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GaP/Si/Ge nanoheterostructures have been obtained using the method of pulsed laser deposition, and an energy band diagram of cascade solar cells based on these heterostructures were modeled. GaP and Ge nanolayers grown on Si substrates were studied by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Spectral dependences of the external quantum efficiency response of GaP/Si/Ge nanoheterostructures were determined.
The scattering process of plane waves by a discontinuous edge contour is studied with the three dimensional boundary diffraction wave theory. The edge and corner diffracted fields are obtained from the stationary phase and edge point evaluations of the line integral. A new corner diffraction coefficient is derived. The behaviors of the uniform edge and corner diffracted waves are investigated numerically.
Bulk-mode acoustic waves in a crystalline material exert lattice strain through the thickness of the sample, which couples to the spin Hamiltonian of defect-based qubits such as the nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center defect in diamond. This mechanism has previously been harnessed for unconventional quantum spin control, spin decoherence protection, and quantum sensing. Bulk-mode acoustic wave devices are also important in the microelectronics industry as microwave filters. A key challenge in both applications is a lack of appropriate operando microscopy tools for quantifying and visualizing gigahertz-frequency dynamic strain. Here, in this work, we directly image acoustic strain within N-V center-coupled diamond thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonators using stroboscopic scanning hard x-ray diffraction microscopy at the Advanced Photon Source. The far-field scattering patterns of the nanofocused x-ray diffraction encode strain information entirely through the illuminated thickness of the resonator. These patterns have a real-space spatial variation that is consistent with the bulk strain’s expected modal distribution and a momentum-space angular variation from which the strain amplitude can be quantitatively deduced. We also perform optical measurements of strain-driven Rabi precession of of the N-V center spin ensemble, providing an additional quantitative measurement of the strain amplitude. As a result, we directly measure one of the six N-V spin-stress coupling parameters, 𝑏 =2.73(2) MHz/GPa, by correlating these measurements at the same spatial position and applied microwave power. Our results demonstrate a unique technique for directly imaging ac lattice strain in micromechanical structures and provide a direct measurement of a fundamental constant for the N-V center defect spin Hamiltonian.
The emergence of a quantum spin liquid (QSL), a state of matter that can result when electron spins are highly correlated but do not become ordered, has been the subject of a considerable body of research in condensed matter physics [1,2]. Spin liquid states have been proposed as hosts for high-temperature superconductivity [3] and can host topological properties with potential applications in quantum information science [4]. The excitations of most quantum spin liquids are not conventional spin waves but rather quasiparticles known as spinons, whose existence is well established experimentally only in one-dimensional systems; the unambiguous experimental realization of QSL behavior in higher dimensions remains challenging. Here, in this work, we investigate the novel compound $YbZn_{2}GaO_{5}$, which hosts an ideal triangular lattice of effective spin-1/2 moments with no detectable inherent chemical disorder. Thermodynamic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements performed on high-quality single crystal samples of $YbZn_{2}GaO_{5}$ exclude the possibility of long-range magnetic ordering down to 0.06 K, demonstrate a quadratic power law for the specific heat and reveal a continuum of magnetic excitations in parts of the Brillouin zone. Both low-temperature thermodynamics and inelastic neutron scattering spectra suggest that $YbZn_{2}GaO_{5}$ is a U(1) Dirac QSL with spinon excitations concentrated at certain points in the Brillouin zone. We advanced these results by performing additional specific heat measurements under finite fields, further confirming the theoretical expectations for a Dirac QSL on the triangular lattice of $YbZn_{2}GaO_{5}$.
In this work, we present a general form for the electron‐ion diffractive potential derived from the quantum pair density matrix and fit to the improved Kelbg potential for atomic numbers up to $Z = 54$. We apply classical molecular dynamics using the improved Kelbg potential for carbon with various forms of the Pauli potential to compute internal energies and pressures for hot, dense plasma conditions. Our results are compared to an equation of state model based on path integral Monte Carlo and density functional theory simulations to examine the extent to which the improved Kelbg potential reproduces the internal energy and pressure of carbon plasmas. The regions of validity for carbon agree generally with those derived previously for hydrogen once pressure ionization effects are incorporated. Based on our carbon results and previously published hydrogen studies, we discuss the general applicability and limitations of these potentials for equation of state studies in warm dense matter and high energy density plasmas.
We report that in situ high pressure single crystal X-ray diffraction study reveals that the quantum material CaMn 2 Bi 2 undergoes a unique plane to chain structural transition between 2 and 3 GPa, accompanied by a large volume collapse. Puckered Mn–Mn honeycomb layer converts to quasi-one-dimensional (1D) zigzag chains above the phase transition pressure. Single crystal measurements reveal that the pressure-induced structural transformation is accompanied by a dramatic 2 orders of magnitude drop of resistivity. Although the ambient pressure phase displays semiconducting behavior at low temperatures, metallic temperature dependent resistivity is observed for the high pressure phase, as surprisingly, are two resistivity anomalies with opposite pressure dependences, while one of them could be a magnetic transition and the other originates from Fermi surface instability. Lastly, assessment of the total energies for hypothetical magnetic structures for high pressure CaMn 2 Bi 2 indicates that ferrimagnetism is thermodynamically favored.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) offers a large-area, scalable, and conformal growth of perovskite thin films without the use of solvents. Low-dimensional organic–inorganic halide perovskites, with alternating layers of organic spacer groups and inorganic perovskite layers, are promising for enhancing the stability of optoelectronic devices. Moreover, their multiple quantum-well structures provide a powerful platform for tuning excitonic physics. Here, in this work, we show that the CVD process is conducive to the growth of 2D hybrid halide perovskite films. Using butylammonium (BA) and phenylethylammonium (PEA) cations, the growth parameters of BA 2 PbI 4 and PEA 2 PbI 4 and mixed halide perovskite films were first optimized. These films are characterized by well-defined grain boundaries and display characteristic absorption and emission features of the 2D quantum wells. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a noninteger dimensionality model of the absorption spectrum provide insights into the orientation of the crystalline planes. Unlike BA 2 PbI 4 , temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements from PEA 2 PbI 4 show a single excitonic peak throughout the temperature range from 20 to 350 K, highlighting the lack of defect states. These results further corroborate the temperature-dependent synchrotron-based XRD results. Furthermore, the nonlinear optical properties of the CVD-grown perovskite films are investigated, and a high third harmonic generation efficiency is observed.
Abstract not provided
The dynamics of the radial envelope of a weak coherent drift-wave (DW) is approximately governed by a nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE), which emerges as a limit of the modified Hasegawa–Mima equation (mHME). The NLSE has well-known soliton solutions, and its modulational instability (MI) can naturally generate solitary structures. Here, we demonstrate that this simple model can adequately describe the formation of solitary zonal structures in the mHME, but only when the amplitude of the coherent DW is relatively small. At larger amplitudes, the MI produces stationary zonal structures instead. Furthermore, we find that incoherent DWs with beam-like spectra can also be modulationally unstable to the formation of solitary or stationary zonal structures, depending on the beam intensity. Notably, we show that these DWs can be modeled as quantum-like particles ('driftons') within a recently developed phase-space (Wigner–Moyal) formulation, which intuitively depicts the solitary zonal structures as quasi-monochromatic drifton condensates. Quantum-like effects, such as diffraction, are essential to these condensates; thus, the latter cannot be described by wave-kinetic models that are based on the ray approximation.
Magnetic properties of Cu 2 (MoO 4 )(SeO 3 ), an S = $\frac{1}{2}$ centrosymmetric antiferromagnet (AFM), were investigated using superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, neutron diffraction, and magnetoelectric (ME) measurements. Here, the magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate a broad peak at ~50 K, followed by a phase transition into AFM order at T N = 23.6(1) K. Above T N , a fit to the Curie-Weiss law gives a Curie-Weiss temperature Θ CW = -68(1) K, suggesting the dominant AFM coupling. Neutron powder diffraction reveals that the Cu 2+ spins are aligned AFM along the c axis with weak noncollinearity under the magnetic space group of P2$^{'}_{1}$/c. The ME response indicates that a nondiagonal component of a ME tensor is active, supporting the simultaneous spatial and time reversal symmetry breaking under P2$^{'}_{1}$/c.
Dimensionality and symmetry play deterministic roles in the laws of Nature. They are important tools to characterize and understand quantum phase transitions, especially in the limit of strong correlations between spin, orbit, charge, and structural degrees of freedom. Using newly-developed, high-pressure resonant x-ray magnetic and charge diffraction techniques, we have discovered a quantum critical point in Cd 2 Os 2 O 7 as the all-in-all-out antiferromagnetic order is continuously suppressed to zero temperature and, concomitantly, the cubic lattice structure continuously changes from space group Fd-3m to F-43m. Surrounded by three phases of different time reversal and spatial inversion symmetries, the quantum critical region anchors two phase lines of opposite curvature, with striking departures from a mean-field form at high pressure. As spin fluctuations, lattice breathing modes, and quasiparticle excitations interact in the quantum critical region, we argue that they present the necessary components for strongly-coupled quantum criticality in this three-dimensional compound.
The nature of light, extending from the optical to the x-ray regime, is reviewed from a diffraction point of view by comparing field-based statistical optics and photon-based quantum optics approaches. The topic is introduced by comparing historical diffraction concepts based on wave interference, Dirac’s notion of photon self-interference, Feynman’s interference of space–time photon probability amplitudes, and Glauber’s formulation of coherence functions based on photon detection. The concepts are elucidated by a review of how the semiclassical combination of the disparate photon and wave concepts have been used to describe light creation, diffraction, and detection. The origin of the fundamental diffraction limit is then discussed in both wave and photon pictures. By use of Feynman’s concept of probability amplitudes associated with independent photons, we show that quantum electrodynamics, the complete theory of light, reduces in lowest order to the conventional wave formalism of diffraction. As an introduction to multi-photon effects, we then review fundamental one- and two-photon experiments and detection schemes, in particular the seminal Hanbury Brown–Twiss experiment. The formal discourse of the paper starts with a treatment of first-order coherence theory. In first order, the statistical optics and quantum optics formulations of coherence are shown to be equivalent. This is elucidated by a discussion of Zernike’s powerful theorem of partial coherence propagation, a cornerstone of statistical optics, followed by its quantum derivation based on the interference of single-photon probability amplitudes. The treatment is then extended to second-order coherence theory, where the equivalence of wave and particle descriptions is shown to break down. This is illustrated by considering two photons whose space–time probability amplitudes are correlated through nonlinear birth processes, resulting in entanglement or cloning. In both cases, the two-photon diffraction patterns are shown to exhibit resolution below the conventional diffraction limit, defined by the one-photon diffraction patterns. The origin of the reduction is shown to arise from the interference of two-photon probability amplitudes. By comparing first- and second-order diffraction, it is shown that the conventional first-order concept of partial coherence with its limits of chaoticity and first-order coherence has the second-order analogue of partial entanglement, with its limits corresponding to two entangled photons (“entangled biphotons”) and two cloned photons (“cloned biphotons”), the latter being second-order coherent. The concept of cloned biphotons is extended to the case of $n$ cloned photons, resulting in a $1/n$ reduction of the diffraction limit. In the limit of $n$th-order collective state are shown to propagate on particle like trajectories, reproducing the 0th-order ray-optics picture. These results are discussed in terms of the linearity of quantum mechanics and Heisenberg’s space–momentum uncertainty principle. Finally, a general concept of coherence based on photon density is developed that in first order is equivalent to the conventional wave-based picture.
The results of studies of the optical properties of ensembles of colloidal CdS quantum dots passivated by thioglycolic acid are reported. The average dimensions of the quantum dots lie in the range from 1.7 to 5.8 nm. By X-ray diffraction studies and Raman spectroscopy, it is established that quantum dots crystallize with the formation of a cubic crystal lattice. The systematic features of the quantum-confinement effect in the optical absorption and luminescence spectra, as well as in the luminescence excitation spectra, are established. The features manifest themselves as a blue shift of the corresponding bands with decreasing quantum-dot dimensions. From analysis of the nanosecond luminescence kinetics, it is concluded that experimentally observed radiative recombination proceeds by the donor–acceptor mechanism.
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Highlights: • Linear and photogalvanic anomalous Hall responses are systematically derived. • Extrinsic mechanisms of AHE include Gaussian, diffractive, hybrid skew scattering. • Diagrammatic calculations are matched to semiclassical picture of AHE. • The Pancharatnam phase of multifold fermions determines the skew scattering amplitude. • Photon-induced interband scattering are accompanied by coordinate shifts. We present a systematic microscopic derivation of the semiclassical Boltzmann equation for band structures with the finite Berry curvature based on Keldysh technique of nonequilibrium systems. In the analysis, an AC electrical driving field is kept up to quadratic order, and both cases of small and large frequencies corresponding to intra- and interband transitions are considered. In particular, this formulation is suitable for the study of nonlinear Hall effect and photogalvanic phenomena. The role of impurity scattering is carefully addressed. Specifically, in addition to previously studied side-jump and skew-scattering processes, quantum interference diffractive contributions are now explicitly incorporated within the developed framework. This theory is applied to multifold fermions in topological semimetals, for which the generic formula for the skew scattering rate from the Pancharatnam phase is obtained along with the corresponding anomalous Hall conductivity.
Wide-bandgap III-nitride heterostructures are required for a variety of device applications. However, this alloy system has a large lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient mismatch that limits the alloy composition and layer thickness for many heteroepitaxial device structures. Consequently, various methods have been devised to allow the heteroepitaxial growth of AlInGaN heterostructures to accommodate this inherent strain. In this work, we describe a non-planar-growth approach that enables the deposition of crack-free high-Al-mole-fraction Al x Ga 1-x N on patterned GaN/sapphire templates and bulk GaN substrates with large-area mesas. We have studied the effects of the patterned mesa width, the mesa etch depth, and the gap between the mesas on the heteroepitaxy of Al x Ga 1-x N superlattices with an average Al molar fraction 0.11 < x¯ < 0.21 and non-planar overgrowth growth thicknesses up to 3.5 μm. Similar to the planar growth approach, increasing the thickness and Al mole fraction of the Al x Ga 1-x N superlattices leads to surface cracking when exceeding the critical layer thickness. However, limiting the mesa dimension in one direction enables strain mitigation and drastically increases the critical layer thickness. Additionally, larger etch depths of the mesas increase the Al alloy composition and thickness for crack-free AlGaN heteroepitaxy whereas the gap in between the mesas seems to have no crucial influence. We demonstrate that the Al alloy composition and layer thicknesses of such heterostructures can be increased far beyond the critical layer thickness for planar growth and demonstrate the growth of a crack-free full AlxGa 1-x N/GaN quantum-well laser heterostructure designed for operation at ~370 nm.
The macroscopic magnetic properties and microscopic magnetic structure of Rb 2 Mn 3 (MoO 4 ) 3 (OH) 2 (space group Pn ma) are investigated by magnetization, heat capacity, and single-crystal neutron diffraction measurements. The compound's crystal structure contains bond-alternating [Mn 3 O 11 ] ∞ chains along the b axis, formed by isosceles triangles of Mn ions occupying two crystallographically nonequivalent sites (the Mn1 site on the base and Mn2 site on the vertex). These chains are only weakly linked to each other by nonmagnetic oxyanions. Both superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry and neutron diffraction experiments show two successive magnetic transitions as a function of temperature. On cooling, it transitions from a paramagnetic phase into an incommensurate phase below 4.5 K with a magnetic wave vector near k 1 = ( 0 , 0.46 , 0 ). An additional commensurate antiferromagnetically ordered component arises with k 2 = ( 0, 0, 0), forming a complex magnetic structure below 3.5 K with two different propagation vectors of different stars. On further cooling, the incommensurate wave vector undergoes a lock-in transition below 2.3 K. The experimental results suggest that the magnetic superspace group is Pnma. 1' (0b0) s0ss for the single- k incommensurate phase and is Pn' m a ( 0 b 0 ) 00 s for the two- k magnetic phase. We propose a simplified magnetic structure model taking into account the major ordered contributions, where the commensurate k 2 defines the ordering of the c-axis component of the Mn1 magnetic moment, while the incommensurate k 1 describes the ordering of the ab -plane components of both Mn1 and Mn2 moments into elliptical cycloids.
Local magnetic order and anisotropy are often central for understanding fundamental behavior and emergent functional properties in quantum materials and beyond. Advances in neutron powder diffraction experiments and analysis tools now allow for quantitative determination. Here, we demonstrate this here with complementary total neutron scattering and polarized neutron measurements on the HB-2A neutron powder diffractometer at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). In recent years, magnetic pair distribution function (mPDF) analysis has emerged as a powerful technique for probing local magnetic spin ordering of magnetic materials. This method can be broadly applied to any magnetic material but is particularly effective for studying systems with short-range magnetic order, such as materials with reduced dimensionality, geometrically frustrated magnets, thermoelectrics, multiferroics, and correlated paramagnets. Magnetic anisotropy often underpins the short-range order adopted. Half-polarized neutron powder diffraction (pNPD) can be used to determine the local susceptibility tensor on the magnetic sites to quantify the magnetic anisotropy. Combining the techniques of mPDF and pNPD can therefore provide valuable insights into local magnetic behavior. A series of measurements optimized for these techniques are presented as exemplar cases focused on frustrated materials where short-range order dominates, these include measurements to ultra-low temperature (<100 mK) not typically accessible for such experiments.