Variation between Antiferromagnetism and Ferrimagnetism in NiPS3 by Electron Doping

How to electrically control magnetic properties of a magnetic material is promising towards spintronic applications, where the investigation of carrier doping effects on antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials remains challenging due to their zero net magnetization. In this work, we found electron doping dependent variation of magnetic orders of a two-dimensional (2D) AFM insulator NiPS3, where doping concentration is tuned by intercalating various organic cations into the van der Waals gaps of NiPS3 without introduction of defects and impurity phases. The doped NiPS3 shows an AFM-ferrimagnetic (FIM) transition at doping level of 0.2-0.5 electrons/cell and a FIM-AFM transition at doping level of ≥0.6 electrons/cell. We propose that the found phenomenon is due to competition between Stoner exchange dominated inter-chain ferromagnetic order and super-exchange dominated inter-chain AFM order at different doping level. Our studies provide a viable way to exploit correlation between electronic structures and magnetic properties of 2D magnetic materials for realization of magnetoelectric effect.

Electrical transport properties of cerium doped Bi2Te3 thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Introducing magnetism into topological insulators (TIs) can tune the topological surface states and produce exotic physical effects. Rare earth elements are considered as important dopant candidates, due to their large magnetic moments from heavily shielded 4f electrons. As the first element with just one 4f electron, cerium (Ce) offers an ideal platform for exploring the doping effect of f-electron in TIs. Here in this work, we have grown cerium-doped topological insulator Bi2Te3 thin films on an Al2O3(0001) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Electronic transport measurements revealed the Kondo effect, weak anti-localization (WAL) effect and suppression of surface conducting channels by Ce doping. Our research shows the fundamental doping effects of Ce in Bi2Te3 thin films, and demonstrates that such a system could be a good platform for further research.

Diode pumped visible Dy3+-doped silica fiber laser: Ge-co-doping effects on lasing efficiency and photodarkening

We present the first demonstration of visible laser oscillation in the Dy3+-doped silica fiber pumped by a 451nm InGaN laser diode. It was found that Ge-co-doping plays the following important roles of laser oscillation: (1) to reduce the Rayleigh scattering loss, (2) to suppress the X-ray-induced and pump-induced photodarkening (PD), and (3) to increase lasing slope efficiency. In a fiber with 0.46wt% Dy, 1.8 wt% Ge, and 0.54wt% Al, the slope efficiency is 22.0 % at 582.5 nm, and the maximum output power is 18.4 mW.

Superconductivity in In-doped AgSnBiTe3 with possible band inversion

We investigated the chemical pressure effects on structural and electronic properties of SnTe-based material using partial substitution of Sn by Ag0.5Bi0.5, which results in lattice shrinkage. For Sn1−2x(AgBi)xTe, single-phase polycrystalline samples were obtained with a wide range of x. On the basis of band calculations, we confirmed that the Sn1−2x(AgBi)xTe system is basically possessing band inversion and topologically preserved electronic states. To explore new superconducting phases related to the topological electronic states, we investigated the In-doping effects on structural and superconducting properties for x = 0.33 (AgSnBiTe3). For (AgSnBi)(1−y)/3InyTe, single-phase polycrystalline samples were obtained for y = 0–0.5 by high-pressure synthesis. Superconductivity was observed for y = 0.2–0.5. For y = 0.4, the transition temperature estimated from zero-resistivity state was 2.4 K, and the specific heat investigation confirmed the emergence of bulk superconductivity. Because the presence of band inversion was theoretically predicted, and the parameters obtained from specific heat analyses were comparable to In-doped SnTe, we expect that the (AgSnBi)(1−y)/3InyTe and other (Ag, In, Sn, Bi)Te phases are candidate systems for studying topological superconductivity.