Related papers: Wrinkle Mediated Phase Transitions in In$_2$Se$_3$
Magnetic materials hosting stable topological spin textures have demonstrated energy efficiency and potential as information carriers in novel logic and memory devices, offering an alternative to magnetic tunnel junction technology. While…
Piezoelectric quartz SiO2 crystals are widely used in industry as oscillators. As a natural mineral, quartz and its relevant silicates are also of interest of geoscience and mineralogy. However, the nucleation and growth of quartz crystals…
Phase change memory devices are typically reset by melt-quenching a material to radically lower its electrical conductance. The high power and concomitantly high current density required to reset phase change materials is the major issue…
A ferroelectric is a material with a polar structure whose polarity can be reversed by applying an electric field. In metals, the itinerant electrons tend to screen electrostatic forces between ions, helping to explain why polar metals are…
Materials with reduced dimensions have been shown to host a wide variety of exotic properties and novel quantum states that often defy textbook wisdom1-5. Ferroelectric polarization and metallicity are well-known examples of mutually…
The influence of random interlayer exchange on the phase states of the simplest magnetic heterostructure consisting of two ferromagnetic Ising layers with large interaction radius is studied. It is shown that such system can exist in three…
Structural and electronic properties of amorphous and single-phase polycrystalline films of gamma- and kappa-In2Se3 have been measured. The stable gamma phase nucleates homogeneously in the film bulk and has a high resistivity, while the…
Dynamic control of conductivity and optical properties via atomic structure changes is of tremendous technological importance in information storage. Energy consumption considerations provide a driving force toward employing thin materials…
Very sensitive responses to external forces are found near phase transitions. However, phase transition dynamics and pre-equilibrium phenomena are difficult to detect and control. We have directly observed that the equilibrium domain…
Review of selected fundamental topics on the interaction between phase transformations, fracture, and other structural changes in inelastic materials is presented. It mostly focuses on the concepts developed in the author's group over last…
We present thermodynamic crystallization and melting models and calculate phase change velocities in $Ge_2 Sb_2 Te_5$ based on kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. The calculated phase change velocities are strong functions of grain size,…
Indium selenide (In2Se3), a ferroelectric semiconductor, offers a unique platform for multifunctional nanoelectronics owing to the interplay between polarization dynamics, interlayer sliding, and structural polymorphism. Ferroelectric…
Cross-coupling of ordering parameters in multiferroic materials by multiple external stimuli other than electric field and magnetic field is highly desirable from both practical application and fundamental study points of view. Recently,…
We report an isothermal electric field-induced first-order phase transition from Mott-insulator to the metallic state in the epitaxial thin film of V$_2$O$_3$ in the temperature regime below its Mott transition temperature $\approx$ 180 K.…
Recent development of ultrashort laser pulses allows for optical control of structural and electronic properties of complex quantum materials. The layered transition metal dichalcogenide MoTe2, which can crystalize into several different…
Compared to the well studied two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectricity, much rare is the appearance of 2D antiferroelectricity, where local dipoles from the nonequivalent sublattices within 2D monolayers are oppositely orientated. Using NbOCl2…
The magnetoelectric effect and skyrmions are two fundamental phenomena in the field of condensed-matter physics. Here, using first-principles calculations and Monte-Carlo simulations, we propose that strong magnetoelectric coupling can be…
The structural phase transition in hexagonal BaMnO$_3$ occurring at $T_c$=130 K was studied in ceramic samples using electron and X-ray diffraction, second harmonic generation as well as by dielectric and lattice dynamic spectroscopies. The…
Indium selenide is a phase-change chalcogenide whose polymorphism enables a variety of physical properties to be tuned. Here we directly quantify the evolution of the surface work function across the amorphous-to-crystalline transition in…
With the recent experimental verification that ferroelectric lattice distortions survive in the metallic phase of some materials, there is a desire to create devices that are both switchable and take advantage of the novel functionalities…