) chemistry. In this technique, a hydrophobic membrane is utilized to separate an aqueous phase from the gas phase. With this technique, the dissolution efficiencies of short-lived radionuclides of Mo and W were measured. Yields of more than 80% were observed for short-lived radionuclides at aqueous-phase flow rates of 0.1-0.4 mL/s. The gas flow-rate had no influence on the dissolution efficiency within the studied flow range of 1.0-2.0 L/min. These results show that this technique is applicable for on-line chemical studies of SHEs in the liquid phase.

Selective nitrogen doping in graphene; Enhanced catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction

Wang, X.*; Hou, Z.*; Ikeda, Takashi; Huang, S.-F.*; Terakura, Kiyoyuki*; Boero, M.*; Oshima, Masaharu*; Kakimoto, Masaaki*; Miyata, Seizo*

Physical Review B, 84(24), p.245434_1 - 245434_7, 2011/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.245434

The structural and electronic properties of N-doped zigzag graphene ribbons with various ratios of di- to monohydrogenated edge carbons are investigated within the density functional theory framework. We find that the stability of graphitic N next to the edge, which is claimed to play important roles in the catalytic activity in our previous work, will be enhanced with increasing the concentration of di-hydrogenated carbons. Furthermore, the di-hydrogenated edge carbons turn out to be easily converted into mono-hydrogenated ones in the presence of oxygen molecules at room temperature. Based on our results, we propose a possible way to enhance the oxygen reduction catalytic activity of N-doped graphene by controlling the degrees of hydrogenation of edge carbons. The characteristic features in the X-ray absorption and emission spectra for each specific N site considered here will also be given.

Azimuthal correlations of electrons from heavy-flavor decay with hadrons in and Au+Au collisions at = 200 GeV

Adare, A.*; Afanasiev, S.*; Aidala, C.*; Ajitanand, N. N.*; Akiba, Yasuyuki*; Al-Bataineh, H.*; Alexander, J.*; Aoki, Kazuya*; Aphecetche, L.*; Aramaki, Y.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 83(4), p.044912_1 - 044912_16, 2011/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.83.044912

Measurements of electrons from the decay of open-heavy-flavor mesons have shown that the yields are suppressed in Au+Au collisions compared to expectations from binary-scaled collisions. Here we extend these studies to two particle correlations where one particle is an electron from the decay of a heavy flavor meson and the other is a charged hadron from either the decay of the heavy meson or from jet fragmentation. These measurements provide more detailed information about the interaction between heavy quarks and the quark-gluon matter. We find the away-side-jet shape and yield to be modified in Au+Au collisions compared to collisions.