Related papers: Unifying local and average structure in the phase …
The recent surge of interest in phase change materials GeTe, Ge$_2$Sb$_2$Te$_5$, and related compounds motivated us to revisit the structural phase transition in GeTe in more details than was done before. Rhombohedral-to-cubic ferroelectric…
Germanium telluride (GeTe), a phase-change material, is known to exhibit four different structural phases: three at room temperature (one amorphous and two crystalline, $\alpha$ and $\gamma$) and one at high temperature (crystalline…
The structure of amorphous Cu$_2$GeTe$_3$ is investigated by a combination of anomalous x-ray scattering and extended x-ray absorption fine structure experiments. The experimental data are analyzed with a reverse Monte Carlo modeling…
The structural phase transformations of 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 (PMN-30%PT) have been studied using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron scattering as a function of temperature and electric field. We observe the phase transformational…
(TaSe$_4$)$_3$I, a compound belonging to the family of quasi-one-dimensional transition-metal tetrachalcogenides, has drawn significant attention due to a recent report on possible coexistence of two antagonistic phenomena,…
Calculations of the optical properties of GeTe in the cubic NaCl and rhombohedral ferroelectric structures are reported. The rhombohedral ferroelectric distortion increases the band gap from 0.11 eV to 0.38 eV. Remarkably, substantial…
Negative thermal expansion (NTE) is unusual but important property for control of thermal expansion. In the present study, the chemical modification is utilized to engineer controllable thermal expansion in cubic NTE ScF3. A broad window of…
GeTe is a well-known ferroelectric and thermoelectric material that undergoes a structural phase transition from a rhombohedral to the rocksalt structure at $\sim 600-700$ K. We present a first principles approach to calculate the thermal…
The local structure of V$_{2}$O$_{3}$, an archetypal strongly correlated electron system that displays a metal-insulator transition around 160 K, has been investigated via pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of neutron and x-ray total…
A new-type structural transition has been found in Li2RuO3 with honeycomb lattice of edge-sharing RuO6-octahedra. With decreasing temperature T, the electrical resistivity exhibits an anomalous increase at T=Tc~540 K, suggesting the (metal…
In the search for phase change materials (PCM) that may rival traditional random access memory, a complete understanding of the amorphous to crystalline phase transition is required. For the well-known Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) and GeTe (GT)…
The correlation between magnetic properties and microscopic structural aspects in the diluted magnetic semiconductor Ge$_{1-x}$Mn$_{x}$Te is investigated by x-ray diffraction and magnetization as a function of the Mn concentration $x$. The…
Contrary to previous studies that identified the ground state crystal structure of the entire R_3Co series (R is a rare earth) as orthorhombic Pnma, we show that Y_3Co undergoes a structural phase transition at T_t=160K. Single crystal…
The improper ferroelectricity in YMnO$_3$ and other related multiferroic hexagonal manganites are known to cause topologically protected ferroelectric domains that give rise to rich and diverse physical phenomena. The local structure and…
The controversies about the structure of the true ground state of pseudorhombohedral compositions of Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT) are addressed using a 6% Sr2+ substituted sample with x=0.550. Sound velocity measurements reveal a phase transition…
Neutron and x-ray total scattering measurements have been performed on powder samples of the iron chalcogenide superconductor FeSe. Using pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of the total scattering data to investigate short-range…
The average and local structures of the (PbTe)1-x(PbS)x system of thermoelectric materials has been studied using the Rietveld and atomic pair distribution function (PDF) methods. Samples with 0:25 < x are macroscopically phase separated.…
The layered compound Fe3GaTe2 is attracting attention due to its high Curie temperature, low dimensionality, and the presence of topological spin textures above room temperature, making Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$ a good candidate for applications in…
We report investigation of structural phase transitions in technologically important material sodium niobate as a function of temperature on heating over 300-1075 K. Our high resolution powder neutron diffraction data show variety of…
A new structural phase transition has been observed at low temperatures for the one third of a monolayer (alpha phase) of Pb on Ge(111) using a variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. The well-known (r3xr3)R30 to (3x3)…