Related papers: Why is BeGeN$_2$ different? A computational bondin…

A coarsened model for a binary system with limited miscibility of components is proposed; the system is described in terms of structural states in small parts of the material. The material is assumed to have two alternative types of…

We report the observation of a stepwise "melting" of the low-temperature Na-vacancy order in the layered transition metal oxide Na0.7CoO2. High-resolution neutron powder diffraction indicates the existence of two first-order structural…

Homogeneous nucleation process of polyethylene (PE) is studied with full-atom molecular dynamic simulation. To account the complex shape with low symmetry and the peculiar intra-chain conformational order of polymer, we introduce a shape…

Solid materials are commonly classified as crystalline or amorphous based on the presence or absence of long-range order.Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), like other solids,also display markedly different properties and functions in these…

Boron nitride (BN) has been explored these days because of its extraordinary optical, chemical and mechanical properties. BN is sensitive to its crystal structure that slight change in lattice parameters enormously change its properties.…

Understanding the physics of supercooled liquids near glassy transition remains one of the major challenges in condensed matter science. There has been long recognized that supercooled liquids have spatially dynamical heterogeneity whose…

ZnGeN2 and other heterovalent ternary semiconductors have important potential applications in optoelectronics, but ordering of the cation sublattice, which can affect the band gap, lattice parameters, and phonons, is not yet well…

The crystal structure of Nb22O54 is reported for the first time, and the structure of orthorhombic Nb12O29 is reexamined, resolving previous ambiguities. Single crystal x-ray and electron diffraction were employed. These compounds were…

The underlying structural order that transcends the liquid, glass and crystalline states is identified using an efficient genetic algorithm (GA). GA identifies the most common energetically favorable packing motif in crystalline structures…

The second class of high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs), iron-based pnictides and chalcogenides, necessarily contain Fe$_2$$X_2$ ("$X$" refers to a pnictogen or a chalcogen element) layers, just like the first class of HTSCs which…

Ba(Fe$_{1/2}$Nb$_{1/2}$)O$_3$ (BFN) ceramics are considered to be promising for technological applications owing to their high dielectric constant over a wide range of temperatures. However, there exists considerable discrepancy over the…

Boron forms a wide variety of compounds with alkaline earth elements due to its unique bonding characteristics. Among these, binary compounds of Be and B display particularly rich structural diversity, attributed to the small atomic size of…

Various MSr2YCu2Oz (M1212 with M = Fe, Co, Al and Ga) compounds have been synthesized through a solid state reaction route. All these compounds are derived from the basic CuBa2YCu2O7 structure. Rietveld structural refinement of the…

A novel kind of crystal order in high-density nanoconfined bilayer ice is proposed from molecular dynamics and density-functional theory simulations. A first-order transition is observed between a low-temperature proton-ordered solid and a…

Based on the relativistic spin-polarized density functional theory calculations we investigate the crystal structure, electronic and magnetic properties of a family MnPn2Ch4 compounds, where pnictogen metal atoms (Pn) are Sb and Bi;…

Wigner crystallization of electrons in a 2D quantum dots is reported. It proceeds in two stages: I) via radial ordering of electrons on shells and II) freezing of the inter-shell rotation. The phase boundary of the crystal is computed in…

In this work, we investigated the behaviour of Sb dopants in $Na_{x}CoO_{2}$ for Na concentrations of $x = 0.75, 0.875$ and $1.00$ by density functional theory. We chose $Na_{x}CoO_{2}$ with higher Na concentration of $x > 0.75$ because it…

The phase diagram of non-hydrated Na(x)CoO(2) has been determined by changing the Na content x using a series of chemical reactions. As x increases from 0.3, the ground state goes from a paramagnetic metal to a charge-ordered insulator (at…

We report polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering measurements of the magnetic order in single crystals of Na0.5CoO2. Our data indicate that below T_N=88 K the spins form a novel antiferromagnetic pattern within the CoO2 planes,…

We propose a new chemical evolution model aimed at explaining the chemical properties of globular clusters (GC) stars. Our model depends upon the existence of (i) a peculiar pre-enrichment phase in the GC's parent galaxy associated with…