Related papers: Ab initio Study of Misfit Dislocations at the SiC/…
We report first-principles calculations that reveal the atomic forms, stability, and energy levels of carbon-related defects in SiC (0001)/SiO$_{\rm 2}$ systems. We clarify the stable position (SiC side, SiO$_{\rm 2}$ side, or just at the…
Orbital degeneracy of the electronic conduction band edge in silicon is a potential roadblock to the storage and manipulation of quantum information involving the electronic spin degree of freedom in this host material. This difficulty may…
We report on the structural and electronic properties of a single bismuth layer intercalated underneath a graphene layer grown on an Ir(111) single crystal. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) reveals a hexagonal surface structure and a…
We study numerically the energetics and atomic mechanisms of misfit dislocation nucleation and stress relaxation in a two-dimensional atomistic model of strained epitaxial layers on a substrate with lattice misfit. Relaxation processes from…
Interface migration in microstructures is mediated by the motion of line defects with step and dislocation character, i.e., disconnections. We propose a continuum model for arbitrarily-curved grain boundaries or heterophase interfaces…
Although titanium nitride (TiN) is among the most extensively studied and thoroughly characterized thin-film ceramic materials, detailed knowledge of relevant dislocation core structures is lacking. By high-resolution scanning transmission…
We report an unexpected characteristic of dislocation cores in silicon. Using first-principles calculations, we show that all the stable core configurations for a non-dissociated 60$^\circ$ dislocation are sessile. The only glissile…
Using atomistic simulations, dislocation dynamics modeling, and continuum elastic-plastic stress-wave theory, we present a systematic investigation on shock-induced plasticity in semi-coherent CuNi multilayers. The features of stress wave…
We address the energetic stability of the graphene/SiC(0001) interface and the associated binding mechanism by studying a series of low-strain commensurate interface structures within a density functional scheme. Among the structures with…
We demonstrate locally coherent heteroepitaxial growth of silicon carbide (SiC) on diamond, a result contrary to current understanding of heterojunctions as the lattice mismatch exceeds $20\%$. High-resolution transmission electron…
We investigate the physics of the core reconstruction and associated structural excitations (reconstruction defects and kinks) of dislocations in silicon, using a linear-scaling density-matrix technique. The two predominant dislocations…
Semiconductor heterostructure is a critical building block for modern semiconductor devices. However, forming semiconductor heterostructures of lattice-mismatch has been a great challenge for several decades. Epitaxial growth is infeasible…
Topological materials occupy the central stage in the modern condensed matter physics because of their robust metallic edge or surface states protected by the topological invariant, characterizing the electronic band structure in the bulk.…
Disclinations, first observed in mesomorphic phases, are relevant to a number of ill-ordered condensed matter media, with continuous symmetries or frustrated order. They also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries. They are…
Accurate ab-initio pseudopotential calculations within density functional theory in the LDA approximation have been performed for structural properties and stability of ZnSe/GaAs(001) defected heterostructures. There is a strong…
Smectic liquid crystals are charcterized by layers that have a preferred uniform spacing and vanishing curvature in their ground state. Dislocations in the smectics play an important role in phase nucleation, layer reorientation, and…
We reveal intrinsic fracture nonreciprocity, manifesting as directional asymmetry in crack resistance, in two-dimensional heterostructures engineered through lattice-mismatched interfaces. Density-functional theory combined with…
Dislocations in perovskite oxides have important impacts on their physical and chemical properties, which are determined by their unique atomic environments. In the present study, the structure of dislocations in a 10{\deg} low-angle grain…
Control of order-disorder phase transitions is a fundamental materials science challenge, underpinning the development of energy storage technologies such as solid oxide fuel cells and batteries, ultra-high temperature ceramics, and durable…
In this work, we investigate the topological properties of knotted defects in smectic liquid crystals. Our story begins with screw dislocations, whose radial surface structure can be smoothly accommodated on $S^3$ for fibred knots by using…