Gapless dispersive continuum in a modulated quantum kagome antiferromagnet

Thennakoon, A.*; Yokokura, Ryoga*; Yang, Y.*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Hayashi, Masahiro*; Michioka, Chishiro*; Chern, G.-W.*; Broholm, C.*; Ueda, Hiroaki*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 16, p.3939_1 - 3939_13, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58971-4

Electrical mutual switching in a noncollinear-antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic heterostructure

Yoon, J.-Y.*; Takeuchi, Yutaro*; Takechi, Ryota*; Han, J.*; Uchiyama, Tomohiro*; Yamane, Yuta*; Kanai, Shun*; Ieda, Junichi; Ohno, Hideo*; Fukami, Shunsuke*

Nature Communications (Internet), 16, p.1171_1 - 1171_8, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56157-6

Isotope-dependent site occupation of hydrogen in epitaxial titanium hydride nanofilms

Ozawa, Takahiro*; Fukutani, Katsuyuki; 7 of others*

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.9558_1 - 9558_8, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53838-6

Brightening triplet excitons enable high-performance white-light emission in organic small molecules via integrating n-- transitions

Yang, Q.*; Yang, X.*; Wang, Y.*; Fei, Y.*; Li, F.*; Zheng, H.*; Li, K.*; Han, Y.*; Hattori, Takanori; Zhu, P.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.7778_1 - 7778_9, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52196-7

Luminescent materials that simultaneously embody bright singlet and triplet excitons hold great potential in optoelectronics, signage, and information encryption. However, achieving high-performance white-light emission is severely hampered by their inherent unbalanced contribution of fluorescence and phosphorescence. Herein, we address this challenge by pressure treatment engineering via hydrogen bonding cooperativity effect to realize the mixture of n-- transitions, where the triplet state emission was boosted from 7% to 40% in isophthalic acid (IPA). A superior white-light emission based on hybrid fluorescence and phosphorescence was harvested in pressure-treated IPA, and the photoluminescence quantum yield was increased to 75% from the initial 19% (blue-light emission). In-situ high-pressure IR spectra, X ray diffraction, and neutron diffraction reveal continuous strengthening of the hydrogen bonds with the increase of pressure. Furthermore, this enhanced hydrogen bond is retained down to the ambient conditions after pressure treatment, awarding the targeted IPA efficient intersystem crossing for balanced singlet/triplet excitons population and resulting in efficient white-light emission. This work not only proposes a route for brightening triplet states in organic small molecule, but also regulates the ratio of singlet and triplet excitons to construct high-performance white-light emission.

Hydrogen bond symmetrisation in DO ice observed by neutron diffraction

Komatsu, Kazuki*; Hattori, Takanori; Klotz, S.*; Machida, Shinichi*; Yamashita, Keishiro*; Ito, Hayate*; Kobayashi, Hiroki*; Irifune, Tetsuo*; Shimmei, Toru*; Sano, Asami; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.5100_1 - 5100_7, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48932-8

Hydrogen bond symmetrisation is the phenomenon where a hydrogen atom is located at the centre of a hydrogen bond. Theoretical studies predict that hydrogen bonds in ice VII eventually undergo symmetrisation upon increasing pressure, involving nuclear quantum effect with significant isotope effect and drastic changes in the elastic properties through several intermediate states with varying hydrogen distribution. Despite numerous experimental studies conducted, the location of hydrogen and hence the transition pressures reported up to date remain inconsistent. Here we report the atomic distribution of deuterium in DO ice using neutron diffraction above 100 GPa and observe for the first time the transition from a bimodal to a unimodal distribution of deuterium at around 80 GPa. At the transition pressure, a significant narrowing of the peak widths of 110 was also observed, attributed to the structural relaxation by the change of elastic properties.

Intrinsic factors responsible for brittle versus ductile nature of refractory high-entropy alloys

Tsuru, Tomohito; Han, S.*; Matsuura, Shutaro*; Chen, Z.*; Kishida, Kyosuke*; Lobzenko, I.; Rao, S.*; Woodward, C.*; George, E.*; Inui, Haruyuki*

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.1706_1 - 1706_10, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45639-8

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) have attracted attention because of their potential for use in ultrahigh-temperature applications. Unfortunately, their body-centered-cubic (BCC) crystal structures make them more brittle than the ductile and fracture-resistant face-centered-cubic (FCC) HEAs. RHEAs also display significantly lower creep strengths than a leading Ni-base superalloy and its FCC matrix. To overcome these drawbacks and develop RHEAs into viable structural materials, improved fundamental understanding is needed of factors that control strength and ductility. Here we investigate two model RHEAs, TiZrHfNbTa and VNbMoTaW, and show that the former is plastically compressible down to 77 K, whereas the latter is not below 298 K. We find that hexagonal close-packed (HCP) elements in TiZrHfNbTa lower its dislocation core energy, increase its lattice distortion, and lower its shear modulus relative to VNbMoTaW whose elements are all BCC, leading to the formers higher ductility and modulus-normalized yield strength. Consistent with our yield strength models, primarily screw dislocations are present in TiZrHfNbTa after deformation, but equal numbers of edge and screw segments in VNbTaMoW. Dislocation cores are compact in VNbTaMoW and extended in TiZrHfNbTa, and different macroscopic slip planes are activated in the two RHEAs, which we attribute to the concentration of HCP elements. Our findings demonstrate how electronic structure changes related to the ratio of HCP to BCC elements can be used to control strength, ductility, and slip behavior to develop the next generation of high-temperature materials for more efficient power plants and transportation.

Tetrahedral triple-Q magnetic ordering and large spontaneous Hall conductivity in the metallic triangular antiferromagnet CoTaS

Park, P.*; Cho, W.*; Kim, C.*; An, Y.*; Kang, Y.-G.*; Avdeev, M.*; Sibille, R.*; Iida, Kazuki*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Lee, K. H.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 14, p.8346_1 - 8346_9, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43853-4

Chiral superconductivity in UTe probed by anisotropic low-energy excitations

Ishihara, Kota*; Roppongi, Masaki*; Kobayashi, Masayuki*; Imamura, Kumpei*; Mizukami, Yuta*; Sakai, Hironori; Opletal, P.; Tokiwa, Yoshifumi; Haga, Yoshinori; Hashimoto, Kenichiro*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 14, p.2966_1 - 2966_7, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38688-y

The superconducting symmetry of the heavy fermion uranium-based superconductor UTe is investigated using low temperature penetration depth measurements. The anisotropic low-energy quasiparticle excitations indicates multiple superconducting components in a chiral complex form. The most consistent is a chiral non-unitary state.

A Widespread group of large plasmids in methanotrophic archaea

Schoelmerich, M. C.*; Oubouter, H. T.*; Sachdeva, R.*; Penev, P. I.*; Amano, Yuki; West-Roberts, J.*; Welte, C. U.*; Banfield, J. F.*

Nature Communications (Internet), 13, p.7085_1 - 7085_11, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34588-9

Local bifurcation with spin-transfer torque in superparamagnetic tunnel junctions

Funatsu, Takuya*; Kanai, Shun*; Ieda, Junichi; Fukami, Shunsuke*; Ohno, Hideo*

Nature Communications (Internet), 13, p.4079_1 - 4079_8, 2022/07

AA2021-0782.pdf:1.86MB

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31788-1

Modulation of the energy landscape by external perturbations governs various thermally-activated phenomena, described by the Arrhenius law. Thermal fluctuation of nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions with spin-transfer torque (STT) shows promise for unconventional computing, whereas its rigorous representation, based on the Neel-Arrhenius law, has been controversial. In particular, the exponents for thermally-activated switching rate therein, have been inaccessible with conventional thermally-stable nanomagnets with decade-long retention time. Here we approach the Neel-Arrhenius law with STT utilising superparamagnetic tunnel junctions that have high sensitivity to external perturbations and determine the exponents through several independent measurements including homodyne-detected ferromagnetic resonance, nanosecond STT switching, and random telegraph noise. Furthermore, we show that the results are comprehensively described by a concept of local bifurcation observed in various physical systems. The findings demonstrate the capability of superparamagnetic tunnel junction as a useful tester for statistical physics as well as sophisticated engineering of probabilistic computing hardware with a rigorous mathematical foundation.