Microscopic origin of the spin-reorientation transition in the kagome topological magnet TbMnSn

Huang, Z.*; Wang, W.*; Ye, H.*; Bao, S.*; Shangguan, Y.*; Liao, J.*; Cao, S.*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Deng, G.*; et al.

Physical Review B, 109(1), p.014434_1 - 014434_9, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.014434

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.

Two-dimensional quantum universality in the spin-1/2 triangular-lattice quantum antiferromagnet NaBaCo(PO)

Sheng, J.*; Wang, L.*; Candini, A.*; Jiang, W.*; Huang, L.*; Xi, B.*; Zhao, J.*; Ge, H.*; Zhao, N.*; Fu, Y.*; et al.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(51), p.e2211193119_1 - e2211193119_9, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211193119

First observation of the decay of the 13/2 isomer in Hg and (2) systematics of neutron transitions across the nuclear chart

Huang, H.*; Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Liu, Z.*; Seweryniak, D.*; Li, Z. H.*; Guo, C. Y.*; Barzakh, A. E.*; Van Duppen, P.*; Andel, B.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 833, p.137345_1 - 137345_8, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2022.137345

Fine structure in the decay of the 8 isomer in U

Zhang, M. M.*; Tian, Y. L.*; Wang, Y. S.*; Zhang, Z. Y.*; Gan, Z. G.*; Yang, H. B.*; Huang, M. H.*; Ma, L.*; Yang, C. L.*; Wang, J. G.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 106(2), p.024305_1 - 024305_6, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024305

First observation of a shape isomer and a low-lying strongly-coupled prolate band in neutron-deficient semi-magic Pb

Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Liu, Z.*; Seweryniak, D.*; Huang, H.*; Li, Z. H.*; Li, J. G.*; Guo, C. Y.*; 34 of others*

Physics Letters B, 829, p.137129_1 - 137129_7, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2022.137129

Tensile response of as-cast CoCrFeNi and CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys

Lam, T.-N.*; Luo, M.-Y.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; Jain, J.*; Lee, S.-Y.*; Yeh, A.-C.*; Huang, E.-W.*

Crystals (Internet), 12(2), p.157_1 - 157_9, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12020157

Neutron spectroscopy evidence on the dual nature of magnetic excitations in a van der Waals metallic ferromagnet FeGeTe

Bao, S.*; Wang, W.*; Shangguan, Y.*; Cai, Z.*; Dong, Z.-Y.*; Huang, Z.*; Si, W.*; Ma, Z.*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; et al.

Physical Review X, 12(1), p.011022_1 - 011022_15, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.011022

Origin of magnetovolume effect in a cobaltite

Miao, P.*; Tan, Z.*; Lee, S. H.*; Ishikawa, Yoshihisa*; Torii, Shuki*; Yonemura, Masao*; Koda, Akihiro*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Machida, Shinichi*; Sano, Asami; et al.

Physical Review B, 103(9), p.094302_1 - 094302_18, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.094302

The layered perovskite PrBaCoO demonstrates a strong negative thermal expansion (NTE) which holds potential for being fabricated into composites with zero thermal expansion. The NTE was found to be intimately associated with the spontaneous magnetic ordering, known as magneto-volume effect (MVE). Here we report with compelling evidences that the continuous-like MVE in PrBaCoO is intrinsically of discontinuous character, originating from an magnetoelectric transition from an antiferromagnetic insulating large-volume (AFILV) phase to a ferromagnetic less-insulating small-volume (FLISV) phase. Furthermore, the magnetoelectric effect (ME) shows high sensitivity to multiple external stimuli such as temperature, carrier doping, hydrostatic pressure, magnetic field etc. In contrast to the well-known ME such as colossal magnetoresistance and multi-ferroic effect which involve symmetry breaking of crystal structure, the ME in the cobaltite is purely isostructural. Our discovery provides a new path way to realizing the ME as well as the NTE, which may find applications in new techniques.

Enhancement of fatigue resistance by overload-induced deformation twinning in a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy

Lam, T.-N.*; Lee, S. Y.*; Tsou, N.-T.*; Chou, H.-S.*; Lai, B.-H.*; Chang, Y.-J.*; Feng, R.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; Liaw, P. K.*; et al.

Acta Materialia, 201, p.412 - 424, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2020.10.016