Abstract: When the charge Z of an atom exceeds the critical value of 170, it will undergo a process called atomic collapse which triggers the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs. The high charge requirements have prevented the observation of this phenomenon with real atomic nuclei. However, thanks to the relativistic nature of the carriers in graphene, the same physics is accessible at a much lower scale. The atomic collapse analogue in graphene is realized using artificial nuclei which can be created via the deposition of impurities on the surface of graphene or using charged vacancies. These supercritically charged artificial nuclei trap electrons in a sequence of quasi-bound states which can be observed experimentally as resonances in the local density of states.

Abstract: Transition metal trichalcogenides form a class of layered materials with strong in-plane anisotropy. For example, titanium trisulfide (TiS3) whiskers are made out of weakly interacting TiS3 layers, where each layer is made of weakly interacting quasi-one-dimensional chains extending along the b axis. Here we establish the unusual vibrational properties of TiS3 both experimentally and theoretically. Unlike other two-dimensional systems, the Raman active peaks of TiS3 have only out-of-plane vibrational modes, and interestingly some of these vibrations involve unique rigid-chain vibrations and S-S molecular oscillations. High-pressure Raman studies further reveal that the A(g)(S-S) S-S molecular mode has an unconventional negative pressure dependence, whereas other peaks stiffen as anticipated. Various vibrational modes are doubly degenerate at ambient pressure, but the degeneracy is lifted at high pressures. These results establish the unusual vibrational properties of TiS3 with strong in-plane anisotropy, and may have relevance to understanding of vibrational properties in other anisotropic two-dimensional material systems.

Abstract: The magnetic flux domains in the intermediate state of type-I superconductors are known to resemble fluid droplets, and their dynamics in applied electric current is often cartooned as a “dripping faucet”. Here we show, using the time-depended Ginzburg-Landau simulations, that microfluidic principles hold also for the determination of the size of the magnetic flux-droplet as a function of the applied current, as well as for the merger or splitting of those droplets in the presence of the nanoengineered obstacles for droplet motion. Differently from fluids, the flux-droplets in superconductors are quantized and dissipative objects, and their pinning/depinning, nucleation, and splitting occur in a discretized form, all traceable in the voltage measured across the sample. At larger applied currents, we demonstrate how obstacles can cause branching of laminar flux streams or their transformation into mobile droplets, as readily observed in experiments.

Abstract: First‐principles calculations, within the framework of density functional theory, are used to investigate the structural, electronic, optical, and thermoelectric properties of monolayer PbTe. The effect of layer thickness, electric field, strain, and vacancy defects on the electronic and magnetic properties is systematically studied. The results show that the bandgap decreases as the layer thickness increases from monolayer to bulk. With application of an electric field on bilayer PbTe, the bandgap decreases from 70 meV (0.2 V Å⁻¹) to 50 meV (1 V Å⁻¹) when including spin–orbit coupling (SOC). Application of uniaxial strain induces a direct‐to‐indirect bandgap transition for strain greater than +6%. In addition, the bandgap decreases under compressive biaxial strain (with SOC). The effect of vacancy defects on the electronic properties of PbTe is also investigated. Such vacancy defects turn PbTe into a ferromagnetic metal (single vacancy Pb) with a magnetic moment of 1.3 μB, and into an indirect semiconductor with bandgap of 1.2 eV (single Te vacancy) and 1.5 eV (double Pb + Te vacancy). In addition, with change of the Te vacancy concentration, a bandgap of 0.38 eV (5.55%), 0.43 eV (8.33%), and 0.46 eV (11.11%) is predicted.

Abstract: Using evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction, we present a new stable two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotrope composed of polymerized as-indacenes (PAI) in a zigzag pattern, namely PAI-graphene whose energy is lower than most of the reported 2D allotropes of graphene. Crucially, the crystal structure realizes a nonsymmorphic layer group that enforces a nontrivial global topology of the band structure with two Dirac cones lying perfectly at the Fermi level. The absence of electron/hole pockets makes PAI-graphene a pristine crystalline topological semimetal having anisotropic Fermi velocities with a high value of 7.0 x 10(5) m/s. We show that while the semimetallic property of the allotrope is robust against the application of strain, the positions of the Dirac cone and the Fermi velocities can be modified significantly with strain. Moreover, by combining strain along both the x- and y-directions, two band inversions take place at G leading to the annihilation of the Dirac nodes demonstrating the possibility of strain-controlled conversion of a topological semimetal into a semiconductor. Finally we formulate the bulk-boundary correspondence of the topological nodal phase in the form of a generalized Zak-phase argument finding a perfect agreement with the topological edge states computed for different edge-terminations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract: The flexoelectric and electronic properties of zig-zag graphene nanoribbons are explored under mechanical bending using state of the art first principles calculations. A linear dependence of the bending induced out of plane polarization on the applied strain gradient is found. The inferior flexoelectric properties of graphene nanoribbons can be improved by more than two orders of magnitude by hydrogen and fluorine functionalization (CH and CF nanoribbons). A large out of plane flexoelectric effect is predicted for CF nanoribbons. The origin of this enhancement lies in the electro-negativity difference between carbon and fluorine atoms, which breaks the out of plane charge symmetry even for a small strain gradient. The flexoelectric effect can be further improved by co-functionalization with hydrogen and fluorine (CHF Janus-type nanoribbon), where a spontaneous out of plane dipole moment is formed even for flat nanoribbons. We also find that bending can control the charge localization of valence band maxima and therefore enables the tuning of the hole effective masses and band gaps. These results present an important advance towards the understanding of flexoelectric and electronic properties of hydrogen and fluorine functionalized graphene nanoribbons, which can have important implications for flexible electronic applications. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The interface-dependent electronic, vibrational, piezoelectric, and optical properties of van der Waals heterobilayers, formed by buckled GeO (b-GeO) and Janus MoSO structures, are investigated by means of first-principles calculations. The electronic band dispersions show that O/Ge and S/O interface formations result in a type-II band alignment with direct and indirect band gaps, respectively. In contrast, O/O and S/Ge interfaces give rise to the formation of a type-I band alignment with an indirect band gap. By considering the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) on top of G(0)W(0) approximation, it is shown that different interfaces can be distinguished from each other by means of the optical absorption spectra as a consequence of the band alignments. Additionally, the low- and high-frequency regimes of the Raman spectra are also different for each interface type. The alignment of the individual dipoles, which is interface-dependent, either weakens or strengthens the net dipole of the heterobilayers and results in tunable piezoelectric coefficients. The results indicate that the possible heterobilayers of b-GeO/MoSO asymmetric structures possess various electronic, optical, and piezoelectric properties arising from the different interface formations and can be distinguished by means of various spectroscopic techniques.

Abstract: Excitonic properties of Ge2H2 and Sn2H2, also known as Xanes, are investigated within the effective mass model. A perpendicularly applied magnetic field induces a negative shift on the exciton center-of-mass kinetic energy that is approximately quadratic with its momentum, thus pushing down the exciton dispersion curve and flattening it. This can be interpreted as an increase in the effective mass of the magneto-exciton, tunable by the field intensity. Our results show that in low effective mass two-dimensional semiconductors, such as Xanes, the applied magnetic field allows one to tune the magneto-exciton effective mass over a wide range of values.

Abstract: We conduct ballistic transport calculations to study the electronic transport properties of diazatriptycene molecule which can be self-assembled on metallic surfaces with uniform coverage and upright orientation of the functional head group. Due to its structural asymmetry, the molecule shows a clear current rectification, where the level of the rectification depends on the nature of the head group. For example, current rectification can be increased by more than a factor of 2 by anchoring the molecules to the electrode by CN functional group or introducing insulating CH2 group between the thiol end group and the adjacent phenyl ring. Our findings show the possibility of creating self-assembled monolayer of DAT molecules with controlled electronic transport properties through functionalization of the head group.

Abstract: Graphene matter in a strong magnetic field, realizing one-dimensional quantum Hall channels, provides a unique platform for studying electron interference. Here, using the Landauer-Buttiker formalism along with the tightbinding model, we investigate the quantum Hall (QH) effects in unipolar and bipolar monolayer-bilayer graphene (MLG-BLG) junctions. We find that a Hall bar made of an armchair MLG-BLG junction in the bipolar regime results in valley-polarized edgechannel interferences and can operate a fully tunable Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer device. Investigation of the bar-width and magnetic-field dependence of the conductance oscillations shows that the MZ interference in such structures can be drastically affected by the type of (zigzag) edge termination of the second layer in the BLG region [composed of vertical dimer or non-dimer atoms]. Our findings reveal that both interfaces exhibit a double set of Aharonov-Bohm interferences, with the one between two oppositely valley-polarized edge channels dominating and causing a large amplitude conductance oscillation ranging from 0 to 2e2/h. We explain and analyze our findings by analytically solving the Dirac-Weyl equation for a gated semi-infinite MLG-BLG junction.

Abstract: We explore the flatness of conduction and valence bands of interlayer excitons in MoS2/WSe2 van der Waals heterobilayers, tuned by interlayer twist angle, pressure, and external electric field. We employ an efficient continuum model where the moire pattern from lattice mismatch and/or twisting is represented by an equivalent mesoscopic periodic potential. We demonstrate that the mismatch moire potential is too weak to produce significant flattening. Moreover, we draw attention to the fact that the quasi-particle effective masses around the Gamma-point and the band flattening are reduced with twisting. As an alternative approach, we show (i) that reducing the interlayer distance by uniform vertical pressure can significantly increase the effective mass of the moire hole, and (ii) that the moire depth and its band flattening effects are strongly enhanced by accessible electric gating fields perpendicular to the heterobilayer, with resulting electron and hole effective masses increased by more than an order of magnitude – leading to record-flat bands. These findings impose boundaries on the commonly generalized benefits of moire twistronics, while also revealing alternative feasible routes to achieve truly flat electron and hole bands to carry us to strongly correlated excitonic phenomena on demand.

Abstract: Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is considered as an ideal semiconductor material for solid-state neutron detector, owing to its large neutron scattering section because of the low atomic number of B and excellent physical properties. Here we study the influence of neutron irradiation on crystal structure and on intermediate energy state (IMES) levels induced by the presence of impurities and defects in hBN. Large-size and thick pyrolytic and hot-pressed hBN (PBN and HBN) samples, which can be directly applied for neutron detector devices, are prepared and bombarded by neutrons with different irradiation fluences. The SEM and TEM are used to observe the sample difference of PBN and HBN. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy are applied to examine the influence of neutron irradiation on lattice structures along different crystal directions of PBN and HBN samples. Photoluminescence (PL) is employed to study the effect of neutron irradiation on IMESs in these samples. We find that the neutron irradiation does not alter the in-plane lattice structures of both PBN and HBN samples, but it can release the inter-layer tensions induced by sample growth of the PBN samples. Interestingly and surprisingly, the neutron irradiation does not affect the IMES levels responsible for PL generation, where PL is attributed mainly from phonon-assisted radiative electron-hole coupling for both PBN and HBN samples. Furthermore, the results indicate that the neutron irradiation can weaken the effective carrier-phonon coupling and exciton transitions in PBN and HBN samples. Overall, both PBN and HBN samples show some degree of the resistance to neutron irradiation in terms of these basic physical properties. The interesting and important findings from this work can help us to gain an in-depth understanding of the influence of neutron irradiation on basic physical properties of hBN materials. These effects can be taken into account when designing and applying the hBN materials for neutron detectors.