Related papers: Liquid Crystal-Solid Interface Structure at the An…
Chiral liquid crystals often exhibit periodic modulations in the molecular director; in particular, thin films of the smectic-C* phase show a chiral striped texture. Here, we investigate whether similar chiral modulations can occur in the…
The c(2$\times$2) reconstruction of (001) PbTiO$_3$ surfaces is studied by means of first principles calculations for paraelectric (non-polar) and ferroelectric ([001] polarized) films. Analysis of the atomic displacements in the…
Theoretical analysis based on the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) theory is used to show that the product effect of flexoelectricity and rotostriction can lead to a spontaneous polarization in the vicinity of antiphase boundaries,…
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been utilized during high rate E-beam evaporation/deposition of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO). The results demonstrate the great utility of FTIR as an in situ monitor of YBCO deposition and processing.…
We have constructed the surface phase diagram of the BaTiO$_{3}$(001) surface by employing an evolutionary algorithm for surface structure prediction, where the ferroelectric polarization is included as a degree of freedom. Among over 1000…
Nanofluids are known to have significantly different thermal properties relative to the corresponding conventional fluids. Heat transfer at the solid-fluid interface affects the thermal properties of nanofluids. The current work helps in…
Studies of the copper-based superconductors demonstrate how their phase diagram becomes more complex as experimental probes improve, able to distinguish among subtly different electronic phases. One of those phases, nematicity, has become…
Topological materials in crystal solids, including topological insulators (TIs), topological crystalline insulators (TCIs), topological Dirac semimetals (DSMs), topological Weyl semimetals (WSMs), topological Dirac or Weyl nodal line…
The ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition in LiTaO$_3$ and in pure as well as Mg doped LiNbO$_3$ is investigated theoretically by atomistic calculations in the framework of the density functional theory, as well as experimentally…
The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquid-crystal material DIO exhibits an antiferroelectric (AF) phase, characterized by a sinusoidally modulated structure between the paraelectric (P) and ferroelectric (F) nematic phases.…
In polar oxide interfaces phenomena such as conductivity, superconductivity, magnetism, one-dimensional conductivity and Quantum Hall states can emerge at the polar discontinuity. Combining controllable ferroelectricity at such interfaces…
We report the observation of a premelting transition at chemically sharp solid-liquid interfaces using molecular-dynamics simulations. The transition is observed in the solid-Al/liquid-Pb system and involves the formation of a liquid…
Crystalline materials with broken inversion symmetry can exhibit a spontaneous electric polarization, which originates from a microscopic electric dipole moment. Long-range polar or anti-polar order of such permanent dipoles gives rise to…
We have used scanning micro x-ray diffraction to characterize different phases in superconducting K$_{x}$Fe$_{2-y}$Se$_2$ as a function of temperature, unveiling the thermal evolution across the superconducting transition temperature…
The two-dimensional (2D) surface state of the three-dimensional strong topological insulator (STI) is fundamentally distinct from other 2D electron systems in that the Fermi arc encircles an odd number of Dirac points. The TI surface is in…
We combine a wide variety of experimental techniques to analyze two heretofore mysterious phase transitions in multiferroic bismuth ferrite at low temperature. Raman spectroscopy, resonant ultrasound spectroscopy, EPR, X-ray lattice…
We investigate ferroelectric polariation as well as the formation of long-range order and the carrier density distribution in type-II Weyl semimetal WTe$_{2}$ in $T_{d}$ phase. It is been found that the metallicity and ferroelectricity can…
First principles molecular dynamics simulations reveal a liquid-liquid phase transition in supercooled elemental silicon. Two phases coexist below $T_c\approx 1232K$. The low density phase is nearly tetra-coordinated, with a pseudogap at…
We investigate atomic and electronic structures of the intriguing low temperature phase of IrTe2 using high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We confirm various stripe superstructures such as $\times$3, $\times$5,…
Topological insulators (TIs) are predicted to be composed of an insulating bulk state along with conducting channels on the boundary of the material. In Bi2Se3, however, the Fermi level naturally resides in the conduction band due to…