Related papers: Aligning van der Waals heterostructures using elec…
We describe a lattice-based crystallographic approximation for the analysis of distorted crystal structures via Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) in the scanning electron microscope. EBSD patterns are closely linked to local lattice…
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is an important 2D material for van der Waals heterostructures, single photon emitters, and infrared nanophotonics. The optical characterization of mono- and few-layer samples of hBN however remains a challenge…
Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is a powerful tool for characterizing crystal surface structures. However, the setup geometry leads to distorted and complicated patterns, which are not straightforward to link to the…
We investigate electron vortex beams elastically scattered on chiral crystals. After deriving a general expression for the scattering amplitude of a vortex electron, we study its diffraction on point scatterers arranged on a helix. We…
Van der Waals (vdW) crystals are prone to twisting, sliding, and buckling due to inherently weak interlayer interactions. While thickness-controlled vdW structures have attracted considerable attention as ultrathin semiconducting channels,…
Precession of a converged beam during acquisition of a 4D-STEM dataset improves strain, orientation, and phase mapping accuracy by averaging over continuous angles of illumination. Precession experiments usually rely on integrated systems,…
The recently proposed concept of metagrating enables wavefront manipulation of electromagnetic (EM) waves with unitary efficiency and relatively simple fabrication requirements. Herein, two-dimensional (2D) metagratings composed of a 2D…
In binary compound 2D insulators/semiconductors such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), the different electron affinities of atoms can give rise to out-of-plane electric polarizations across inversion asymmetric van der Waals interface of…
Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, formed by stacking two-dimensional materials, offer highly tunable electronic and optical properties, with the twist angle between layers acting as a critical tuning parameter. While its impact on…
Optical spin-orbit coupling provides a promising, fabrication-free route for developing ultra-compact optical vortex generators. However, the conversion efficiency has been theoretically limited to 0.5. Here, we demonstrate enhanced vortex…
Two phase titanium alloys are important for high performance engineering components, such as aeroengine discs. The microstructures of these alloys are tailored during thermomechanical processing to precisely control phase factions,…
The exchange bias (EB) effect is known as a fundamentally and technologically important magnetic property of a magnetic bilayer film. It is manifested as a horizontal shift in a magnetic hysteresis loop of a film subject to cooling in the…
Crystalline materials used in technological applications are often complex assemblies composed of multiple phases and differently oriented grains. Robust identification of the phases and orientation relationships from these samples is…
Stacking van der Waals magnets holds promise for creating new hybrid materials with properties that do not exist in bulk materials. Here we investigate orthogonally twisted stacks of the van der Waals antiferromagnet CrSBr, aiming to…
In the current extensive studies of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), compared to hexagonal layered materials, like graphene, hBN and MoS2, low symmetry layered 2D crystals showed great potential for applications in anisotropic…
Metals are important structural materials for transport and the built environment. Low carbon steels can fail through strain localisation due to the role of interstitial solute atoms (such as carbon and nitrogen) interacting with mobile…
Van der Waals materials composed of stacks of individual atomic layers have attracted considerable attention due to their exotic electronic properties that can be altered by, for example, manipulating the twist angle of bilayer materials or…
Dielectric structures can support low-absorption optical modes, which are attractive for engineering light-matter interactions with excitonic resonances in two-dimensional (2D) materials. However, the coupling strength is often limited by…
Dielectric metasurfaces that combine high-index materials with optical nonlinearities are widely recognized for their potential in various quantum and classical nanophotonic applications. However, the fabrication of high-quality…
Polycrystalline materials, such as metals, are comprised of heterogeneously oriented crystals. Observed crystal orientations are modelled as a sample from an orientation distribution function (ODF), which determines a variety of material…