Related papers: Why Some Interfaces Cannot be Sharp
Water mediates electrostatic interactions via the orientation of its dipoles around ions, molecules, and interfaces. This induced water polarization consequently influences multiple phenomena. In particular, water polarization modulated by…
The idea of working with a near-critical phase-separated liquid mixture whereby the surface tension becomes weak, has recently made the field of laser manipulation of liquid interfaces a much more convenient tool in practice. The…
Surface energy is a fundamental property of materials and is particularly important in describing nanomaterials where atoms or molecules at the surface constitute a large fraction of the material. Traditionally, surface energy is considered…
Recent advances in metasurfaces and optical nanostructures have enabled complex control of incident light with optically thin devices. However, it has thus far been unclear whether it is possible to achieve complete linear control of…
Controlling interfacial interactions in magnetic/topological insulator heterostructures is a major challenge for the emergence of novel spin-dependent electronic phenomena. As for any rational design of heterostructures that rely on…
Epsilon-near-zero materials are exceptional candidates for studying electrodynamics and nonlinear optical processes at the nanoscale. We demonstrate that by alternating a metal and a highly doped conducting-oxide, the epsilon-near-zero…
Control of the phase and polarization states of light is an important goal for nearly all optical research. The development of an efficient optical component that allows the simultaneous manipulation of the polarization and phase…
The issue of the net charge at insulating oxide interfaces is shortly reviewed with the ambition of dispelling myths of such charges being affected by covalency and related charge density effects. For electrostatic analysis purposes, the…
With nearly complete spin polarization, the ferromagnetic semiconductor europium monoxide could enable next-generation spintronic devices by providing efficient ohmic spin injection into silicon. Spin injection is greatly affected by the…
Controlling interfaces of phase separating fluid mixtures is key to creating diverse functional soft materials. Traditionally, this is accomplished with surface-modifying chemical agents. Using experiment and theory, we study how mechanical…
Silicon has long been synonymous with semiconductor technology. This unique role is due largely to the remarkable properties of the Si-SiO_2 interface, especially the (001)-oriented interface used in most devices. Although Si is crystalline…
Multiphase flows are characterized by sharp moving interfaces, separating different fluids or phases. In many cases the dynamics of the interface determines the behavior of the flow. In a coarse, or reduced order model, it may therefore be…
Ferroelectric control of interfacial magnetism has attracted much attention. However, the coupling of these two functionalities has not been understood well at the atomic scale. The lack of scientific progress is mainly due to the limited…
The understanding of tribo- and electro-chemical phenomenons on the molecular level at a sliding interface is a field of growing interest. Fundamental chemical and physical insights of sliding surfaces are crucial for understanding wear at…
Atomic-scale understanding of HfO2 ferroelectricity is important to help address many challenges in developing reliable and high-performance ferroelectric HfO2 (fe-HfO2) based devices. Though investigated from different angles, a factor…
By means of a Wannier projection within the framework of density functional theory, we are able to identify the modified c-axis hopping and the energy mismatch between the cation bands as the main source of the $t_{2g}$ splitting around the…
A particle placed in soft matter distorts its host and creates an energy landscape. This can occur, for example, for particles in liquid crystals, for particles on lipid bilayers or for particles trapped at fluid interfaces. Such energies…
The evolution of interfaces is intrinsic to many physical processes ranging from cavitation in fluids to recrystallization in solids. Computational modeling of interface motion entails a number of challenges, many of which are related to…
Two-dimensional materials (2DM) and their derived heterostructures have electrical and optical properties that are widely tunable via several approaches, most notably electrostatic gating and interfacial engineering such as twisting. While…
We investigate how the quantum friction experienced by a polarizable atom moving with constant velocity parallel to a planar interface is modified when the latter consists of chiral or nonreciprocal media, with special focus on topological…