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Many physical systems involve two types of orientational order, which are coupled together. For example, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals have coupled polar and nematic order, and tilted hexatic phases have coupled polar and hexatic…
Crystal chemistry of M(BH4)n, where M is a 2nd-4th period element, is reviewed. It is shown that except certain cases, the BH4 group has a nearly ideal tetrahedral geometry. Corrections of the experimentally determined H-positions,…
The magnetic and structural properties of polycrystalline Co$_{4-x}$ Ni$_x$ Nb$_2$ O$_9$ (x=1,2) have been investigated by neutron powder diffraction, magnetization and heat capacity measurements, and density functional theory (DFT)…
Polymers containing nitrogen have attracted much attention in connection with their application to high energy density materials (HEDMs), in which energy is inherent in the triple bond. It is an interesting question whether such polymerized…
The sodium rhodate NaRh2O4 was synthesized for the first time and characterized by neutron and x-ray diffraction studies, measurements of magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, electrical resistivity, and the Seebeck coefficient. NaRh2O4…
A number of highly polar three ring rod-shaped compounds with a terminal thiophene ring have been synthesized and the physical properties of a subset are reported in detail. On cooling from the isotropic fluid, they directly transition to a…
The phase coexistence of chemically ordered L1_0 and chemically disordered structures within binary alloys is investigated, using the NiMn system as an example. Theoretical and numerical predictions of the signatures one might expect in…
Neutron diffraction measurements have been performed on a powder sample of BaMn2As2 over the temperature T range from 10 K to 675 K. These measurements demonstrate that this compound exhibits collinear antiferromagnetic ordering below the…
The crystal structure of Na0.5CoO2, determined by powder neutron diffraction, is reported. The structure consists of layers of edge-shared CoO6 octahedra in a triangular lattice, with Na ions occupying ordered positions in the interleaving…
In this review we present a brief discussion on the observational evidence in favor of the presence of temperature variations, and conclude that many planetary nebulae show spatial temperature variations that are larger than those predicted…
Identifying local structural motifs and packing patterns of molecular solids is a challenging task for both simulation and experiment. We demonstrate two novel approaches to characterize local environments in different polymorphs of…
Fullerenes have recently been identified in space and they may play a significant role in the gas and dust budget of various astrophysical objects including planetary nebulae (PNe), reflection nebulae (RNe) and H II regions. The tenuous…
Na$_x$CoO$_2$, the parent compound of the recently synthesized superconductor Na$_x$CoO$_2$:$y$H$_2$O, exhibits bulk antiferromagnetic order below $\sim20$ K for 0.75 $\leq x \leq$ 0.9. We have performed neutron scattering experiments in…
Growth parameters play a significant role in the crystal quality and physical properties of layered materials. Here we present a case study on a van der Waals magnetic NbFeTe2 material. Two different types of polymorphic NbFeTe2 phases,…
The crystal structures of the NaxCoO2 phases based on three-layer NaCoO2, with x=0.32, x=0.51, x=0.60, x=0.75 and x=0.92, determined by powder neutron diffraction, are reported. The structures have triangular CoO2 layers interleaved by…
The ordering of Na ions in Na$_x$CoO$_2$ is investigated systematically by combining detailed density functional theory (DFT) studies with model calculations. Various ground state ordering patterns are identified, and they are in excellent…
Owing to the fascinating physical characteristics of two-dimensional (2D) materials and their heterostructure, much effort has been devoted to exploring their basic physical properties as well as discovering other novel 2D materials.…
New boron subnitride B50N2 has been synthesized by crystallization from the B-BN melt at 5 GPa, and its structure has been refined using Rietveld analysis. B50N2 crystallizes in the tetragonal space group P-4n2 with unit cell parameters a =…
Chemical bonding governs how atoms interact to form compounds, thereby determining their physicochemical properties. Despite being an elusive concept, chemical bonding has led to the development of models and tools to explain and predict…
A spontaneous buckling transition in thin layers of monodomain nematic liquid crystalline gel was observed by polarized light microscopy. The coupling between the orientational ordering of liquid crystalline solvent and the translational…