Robust ferromagnetic insulating and large exchange bias in LaMnO3:CoO composite thin films

Ferromagnetic insulators have received widespread attention for applications in novel low power consumption spintronic devices. Further optimizing the robust ferromagnetic insulating and developing multifunctional ferromagnetic insulator by integrating other magnetic property can not only ease or pave the way for actual application, but also provide an additional freedom degree for device designing. In this work, by introducing antiferromagnetic CoO into ferromagnetic insulator LaMnO3, we have constructed (1-x)LaMnO3:xCoO composite thin films. The films simultaneously show robust ferromagnetic insulator characteristics and large exchange bias. For x = 0.5 sample, the resistivity is 120 Ω·cm at 250 K while the magnetization is 100 emu/cm3 and the exchange bias field is -2200 Oe at 10 K. Especially, the blocking temperature is up to 140 K. Synchrotron radiation x-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals the coexistence of Mn3+, Mn2+, Co2+ and Co3+, arising from interfacial charge transfer and space charge/defect trapping, should be responsible for the enhanced and integrated multifunctional magnetic properties.

A Review of Properties, Synthesis and Applications on Lanthanum Copper Oxychalcogenides

The study of layered materials has been a significant and fascinating area due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Among various layered materials, lanthanum copper oxychalcogenides (LaCuOX (X=S, Se, Te)) have drawn a lot of attention of researchers. The study of LaCuOX was initially focused on the optoelectronic performance due to its excellent optical and electronic properties. Recently, it was found that the layered LaCuOX material also exhibits good thermoelectric properties, providing an opportunity to achieve high energy conversion efficiency through the thermoelectric effects. In this report, an overview of recent advances in LaCuOX research is provided, including crystal and electronic structure, synthetic methods, physical properties, practical applications as well as some strategies to optimize their transport properties. Theoretical and experimental results on LaCuOX crystals or thin films are both discussed in this report. Finally, the challenges and outlook for LaCuOX are evaluated based on current progress.

Acoustic metamtaterial and metasurface composed of meta-atoms and meta-molecules

Acoustic metamaterials (AMMs) and acoustic metasurfaces (AMSs) are artificially structured materials with the unique properties not found in natural materials. We reviewed herein the properties of AMM and AMS that have been designed using the meta-atoms of split hollow spheres (SHSs) and hollow tubes (HTs) or meta-molecules of split hollow tubes (SHTs) with local resonance. AMMs composed of SHSs or HTs display a transmission dip with negative modulus or negative mass density. AMMs composited with SHSs and HTs present a transmission peak and a phase fluctuation in the overlapping resonant frequency region, indicating that they simultaneously have a negative modulus and a negative mass density. Furthermore, the meta-molecule AMMs with SHTs also exhibit double-negative properties. Moreover, the acoustic meta-atoms or meta-molecules can be used to fabricate acoustic topological metamaterials with topologically protected edge states propagation. These meta-atoms and meta-molecules can also attain phase discontinuity near the resonant frequency, and thus they can be used to design AMSs with the anomalous manipulation for acoustic waves. The various tunability of the meta-molecules provides a feasible path to achieve broadband AMS.

Graphene Oxide Interlayered in binder-free Sulfur Vapor Deposited Cathode for Lithium-Sulfur Battery

The main drawback of Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries which leads to a short lifetime, is the shuttle effect during the battery operation. One of the solutions to mitigate the shuttle effect is the utilization of interlayers. Herein, graphene oxide (GO) paper as an interlayer has been implemented between the sulfur cathode fabricated by the vapor deposition process as a binder-free electrode and a separator in a Li-S battery in order to gain a sufficient capacity. The morphological characteristics and electrochemical performance of the fabricated electrode have been investigated. The fabricated battery demonstrates an initial discharge capacity of 1265.46 mAh g-1 at the current density of 100 mA g-1. The coulombic efficiency is obtained to be 88.49% after 40 cycles. The remained capacity for the battery is 44.70% after several cycles at different current densities. The existence of the GO interlayer improves the electrochemical properties of the battery compared to the one with a pure sulfur cathode. The obtained results indicate that after 40 cycles, the capacity retention is 2.1 times more than that of the battery without the GO implementation.

Antisite disorder and phase segregation in Mn2NiSn

A systematic study of crystal structure, local structure, magnetic and transport properties in quenched and temper annealed Ni2−xMn1+xSn alloys indicate the formation of Mn3Sn type structural defects caused by an antisite disorder between Mn and Sn occupying the Y and Z sublattices of X2YZ Heusler structure. The antisite disorder is caused by the substitution of Ni by Mn at the X sites. On temper annealing, these defects segregate and phase separate into L21 Heusler and D019 Mn3Sn type phases.

Establishing an Equivalent Circuit of a Quasihomogeneous Discharge Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Jet with a Breakdown-Voltage-Controlled Breaker and Power-Supply Circuit

To simulate the I-V diagram of plasma homogeneous and filamentary discharge with equivalent circuit model more accurately, this study employed a breaker and passive circuit components and calculated the discharge parameters, such as equivalent discharge resistances and potential distribution etc., in atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (APPJ). In addition, this study calculated the gas-gap and dielectric capacitances of the APPJ and added a power supply equivalent circuit. Compared with other circuit models that adopted switches or a time-controlled current source to simulate the discharges, our present circuit model used a breakdown-voltage-controlled breaker for the homogeneous discharge and resistors with high-frequency switches for the filamentary discharge. We employed potential simulation to obtain the equivalent dielectric capacitance in the APPJ and then derived the gas-gap capacitance. We also replaced the ideal sine wave power supply with the equivalent circuit of the common double-peak-waveform power supply. The MATLAB Simulink was used to construct an equivalent circuit model and the discharge area ratio, breakdown voltage and filamentary equivalent resistance were obtained via I-V waveform fitting. We measured the plasma I-V waveform with a 20-kHz frequency, various voltages (6, 12, and 15 kV), a gas flow rate of 30 SLM, and two types of gas (Ar and He). The simulated and experimental I-V waveforms were very close under different conditions. In summary, the proposed equivalent circuit model more meaningfully describes the plasma physics to simulate homogenous and filamentary discharge, achieving results that were compatible with our experimental observations. The findings can help with investigating plasma discharge mechanisms and full-model simulations of plasma.

Spin wave propagation in uniform waveguide: effects, modulation and its application

With the advent of the post-Moore era, researches on beyond-Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) approaches have been attracted more and more attention. Magnonics, or spin wave is one of the most promising technology beyond CMOS, which magnons-quanta for spin waves-process the information analogous to electronic charges in electronics. Information transmission by spin waves, which uses the frequency, amplitude and (or) phase to encode information, has a great many of advantages such as extremely low energy loss and wide-band frequency. Moreover, using the nonlinear characteristics of spin waves for information transmission can increase the extra degree of freedom of information. This review provides a tutorial overview over the effects of spin wave propagation and recent research progress in uniform spin wave waveguide. The propagation characteristics of spin waves in uniform waveguides and some special propagation phenomena such as spin wave beam splitting and self-focusing are described by combining experimental phenomena and theoretical formulas. Furthermore, we summarize methods for modulating propagation of spin wave in uniform waveguide, and comment on the advantages and limitations of these methods. The review may promote the development of information transmission technology based on spin waves.

Double-atom catalysts for energy-related electrocatalysis applications: a theoretical perspective

Due to the excellent activity, selectivity, and stability, atomically dispersed metal catalysts with well-defined structures have attracted intensive research attention. As the extension of single-atom catalyst (SAC), double-atom catalyst (DAC) has recently emerged as a research focus. Compared with SAC, the higher metal loading, more complicated and flexible active site, easily tunable electronic structure, and the synergetic effect between two metal atoms could provide DACs with better catalytic performance for a wide range of catalytic reactions. This review aims to summarize the recent advance in theoretical research on DACs for diverse energy-related electrocatalytic reactions. It starts with a brief introduction to DACs. Then an overview of the main experimental synthesis strategies of DACs is provided. Emphatically, the catalytic performance together with the underlying mechanism of the different electrocatalytic reactions, including nitrogen reduction reaction, carbon dioxide reduction reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, and oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions, are highlighted by discussing how the outstanding attributes mentioned above affect the reaction pathway, catalytic activity, and product selectivity. Finally, the opportunities and challenges for the development of DACs are prospected to shed fresh light on the rational design of more efficient catalysts at the atomic scale in the future.

Measuring the free energy of hard-sphere colloidal glasses

Free energy is a key thermodynamic observable that controls the elusive physics of the glass transition. However, measuring the free energy of colloidal glasses from microscopy images is challenging due to the difficulty of measuring the individual particle size in the slightly polydisperse glassy systems. In this paper, we carry out experiments and numerical simulations of colloidal glasses with the aim to find a practical approach to measure the free energy from colloidal particles at mild polydispersity. We propose a novel method which requires only the particle coordinates from a few confocal microscopy snapshots to estimate the average particle diameter and use it as an input for our experimental free energy measurements. We verify our free energy calculations from Cell Theory with the free energy obtained by Thermodynamic Integration. The excellent agreement between the free energies measured using the two methods close to the glass transition packing fraction highlights the dominant role played by \emph{vibrational} entropy in determining a colloidal glass's free energy. Finally, the noticeable free energy difference calculated from uniform and conjectured particle sizes emphasizes the sensitivity on particle free volumes when measuring free energy in the slightly polydisperse colloidal glass.

Observation of Griffiths Phase, Critical Exponent Analysis and High Magnetocaloric Effect Near Room Temperature at Low Magnetic Field in V doped La0.7Sr0.3MnO3

We report on observation of Griffiths phase, high magnetocaloric properties at low magnetic fields and temperature dependent critical exponents of La0.7Sr0.3VxMn1-xO3 (x=0, 0.05 & 0.1) perovskite bulk materials. The Curie temperature (TC) of pure La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 is seen to be 368.7 K and decreases towards room temperature (342.2 K) by 10 mol% vanadium doping at the Mn site. Vanadium doping leads to enhancement in magnetic entropy change (-SM) from 1 Jkg-1K-1to 1.41 Jkg-1K-1. Vanadium doping at Mn site leads to the formation of Griffiths phase, a magnetic disorder due to the co-existence of paramagnetic matrix and short range ferromagnetic clusters. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis confirm the presence of mixed valance V4+/V5+along with Mn3+/ Mn4+ ions contributing to various double exchange interactions. Nature of phase transitions and magnetic interactions are analyzed by evaluating critical exponents and. All the samples show second-order ferromagnetic (FM) to paramagnetic (PM) phase transition, confirmed from the modified Arrott’s plots and critical exponent analysis carried out using Kouvel-Fisher method. Enhancement in magnetic entropy change along with the decrease in Curie temperature towards room temperature by vanadium doping in the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 oxides indicates the possible application of these materials for the magnetic refrigeration at low magnetic fields.