Chiral-spin rotation of non-collinear antiferromagnet by spin-orbit torque

Takeuchi, Yutaro*; Yamane, Yuta*; Yoon, J.-Y.*; Ito, Ryuichi*; Jinnai, Butsurin*; Kanai, Shun*; Ieda, Junichi; Fukami, Shunsuke*; Ono, Hideo*

Nature Materials, 20(10), p.1364 - 1370, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01005-3

Experimental evidence for the existence of a second partially-ordered phase of ice VI

Yamane, Ryo*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Gochi, Jun*; Uwatoko, Yoshiya*; Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori; Ito, Hayate*; Kagi, Hiroyuki*

Nature Communications (Internet), 12, p.1129_1 - 1129_6, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21351-9

Ice exhibits extraordinary structural variety in its polymorphic structures. The existence of a new form of diversity in ice polymorphism has recently been debated in both experimental and theoretical studies, questioning whether hydrogen-disordered ice can transform into multiple hydrogen-ordered phases, contrary to the known one-to-one correspondence between disordered ice and its ordered phase. Here we report a new high-pressure phase, ice XIX, which is a second hydrogen-ordered phase of ice VI. This is the first discovery to demonstrate that disordered ice undergoes different manners of hydrogen ordering. Such multiplicity can appear in all disordered ice, and it widely provides a new research approach to deepen our knowledge, for example of the crucial issues of ice: the centrosymmetry of hydrogen-ordered configurations and potentially induced (anti-)ferroelectricity. Ultimately, this research opens up the possibility of completing the phase diagram of ice.

Author correction; Radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in terrestrial systems

Onda, Yuichi*; Taniguchi, Keisuke*; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Kato, Hiroaki*; Takahashi, Junko*; Wakiyama, Yoshifumi*; Coppin, F.*; Smith, H.*

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (Internet), 1(12), P. 694_1, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-00119-7

Slow compression of crystalline ice at low temperature

Bauer, R.*; Tse, J. S.*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori

Nature, 585(7825), p.E9 - E10, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2697-7

Pressure-induced structural transformations in deuterated crystalline ice-Ih were studied in-situ at 100 K using neutron diffraction. Very long relaxation time was allowed between small pressure increments to promote transformations to the thermodynamic stable high pressure crystalline phases. The results contradict a recent report in which measurements under similar temperature and pressure environment show successive crystal-to-crystal transformations (Tulk, et.al., Nature 2019). Instead, ice Ih was found to transform partially to an amorphous form (high density amorphous, HDA) at 1.0 GPa and then ice VII started to emerge at 1.5 GPa, a pressure substantially lower than all earlier studies. During this pressure interval, crystalline ice Ih or ice VII co-exist with HDA. The ice VII formed is stable upon pressure release down to 0.1 GPa. The very low compression rate has a profound effect on the crystallinity in the amorphous regime. Gathering all the existing experimental evidences allows an unambiguous description of the phenomenon of pressure induced amorphization. The onset of the phase transition is triggered by a shear instability of the ice lattice. The co-existence ice VII with HDA, instead of the equilibrium thermodynamic stable and proton-ordered ice-VIII under the same pressure-temperature condition reveals at low temperature there is insufficient thermal energy to overcome the substantial geometrical rearrangement from a single proton disordered H-bond network to an interpenetrating proton ordered H-bond crystalline network. Thus, leaving the proton disordered H-network intact. The analysis shows unequivocally that the structure obtained from the compression of ice is controlled by kinetics and dependent on the temperature.

Gapless spin liquid in a square-kagome lattice antiferromagnet

Fujihara, Masayoshi*; Morita, Katsuhiro*; Mole, R.*; Mitsuda, Setsuo*; Toyama, Takami*; Yano, Shinichiro*; Yu, D.*; Sota, Shigetoshi*; Kuwai, Tomohiko*; Koda, Akihiro*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 11(1), p.3429_1 - 3429_7, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17235-z

Giant spin hydrodynamic generation in laminar flow

Takahashi, Ryo*; Chudo, Hiroyuki; Matsuo, Mamoru; Harii, Kazuya*; Onuma, Yuichi*; Maekawa, Sadamichi; Saito, Eiji

Nature Communications (Internet), 11, p.3009_1 - 3009_6, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16753-0

Ultralow thermal conductivity from transverse acoustic phonon suppression in distorted crystalline -MgAgSb

Li, X.*; Liu, P.-F.*; Zhao, E.*; Zhang, Z.*; Guide, T.*; Le, M. D.*; Avdeev, M.*; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Otomo, Toshiya*; Kofu, Maiko; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 11(1), p.942_1 - 942_9, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14772-5

In high-performance thermoelectric materials, there are two main low thermal conductivity mechanisms: the phonon anharmonic and phonon scattering resulting from the dynamic disorder, which have been successfully revealed by inelastic neutron scattering. Using neutron scattering and ab initio calculations, we report here a mechanism of static local structure distortion combined with phonon-anharmonic-induced ultralow lattice thermal conductivity in -MgAgSb. Since the transverse acoustic phonons are almost fully scattered by the intrinsic distorted rocksalt sublattice in this compound, the heat is mainly transported by the longitudinal acoustic phonons. The ultralow thermal conductivity in -MgAgSb is attributed to its atomic dynamics being altered by the structure distortion, which presents a possible microscopic route to enhance the performance of similar thermoelectric materials.

Provenance of uranium particulate contained within Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 ejecta material

Martin, P. G.*; Louvel, M.*; Cipiccia, S.*; Jones, C. P.*; Batey, D. J.*; Hallam, K. R.*; Yang, I. A. X.*; Satou, Yukihiko; Rau, C.*; Mosselmans, J. F. W.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 10(1), p.2801_1 - 2801_7, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10937-z

Synchrotron radiation (SR) analysis techniques alongside secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements have been made on sub-mm particulate material derived from reactor Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). Using these methods, it has been possible to investigate the distribution, state and isotopic composition of micron-scale U particulate contained within the larger Si-based ejecta material. Through combined SR micro-focused X-ray fluorescence (SR-micro-XRF) and absorption contrast SR micro-focused X-ray tomography (SR-micro-XRT), the U particulate was found to be located around the exterior circumference of the highly-porous particle. Synchrotron radiation micro-focused X-ray absorption near edge structure (SR-micro-XANES) analysis of a number of these entrapped particles revealed them to exist within the U(IV) oxidation state, as UO, and identical in structure to reactor fuel. Confirmation that this U was of nuclear origin (U-enriched) was provided through secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis with an isotopic enrichment ratio characteristic of a provenance from reactor Unit 1 at the FDNPP. These results provide clear evidence of the event scenario (that a degree of core fragmentation and release occurred from reactor Unit 1), with such spent fuel ejecta existing; (i) within the stable U(IV) oxidation state; and (ii) contained within a bulk Si-based particle. While this U is unlikely to represent an environmental or health hazard, such assertions would likely change, however, should break-up of the Si-containing bulk particle occur. However, more important to the long-term decommissioning of the reactors (and clean-up) on the FDNPP, is the knowledge that core integrity of reactor Unit 1 was compromised with nuclear material existing outside of the reactors primary containment.

Evidence for singular-phonon-induced nematic superconductivity in a topological superconductor candidate SrBiSe

Wang, J.*; Ran, K.*; Li, S.*; Ma, Z.*; Bao, S.*; Cai, Z.*; Zhang, Y.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; ermk, P.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 10, p.2802_1 - 2802_6, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10942-2

Colossal barocaloric effects in plastic crystals

Li, B.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kawamura, Seiko; Sugahara, Takeshi*; Wang, H.*; Wang, J.*; Chen, Y.*; Kawaguchi, Saori*; Kawaguchi, Shogo*; Ohara, Koji*; et al.

Nature, 567(7749), p.506 - 510, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1042-5

Refrigeration is of vital importance for modern society for example, for food storage and air conditioning- and 25 to 30% of the world's electricity is consumed for refrigeration. Current refrigeration technology mostly involves the conventional vapour compression cycle, but the materials used in this technology are of growing environmental concern because of their large global warming potential. As a promising alternative, refrigeration technologies based on solid-state caloric effects have been attracting attention in recent decades. However, their application is restricted by the limited performance of current caloric materials, owing to small isothermal entropy changes and large driving magnetic fields. Here we report colossal barocaloric effects (CBCEs) (barocaloric effects are cooling effects of pressure-induced phase transitions) in a class of disordered solids called plastic crystals. The obtained entropy changes in a representative plastic crystal, neopentylglycol, are about 389 joules per kilogram per kelvin near room temperature. Pressure-dependent neutron scattering measurements reveal that CBCEs in plastic crystals can be attributed to the combination of extensive molecular orientational disorder, giant compressibility and highly anharmonic lattice dynamics of these materials. Our study establishes the microscopic mechanism of CBCEs in plastic crystals and paves the way to next-generation solid-state refrigeration technologies.