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In the dynamic and rapidly advancing battery field, alloy anode materials are a focal point due to their superior electrochemical performance. Traditional screening methods are inefficient and time-consuming. Our research introduces a machine learning-assisted strategy to expedite the discovery and optimization of these materials. We compiled a vast dataset from the MP and AFLOW databases, encompassing tens of thousands of alloy compositions and properties. Utilizing a CGCNN, we accurately predicted the potential and specific capacity of alloy anodes, validated against experimental data. This approach identified approximately 120 low potential and high specific capacity alloy anodes suitable for various battery systems including Li, Na, K, Zn, Mg, Ca, and Al-based. Our method not only streamlines the screening of battery anode materials but also propels the advancement of battery material research and innovation in energy storage technology.

Polaritonic crystals (PoCs) have experienced significant advancements through involving hyperbolic polaritons in anisotropic materials such as $\alpha$-MoO$_{\rm 3}$, offering a promising approach for nanoscale light control and improved light-matter interactions. Notably, twisted bilayer $\alpha$-MoO$_{\rm 3}$ enables tunable iso-frequency contours (IFCs), especially generating flat IFCs at certain twist angles, which could enhance mode selectivity in their PoCs through the highly collimated and canalized polaritons. This study unveils the selective excitation of Bloch modes in PoCs with square-lattice structures on twisted bilayer $\alpha$-MoO$_{\rm 3}$ with canalized phonon polaritons. Through the optimization of the square lattice design, there is an effective redistribution of canalized polaritons into the reciprocal lattices of PoCs. Fine-tuning the periodicity and orientation of the hole lattice enables momentum matching between flat IFCs and co-linear reciprocal points, allowing precise and directional control over desired Bragg resonances and Bloch modes. This research establishes a versatile platform for tunable polaritonic devices and paves the way for advanced photonic applications.

Interlayer coupling plays a critical role in tuning the electronic structures and magnetic ground states of two-dimensional materials, influenced by the number of layers, interlayer distance, and stacking order. However, its effect on the orientation of the magnetic easy axis remains underexplored. In this study, we demonstrate that interlayer coupling can significantly alter the magnetic easy-axis orientation, as shown by the magnetic easy-axis of monolayer 1T-MnSe2 tilting 33\deg from the z-axis, while aligning with the z-axis in the bilayer. This change results from variations in orbital occupations near the Fermi level, particularly involving nonmetallic Se atoms. Contrary to the traditional focus on magnetic metal atoms, our findings reveal that Se orbitals play a key role in influencing the easy-axis orientation and topological Chern numbers. Furthermore, we show that the occupation of Se p-orbitals, and consequently the magnetic anisotropy, can be modulated by factors such as stacking order, charge doping, and external strain. Our results highlight the pivotal role of interlayer coupling in tuning the magnetic properties of layered materials, with important implications for spintronic applications.

The collective reorganization of electrons into a charge density wave (CDW) inside a crystal has long served as a textbook example of an ordered phase in condensed matter physics. Two-dimensional square lattices with $p$ electrons are well-suited to the realization of CDW, due to the anisotropy of the $p$ orbitals and the resulting one dimensionality of the electronic structure. In spite of a long history of study of CDW in square-lattice systems, few reports have recognized the existence and significance of a hidden orbital degree of freedom. The degeneracy of $p_x$ and $p_y$ electrons inherent to a square lattice may give rise to nontrivial orbital patterns in real space that endow the CDW with additional broken symmetries or unusual order parameters. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we visualize signatures of $p$-orbital texture in the CDW state of the topological semimetal candidate CeSbTe, which contains Sb square lattices with 5$p$ electrons. We image atomic-sized, anisotropic lobes of charge density with periodically modulating anisotropy, that ultimately can be mapped onto a microscopic pattern of $p_x$ and $p_y$ bond density waves. Our results show that even delocalized $p$ orbitals can reorganize into unexpected and emergent electronic states of matter.

The geometry of quantum states could offer indispensable insights for characterizing the topological properties, phase transitions and entanglement nature of many-body systems. In this work, we reveal the quantum geometry and the associated entanglement entropy (EE) of Floquet topological states in one-dimensional periodically driven systems. The quantum metric tensors of Floquet states are found to show non-analytic signatures at topological phase transition points. Away from the transition points, the bipartite geometric EE of Floquet states exhibits an area-law scaling vs the system size, which holds for a Floquet band at any filling fractions. For a uniformly filled Floquet band, the EE further becomes purely quantum geometric. At phase transition points, the geometric EE scales logarithmically with the system size and displays cusps in the nearby parameter ranges. These discoveries are demonstrated by investigating typical Floquet models including periodically driven spin chains, Floquet topological insulators and superconductors. Our findings uncover the rich quantum geometries of Floquet states, unveiling the geometric origin of EE for gapped Floquet topological phases, and introducing information-theoretic means of depicting topological transitions in Floquet systems.

Magnetic anisotropy is a crucial characteristic for enhancing spintronic device performance. The synthesis of SmCrGe$_3$ single crystals through a high-temperature solution method has led to the determination of uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Phase verification was achieved using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), powder, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. Electrical transport and specific heat measurements indicate a Curie temperature ($T_C$) of approximately 160 K, while magnetization measurements were utilized to determine the anisotropy fields and constants. Curie-Weiss fitting applied to magnetization data suggests the contribution of both Sm and Cr in the paramagnetic phase. Additionally, density functional theory (DFT) calculations explored the electronic structures and magnetic properties of SmCrGe$_3$, revealing a significant easy-axis single-ion Sm magnetocrystalline anisotropy of 16 meV/f.u.. Based on the magnetization measurements, easy-axis magnetocrystalline anisotropy at 20 K is 13 meV/f.u..

Many theoretical treatments of transport in heterogeneous Darcy flows consider advection only. When local-scale dispersion is neglected, flux-weighting persists over time; mean Lagrangian and Eulerian flow velocity distributions relate simply to each other and to the variance of the underlying hydraulic conductivity field. Local-scale dispersion complicates this relationship, potentially causing initially flux-weighted solute to experience lower-velocity regions as well as Taylor-type macrodispersion due to transverse solute movement between adjacent streamlines. To investigate the interplay of local-scale dispersion with conductivity log-variance, correlation length, and anisotropy, we perform a Monte Carlo study of flow and advective-dispersive transport in spatially-periodic 2D Darcy flows in large-scale, high-resolution multivariate Gaussian random conductivity fields. We observe flow channeling at all heterogeneity levels and quantify its extent. We find evidence for substantial effective retardation in the upscaled system, associated with increased flow channeling, and observe limited Taylor-type macrodispersion, which we physically explain. A quasi-constant Lagrangian velocity is achieved within a short distance of release, allowing usage of a simplified continuous-time random walk (CTRW) model we previously proposed in which the transition time distribution is understood as a temporal mapping of unit time in an equivalent system with no flow heterogeneity. The numerical data set is modeled with such a CTRW; we show how dimensionless parameters defining the CTRW transition time distribution are predicted by dimensionless heterogeneity statistics and provide empirical equations for this purpose.

The interplay between Floquet driving and non-Hermitian gain/loss could give rise to intriguing phenomena including topological funneling of light, edge-state delocalization, anomalous topological transitions and Floquet non-Hermitian skin effects. In this work, we uncover two unique phenomena in Floquet systems caused by gain and loss. First, multiple topological transitions from anomalous Floquet second-order topological insulators to anomalous Floquet first-order topological insulators and then to normal insulators can be induced by gain and loss. Interestingly, the resulting anomalous Floquet insulators further carry hybrid skin-topological boundary modes, which could either be fully localized or localized to different edges at different time slices and traversing along all edges in a single driving period. The topological phase transitions are also shown to be detectable through studies of transmission properties in the setting of coupled ring resonators. Second, gain and loss are found to induce singularities in the Floquet spectral, around which anomalous transmissions at flat quasienergy bands are predicted. These discoveries not only enhanced our understanding of topological matter and phase transitions in driven non-Hermitian systems, but also promoted their experimental realizations in optical and acoustic settings.

Suppressed three-phonon scattering processes have been considered to be the direct cause of materials exhibiting significant higher-order four-phonon interactions. However, after calculating the phonon-phonon interactions of 128 Half-Heusler materials by high-throughput, we find that the acoustic phonon bandwidth dominates the three-phonon and four-phonon scattering channels and keeps them roughly in a co-increasing or decreasing behavior. The $aao$ and $aaa$ three-phonon scattering channels in Half-Heusler materials are weakly affected by the acoustic-optical gap and acoustic bunched features respectively only when acoustic phonon bandwidths are close. Finally, we found that Half-Heusler materials with smaller acoustic bandwidths tend to have a more pronounced four-phonon effect, although three-phonon scattering may not be significantly suppressed at this time.

Thermoelectric energy conversion is an attractive technology for generating electricity from waste heat and using electricity for solid-state cooling. However, conventional manufacturing processes for thermoelectric devices are costly and limited to simple device geometries. This work reports an extrusion printing method to fabricate high-performance thermoelectric materials with complex 3D architectures. By integrating high-throughput experimentation and Bayesian optimization (BO), our approach significantly accelerates the simultaneous search for the optimal ink formulation and printing parameters that deliver high thermoelectric performances while maintaining desired shape fidelity. A Gaussian process regression (GPR)-based machine learning model is employed to expeditiously predict thermoelectric power factor as a function of ink formulation and printing parameters. The printed bismuth antimony telluride (BiSbTe)-based thermoelectric materials under the optimized conditions exhibit an ultrahigh room temperature zT of 1.3, which is by far the highest in the printed thermoelectric materials. The machine learning-guided ink-based printing strategy can be highly generalizable to a wide range of functional materials and devices for broad technological applications.

Perfluorocubane ($C_8F_8$) was successfully synthesized and found to accept and store electrons in its internal cubic cavity to form magnetic moments. However their inter-molecule spin-exchange coupling mechanism is yet to be revealed. In this study, we found the inter-molecule magnetic groundstates of $C_8F_8$ dimer and one-dimensional (1D) chain are tunable from antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) by stacking orders and alkaline earth metals intercalation using first-principle calculations. The inter-molecule couplings are dominated by noncovalent halogen $C-F...C_4$ interactions. Stacking orders of dimers can regulate the relative position of the lone pairs and $\sigma-holes$ at the molecular interface and thus the magnetic groundstates. Alkaline earth metals M (M = Na, Mg) intercalations could form $C_4-M-C_4$ bonds and lead to FM direct exchange at the inter-molecule region. An unpaired electron donated by the intercalated atoms or electron doping can result in a local magnetic moment in dimers, exhibiting an on-off switching by the odd-even number of electron filling. Novel electronic properties such as spin gapless semiconductor and charge density wave (CDW) states emerge when $C_8F_8$ molecules self-assemble with intercalated atoms to form 1D chains. These findings manifest the roles of stacking and intercalation in modifying intermolecular magnetism and the revealed halogen bond-dominated exchange mechanisms are paramount additions to those previously established non-covalent couplings.

Interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) between two magnetic layers sandwiched by a nonmagnetic spacer layer plays a critical role in shaping the magnetic properties of such heterostructures. The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been realized in a structure composed of two magnetically doped topological insulator (TI) layers separated by an undoped TI layer. The quantized Hall conductance observed in this sandwich heterostructure originates from the combined contribution of the top and bottom surface states. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to synthesize a series of magnetic TI sandwiches with varying thicknesses of the middle undoped TI layer. The well-quantized QAH effect is observed in all these samples and its critical behavior is modulated by the IEC between the top and bottom magnetic TI layers. Near the plateau phase transition (PPT), we find that thinner QAH samples exhibit a two-dimensional critical metal behavior with nearly temperature-independent longitudinal resistance, whereas thicker QAH samples behave as a three-dimensional insulator with reduced longitudinal resistance at higher temperatures. The IEC-induced critical-metal-to-insulator transition in the QAH PPT regime can be understood through a two-channel Chalker-Coddington network model by tuning inter-channel tunneling. The agreement between experiment and theory strongly supports the QAH PPT within the Kosterlitz-Thouless framework, where the critical metal and disordered insulator phases exist in bound and unbound states of vortex-antivortex pairs, respectively.

Advances in bioimaging methods and hardware facilities have revolutionised the determination of numerous biological structures at atomic or near-atomic resolution. Among these developments, electron ptychography has recently attracted considerable attention because of its superior resolution, remarkable sensitivity to light elements, and high electron dose efficiency. Here, we introduce an innovative approach called multi-convergence-angle (MCA) ptychography, which can simultaneously enhance both contrast and resolution with continuous information transfer across a wide spectrum of spatial frequency. Our work provides feasibility of future applications of MCA-ptychography in providing high-quality two-dimensional images as input to three-dimensional reconstruction methods, thereby facilitating more accurate determination of biological structures.

The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is an increasingly popular quantum sensor for microscopy of electrical current, magnetization, and spins. However, efficient NV-sample integration with a robust, high-quality interface remains an outstanding challenge to realize scalable, high-throughput microscopy. In this work, we characterize a diamond micro-chip (DMC) containing a (111)-oriented NV ensemble; and demonstrate its utility for high-resolution quantum microscopy. We perform strain imaging of the DMC and find minimal detrimental strain variation across a field-of-view of tens of micrometer. We find good ensemble NV spin coherence and optical properties in the DMC, suitable for sensitive magnetometry. We then use the DMC to demonstrate wide-field microscopy of electrical current, and show that diffraction-limited quantum microscopy can be achieved. We also demonstrate the deterministic transfer of DMCs with multiple materials of interest for next-generation electronics and spintronics. Lastly, we develop a polymer-based technique for DMC placement. This work establishes the DMC's potential to expand the application of NV quantum microscopy in materials, device, geological, biomedical, and chemical sciences.

Two well-known Hall-like effects are occurring in ferromagnets: the Anomalous Hall effect and the Planar Hall effect. The former is analogous to the classical Hall effect and is defined by the Onsager reciprocity relation of the second kind (antisymmetric conductivity matrix), while the latter is defined by the Onsager reciprocity relation of the first kind (symmetric conductivity matrix). The difference is fundamental, as it is based on time-invariance symmetry breaking at the microscopic scale. We study the Hall current generated in both cases, together with the power that can be extracted from the edges of Hall device. The expressions of the distribution of the electric currents, the distribution of electric carriers, and the power efficiencies (i.e. the power that can be injected into a load circuit) are derived at stationary regime from a variational method based on the second law of thermodynamics. It is shown that the distribution of the transverse Hall-current is identical in both cases but the longitudinal current and the power dissipated differ at the second order in the Hall angle.

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals proved revolutionary soon after graphene was discovered in 2004. However, 2D amorphous materials only became accessible in 2020 and remain largely unexplored. In particular, the thermophysical properties of amorphous materials are of great interest upon transition from 3D to 2D. Here, we probe thermal transport in 2D amorphous carbon. A cross-plane thermal conductivity ($\kappa$) down to 0.079 $\rm{Wm}^{-1}K^{-1}$ is measured for van der Waals stacked multilayers at room temperature, which is among the lowest reported to date. Meanwhile, an unexpectedly high in-plane $\kappa$ is obtained for freestanding monolayers which is a few times larger than what is predicted by conventional wisdom for 3D amorphous carbon with similar $\rm{sp}^{2}$ fraction. Our molecular dynamics simulations reveal the role of disorder and highlight the impact of dimensionality. Amorphous materials at the 2D limit open up new avenues for understanding and manipulating heat at the atomic scale.

We study the chemical rules for predicting and understanding topological states in stacked kagome and honeycomb lattices in both analytical and numerical ways. Starting with a minimal five-band tight-binding model, we sort out all the topological states into five groups, which are determined by the interlayer and intralayer hopping parameters. Combined with the model, we design an algorithm to obtain a series of experimentally synthesized topological semimetals with kagome and honeycomb layers, i.e., IAMX family (IA = Alkali metal element, M = Rare earth metal element, X = Carbon group element), in the inorganic crystal structure database. A follow-up high-throughput calculation shows that IAMX family materials are all nodal-line semimetals and they will be Weyl semimetals after taking spin-orbit coupling into consideration. To have further insights into the topology of the IAMX family, a detailed chemical rule analysis is carried out on the high-throughput calculations, including the lattice constants of the structure, intralayer and interlayer couplings, bond strengths, electronegativity, and so on, which are consistent with our tight-binding model. Our study provides a way to discover and modulate topological properties in stacked kagome and honeycomb crystals and offers candidates for studying topology-related properties like topological superconductors and axion insulators.

The interface of two materials can harbor unexpected emergent phenomena. One example is interface-induced superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two non-superconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide FeTe. Our electrical transport measurements reveal interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements, we observe a proximity-induced superconducting gap on the top surface of the MnBi2Te4 layer, confirming the interaction between superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in the MnBi2Te4 layer. Our findings will advance the fundamental inquiries into the topological superconducting phase in hybrid devices and provide a promising platform for the exploration of chiral Majorana physics in MnBi2Te4-based heterostructures.

Surface phonon-polaritons propagating along interfaces of polar dielectrics coexist with excitons in many van der Waals heterostructures, so understanding their mutual interactions is of great interest. Here, we investigate the type I surface phonon polariton of hBN via low-temperature resonant-Raman spectroscopy in hBN/WSe2 heterostructures. The resonantly enhanced hBN surface phonon polariton (SPhP) Raman signal, when laser energy is such that the scattered photons have energy close to that of the WSe2 excitons, enables detailed characterization of type I SPhP in hBN even when hBN is one monolayer thick. We find that the measured bandwidth of the SPhP Raman signal depends on the thicknesses of the hBN layer. We are able explain the experimental data using transfer matrix method simulations of SPhP dispersions providing that we assume the Raman scattering to be momentum non-conserving, as could be the case if localized WSe2 exciton states participated in the process. We further show that resonant Raman scattering from SiO2 SPhP can also be mediated by WSe$_2$.

A promising mechanism for achieving colossal dielectric constants is to use insulating internal barrier layers, which typically form during synthesis and then remain in the material. It has recently been shown that insulating domain walls in ferroelectrics can act as such barriers. One advantage domain walls have, in comparison to stationary interfaces, is that they can be moved, offering the potential of post-synthesis control of the dielectric constant. However, to date, direct imaging of how changes in domain wall pattern cause a change in dielectric constant within a single sample has not been realized. In this work, we demonstrate that changing the domain wall density allows the engineering of the dielectric constant in hexagonal-ErMnO3 single crystals. The changes of the domain wall density are quantified via microscopy techniques, while the dielectric constant is determined via macroscopic dielectric spectroscopy measurements. The observed changes in the dielectric constant are quantitatively consistent with the observed variation in domain wall density, implying that the insulating domain walls behave as 'ideal' capacitors connected in series. Our approach to engineer the domain wall density can be readily extended to other control methods, e.g., electric fields or mechanical stresses, providing a novel degree of flexibility to in-situ tune the dielectric constant.

The plateau phase transition in quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators corresponds to a quantum state wherein a single magnetic domain gives way to multiple magnetic domains and then re-converges back to a single magnetic domain. The layer structure of the sample provides an external knob for adjusting the Chern number C of the QAH insulators. Here, we employ molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to grow magnetic topological insulator (TI) multilayers with an asymmetric layer structure and realize the magnetic field-driven plateau phase transition between two QAH states with odd Chern number change ∆C. In multilayer structures with C=+-1 and C=+-2 QAH states, we find two characteristic power-law behaviors between temperature and the scaling variables on the magnetic field at transition points. The critical exponents extracted for the plateau phase transitions with ∆C=1 and ∆C=3 in QAH insulators are found to be nearly identical, specifically, k1~0.390+-0.021 and k2~0.388+-0.015, respectively. We construct a four-layer Chalker-Coddington network model to understand the consistent critical exponents for the plateau phase transitions with ∆C=1 and ∆C=3. This work will motivate further investigations into the critical behaviors of plateau phase transitions with different ∆C in QAH insulators and provide new opportunities for the development of QAH chiral edge current-based electronic and spintronic devices.

To address the computational challenges of ab initio molecular dynamics and the accuracy limitations of empirical force fields, the introduction of machine learning force fields has proven effective in various systems including metals and inorganic materials. However, in large-scale organic systems, the application of machine learning force fields is often hindered by impediments such as the complexity of long-range intermolecular interactions and molecular conformations, as well as the instability in long-time molecular simulations. Therefore, we propose a universal multiscale higher-order equivariant model combined with active learning techniques, efficiently capturing the complex long-range intermolecular interactions and molecular conformations. Compared to existing equivariant models, our model achieves the highest predictive accuracy, and magnitude-level improvements in computational speed and memory efficiency. In addition, a bond length stretching method is designed to improve the stability of long-time molecular simulations. Utilizing only 901 samples from a dataset with 120 atoms, our model successfully extends high precision to systems with hundreds of thousands of atoms. These achievements guarantee high predictive accuracy, fast simulation speed, minimal memory consumption, and robust simulation stability, satisfying the requirements for high-precision and long-time molecular simulations in large-scale organic systems.

When two different electronic materials are brought together, the resultant interface often shows unexpected quantum phenomena, including interfacial superconductivity and Fu-Kane topological superconductivity (TSC). Here, we use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize heterostructures formed by stacking together two magnetic materials, a ferromagnetic topological insulator (TI) and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide (FeTe). We discover emergent interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures and demonstrate the trifecta occurrence of superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and topological band structure in the magnetic TI layer, the three essential ingredients of chiral TSC. The unusual coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity can be attributed to the high upper critical magnetic field that exceeds the Pauli paramagnetic limit for conventional superconductors at low temperatures. The magnetic TI/FeTe heterostructures with robust superconductivity and atomically sharp interfaces provide an ideal wafer-scale platform for the exploration of chiral TSC and Majorana physics, constituting an important step toward scalable topological quantum computation.

Magnetic topological states refer to a class of exotic phases in magnetic materials with their non-trivial topological property determined by magnetic spin configurations. An example of such states is the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state, which is a zero magnetic field manifestation of the quantum Hall effect. Current research in this direction focuses on QAH insulators with a thickness of less than 10nm. The thick QAH insulators in the three-dimensional(3D) regime are limited, largely due to inevitable bulk carriers being introduced in thick magnetic TI samples. Here, we employ molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize magnetic TI trilayers with a thickness of up to ~106 nm. We find these samples exhibit well-quantized Hall resistance and vanishing longitudinal resistance at zero magnetic field. By varying magnetic dopants, gate voltages, temperature, and external magnetic fields, we examine the properties of these thick QAH insulators and demonstrate the robustness of the 3D QAH effect. The realization of the well-quantized 3D QAH effect indicates that the nonchiral side surface states of our thick magnetic TI trilayers are gapped and thus do not affect the QAH quantization. The 3D QAH insulators of hundred-nanometer thickness provide a promising platform for the exploration of fundamental physics, including axion physics and image magnetic monopole, and the advancement of electronic and spintronic devices to circumvent Moore's law.

Many exotic electronic states were discovered in moire superlattices hosted in twisted homo-bilayers in the past decade, including unconventional superconductivity and correlated insulating states. However, it is technically challenging to precisely and orderly stack two or more layers into certain twisting angles. Here, we presented a theoretical strategy that introduces moire superlattices in untwisted homo-bilayers by applying different in-plane strains on the two layers of a graphene homo-bilayer, respectively. Our density functional theory calculations indicate that the graphene bilayer exhibits substantial out-of-plane corrugations that form a coloring-triangular structure in each moire supercell under gradient in-plane strains. Such structure leads to a set of kagome bands, namely one flat-band and, at least, one Dirac band, developing along the M-K path after band-folding. For comparison, uniformly applied in-plane strain only yields a nearly flat band within path K-G, which is originated from local quantum confinement. These findings highlight the gradient strain as a route to feasibly fabricate exotic electronic states in untwisted flexible homo-bilayers.

In this paper, we have investigated the flexoelectric effect of Bi2GeO5(BGO), successfully predicted the maximum flexoelectric coefficient of BGO, and tried to explore the difference between experimental and simulated flexoelectric coefficients.

By effectively controlling the dipole-dipole interaction, we investigate the characteristics of the ground state of bright solitons in a spin-orbit coupled dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. The dipolar atoms are trapped within a double-lattice which consists of a linear and a nonlinear lattice. We derive the motion equations of the different spin components, taking the controlling mechanisms of the diolpe-dipole interaction into account. An analytical expression of dipole-dipole interaction is derived. By adjusting the dipole polarization angle, the dipole interaction can be adjusted from attraction to repulsion. On this basis, we study the generation and manipulation of the bright solitons using both the analytical variational method and numerical imaginary time evolution. The stability of the bright solitons is also analyzed and we map out the stability phase diagram. By adjusting the long-range dipole-dipole interaction, one can achieve manipulation of bright solitons in all aspects, including the existence, width, nodes, and stability. Considering the complexity of our system, our results will have enormous potential applications in quantum simulation of complex systems.

Chalcogenide perovskites provide a promising avenue for non-toxic, stable thermoelectric materials. Here, thermal transport and thermoelectric properties of BaZrS$_3$ as a typical orthorhombic perovskite are investigated. An extremely low lattice thermal conductivity $\kappa_L$ of 1.84 W/mK at 300 K is revealed for BaZrS$_3$, due to the softening effect of Ba atoms on the lattice and the strong anharmonicity caused by the twisted structure. We demonstrate that coherence contributions to $\kappa_L$, arising from wave-like phonon tunneling, leading to a 18 \% thermal transport contribution at 300 K. The increasing temperature softens the phonons, thus reducing the group velocity of materials and increasing the scattering phase space. However, it simultaneously reduces the anharmonicity, which is dominant in BaZrS$_3$ and ultimately improves the particle-like thermal transport. Further, by replacing S atom with Se and Ti-alloying strategy, $ZT$ value of BaZrS$_3$ is significantly increased from 0.58 to 0.91 at 500 K, making it an important candidate for thermoelectric applications.

The competition between unitary time-evolution and quantum measurements could induce phase transitions in the entanglement characteristics of quantum many-body dynamics. In this work, we reveal such entanglement transitions in the context of non-Hermitian Floquet systems. Focusing on noninteracting fermions in a representative bipartite lattice with balanced gain/loss and under time-periodic quenches, we uncover rich patterns of entanglement transitions due to the interplay between driving and non-Hermitian effects. Specially, we find that the monotonic increase of quenched hopping amplitude could flip the system between volume-law and area-law entangled Floquet phases, yielding alternated entanglement transitions. Meanwhile, the raise of gain/loss strength could trigger area-law to volume-law reentrant transitions in the scaling behavior of steady-state entanglement entropy, which are abnormal and highly unexpected in non-driven systems. Connections between entanglement transitions and parity-time-reversal (PT) transitions in Floquet spectra are further established. Our findings not only build a foundation for exploring entanglement phase transitions in Floquet non-Hermitian setups, but also provide efficient means to engineer and control such transitions by driving fields.

Nonlinear transport enabled by symmetry breaking in quantum materials has aroused considerable interest in condensed matter physics and interdisciplinary electronics. However, the nonlinear optical response in centrosymmetric Dirac semimetals via the defect engineering has remained highly challenging. Here, we observe the helicity-dependent terahertz (THz) emission in Dirac semimetal PtTe2 thin films via circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) under normal incidence. This is activated by artificially controllable out-of-plane Te-vacancy defect gradient, which is unambiguously evidenced by the electron ptychography. The defect gradient lowers the symmetry, which not only induces the band spin splitting, but also generates the giant Berry curvature dipole (BCD) responsible for the CPGE. Such BCD-induced helicity-dependent THz emission can be manipulated by the Te-vacancy defect concentration. Furthermore, temperature evolution of the THz emission features the minimum of the THz amplitude due to the carrier compensation. Our work provides a universal strategy for symmetry breaking in centrosymmetric Dirac materials for efficient nonlinear transport and facilitates the promising device applications in integrated optoelectronics and spintronics.

Over the last decade, the possibility of realizing topological superconductivity (TSC) has generated much excitement, mainly due to the potential use of its excitations (Majorana zero modes) in a fault-tolerant topological quantum computer 1,2. TSC can be created in electronic systems where the topological and superconducting orders coexist3, motivating the continued exploration of candidate material platforms to this end. Here, we use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize heterostructures that host emergent interfacial superconductivity when a non-superconducting antiferromagnet (FeTe) is interfaced with a topological insulator (TI) (Bi, Sb)2Te3 wherein the chemical potential can be tuned through varying the Bi/Sb ratio. By performing in-vacuo angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and ex-situ electrical transport measurements, we find that the superconducting transition temperature and the upper critical magnetic field are suppressed when the chemical potential approaches the Dirac point. This observation implies a direct correlation between the interfacial superconductivity and Dirac electrons of the TI layer. We provide evidence to show that the observed interfacial superconductivity and its chemical potential dependence is the result of the competition between the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-type ferromagnetic coupling mediated by Dirac surface states and antiferromagnetic exchange couplings that generate the bicollinear antiferromagnetic order in the FeTe layer. The Dirac-fermion-assisted interfacial superconductivity in (Bi,Sb)2Te3/FeTe heterostructures provides a new approach to probe TSC and Majorana physics in hybrid devices and potentially constitutes an alternative platform for topological quantum computation.

Non-Hermitian quasicrystal constitutes a unique class of disordered open system with PT-symmetry breaking, localization and topological triple phase transitions. In this work, we uncover the effect of quantum correlation on phase transitions and entanglement dynamics in non-Hermitian quasicrystals. Focusing on two interacting bosons in a Bose-Hubbard lattice with quasiperiodically modulated gain and loss, we find that the onsite interaction between bosons could drag the PT and localization transition thresholds towards weaker disorder regions compared with the noninteracting case. Moreover, the interaction facilitates the expansion of the critical point of a triple phase transition in the noninteracting system into a critical phase with mobility edges, whose domain could be flexibly controlled by tuning the interaction strength. Systematic analyses of the spectrum, inverse participation ratio, topological winding number, wavepacket dynamics and entanglement entropy lead to consistent predictions about the correlation-driven phases and transitions in our system. Our findings pave the way for further studies of the interplay between disorder and interaction in non-Hermitian quantum matter.

Kagome magnets provide a fascinating platform for the realization of correlated topological quantum phases under various magnetic ground states. However, the effect of the magnetic spin configurations on the characteristic electronic structure of the kagome lattice layer remains elusive. Here, utilizing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, we report the spectroscopic evidence for the spin-reorientation effect of a kagome ferromagnet Fe$_3$Ge, which is composed solely of kagome planes. As the Fe moments cant from the $c$ axis into the $ab$ plane upon cooling, the two kinds of kagome-derived Dirac fermions respond quite differently. The one with less-dispersive bands ($k_z$ $\sim$ 0) containing the $3d_{z^2}$ orbitals evolves from gapped into nearly gapless, while the other with linear dispersions ($k_z$ $\sim$ $\pi$) embracing the $3d_{xz}$/$3d_{yz}$ components remains intact, suggesting that the effect of spin reorientation on the Dirac fermions has an orbital selectivity. Moreover, we demonstrate that there is no signature of charge order formation in Fe$_3$Ge, contrasting with its sibling compound FeGe, a newly established charge-density-wave kagome magnet.

The scaling law of entanglement entropy could undergo qualitative changes during the nonunitary evolution of a quantum many-body system. In this work, we uncover such entanglement phase transitions in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals (NHQCs). We identify two types of entanglement transitions with different scaling laws and critical behaviors due to the interplay between non-Hermitian effects and quasiperiodic potentials. The first type represents a typical volume-law to area-law transition, which happens together with a PT-symmetry breaking and a localization transition. The second type features an abnormal log-law to area-law transition, which is mediated by a critical phase with a volume-law scaling in the steady-state entanglement entropy. These entangling phases and transitions are demonstrated in two representative models of NHQCs. Our results thus advanced the study of entanglement transitions in non-Hermitian disordered systems and further disclosed the rich entanglement patterns in NHQCs.

Kagome materials have attracted a surge of research interest recently, especially for the ones combining with magnetism, and the ones with weak interlayer interactions which can fabricate thin devices. However, kagome materials combining both characters of magnetism and weak interlayer interactions are rare. Here we investigate a new family of titanium based kagome materials RETi3Bi4 (RE = Eu, Gd and Sm). The flakes of nanometer thickness of RETi3Bi4 can be obtained by exfoliation due to the weak interlayer interactions. According to magnetic measurements, out-of-plane ferromagnetism, out-of-plane anti-ferromagnetism, and in-plane ferromagnetism are formed for RE = Eu, Gd, and Sm respectively. The magnetic orders are simple and the saturation magnetizations can be relatively large since the rare earth elements solely provide the magnetic moments. Further by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and first-principles calculations, the electronic structures of RETi3Bi4 are investigated. The ARPES results are consistent with the calculations, indicating the bands characteristic with kagome sublattice in RETi3Bi4. We expect these materials to be promising candidates for observation of the exotic magnetic topological phases and the related topological quantum transport studies.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is an essential technique to determine a material's crystal structure in high-throughput experimentation, and has recently been incorporated in artificially intelligent agents in autonomous scientific discovery processes. However, rapid, automated and reliable analysis method of XRD data matching the incoming data rate remains a major challenge. To address these issues, we present CrystalShift, an efficient algorithm for probabilistic XRD phase labeling that employs symmetry-constrained pseudo-refinement optimization, best-first tree search, and Bayesian model comparison to estimate probabilities for phase combinations without requiring phase space information or training. We demonstrate that CrystalShift provides robust probability estimates, outperforming existing methods on synthetic and experimental datasets, and can be readily integrated into high-throughput experimental workflows. In addition to efficient phase-mapping, CrystalShift offers quantitative insights into materials' structural parameters, which facilitate both expert evaluation and AI-based modeling of the phase space, ultimately accelerating materials identification and discovery.

An axion insulator is a three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator (TI), in which the bulk maintains the time-reversal symmetry or inversion symmetry but the surface states are gapped by surface magnetization. The axion insulator state has been observed in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown magnetically doped TI sandwiches and exfoliated intrinsic magnetic TI MnBi2Te4 flakes with an even number layer. All these samples have a thickness of ~10 nm, near the 2D-to-3D boundary. The coupling between the top and bottom surface states in thin samples may hinder the observation of quantized topological magnetoelectric response. Here, we employ MBE to synthesize magnetic TI sandwich heterostructures and find that the axion insulator state persists in a 3D sample with a thickness of ~106 nm. Our transport results show that the axion insulator state starts to emerge when the thickness of the middle undoped TI layer is greater than ~3 nm. The 3D hundred-nanometer-thick axion insulator provides a promising platform for the exploration of the topological magnetoelectric effect and other emergent magnetic topological states, such as the high-order TI phase.

The new technology of energy conversion must be developed to ensure energy sustainability. Thermoelectric (TE) materials provide an effective means to solve the energy crisis. As a potential TE candidate, the TE properties of perovskite have received extensively attention. We here investigate the TE transport properties of the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) BaSnO3 by first-principles calculations. We find that the BaSnO3 perovskite exhibits outstanding dynamic and thermal stabilities, which provide excellent electronic and thermal transport properties simultaneously. These properties contribute to the remarkable Seebeck coefficient and power factor, which gives rise to the ZT of n-0.37 and p-1.52 at 900 K. Additionally, doping and nanostructure open prospects for effectively improving the TE properties of BaSnO3. Our work provides a basis for further optimizing the TE transport properties of cubic BaSnO3 and may have worthwhile practical significance for applying cubic perovskite to the high-temperature thermoelectric field.

The past few years have witnessed a surge of interest in non-Hermitian Floquet topological matters due to their exotic properties resulting from the interplay between driving fields and non-Hermiticity. The present review sums up our studies on non-Hermitian Floquet topological matters in one and two spatial dimensions. We first give a bird's-eye view of the literature for clarifying the physical significance of non-Hermitian Floquet systems. We then introduce, in a pedagogical manner, a number of useful tools tailored for the study of non-Hermitian Floquet systems and their topological properties. With the aid of these tools, we present typical examples of non-Hermitian Floquet topological insulators, superconductors, and quasicrystals, with a focus on their topological invariants, bulk-edge correspondences, non-Hermitian skin effects, dynamical properties, and localization transitions. We conclude this review by summarizing our main findings and presenting our vision of future directions.

Fatigue properties of additively manufactured (AM) materials depend on many factors such as AM processing parameter, microstructure, residual stress, surface roughness, porosities, post-treatments, etc. Their evaluation inevitably requires these factors combined as many as possible, thus resulting in low efficiency and high cost. In recent years, their assessment by leveraging the power of machine learning (ML) has gained increasing attentions. Here, we present a comprehensive overview on the state-of-the-art progress of applying ML strategies to predict fatigue properties of AM materials, as well as their dependence on AM processing and post-processing parameters such as laser power, scanning speed, layer height, hatch distance, built direction, post-heat temperature, etc. A few attempts in employing feedforward neural network (FNN), convolutional neural network (CNN), adaptive network-based fuzzy system (ANFS), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) to predict fatigue life and RF to predict fatigue crack growth rate are summarized. The ML models for predicting AM materials' fatigue properties are found intrinsically similar to the commonly used ones, but are modified to involve AM features. Finally, an outlook for challenges (i.e., small dataset, multifarious features, overfitting, low interpretability, unable extension from AM material data to structure life) and potential solutions for the ML prediction of AM materials' fatigue properties is provided.

The paper explores the optical properties of an exfoliated MoSe$_2$ monolayer implanted with Cr$^+$ ions, accelerated to 25 eV. Photoluminescence of the implanted MoSe$_2$ reveals an emission line from Cr-related defects that is present only under weak electron doping. Unlike band-to-band transition, the Cr-introduced emission is characterised by non-zero activation energy, long lifetimes, and weak response to the magnetic field. To rationalise the experimental results and get insights into the atomic structure of the defects, we modelled the Cr-ion irradiation process using ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations followed by the electronic structure calculations of the system with defects. The experimental and theoretical results suggest that the recombination of electrons on the acceptors, which could be introduced by the Cr implantation-induced defects, with the valence band holes is the most likely origin of the low energy emission. Our results demonstrate the potential of low-energy ion implantation as a tool to tailor the properties of 2D materials by doping.

We investigate the the itinerant ferromagnetism in a dipolar Fermi atomic system with the anisotropic spin-orbit coupling (SOC),which is traditionally explored with isotropic contact interaction.We first study the ferromagnetism transition boundaries and the properties of the ground states through the density and spin-flip distribution in momentum space, and we find that both the anisotropy and the magnitude of the SOC play an important role in this process. We propose a helpful scheme and a quantum control method which can be applied to conquering the difficulties of previous experimental observation of itinerant ferromagnetism. Our further study reveals that exotic Fermi surfaces and an abnormal phase region can exist in this system by controlling the anisotropy of SOC, which can provide constructive suggestions for the research and the application of a dipolar Fermi gas. Furthermore, we also calculate the ferromagnetism transition temperature and novel distributions in momentum space at finite temperature beyond the ground states from the perspective of experiment.

A single material achieving multiple topological phases can provide potential application for topological spintronics, whereas the candidate materials are very limited. Here, we report the structure, physical properties, and possible emergence of multiple topological phases in the newly discovered, air-stable EuCuBi single crystal. EuCuBi crystallizes in a hexagonal space group P63/mmc (No. 194) in ZrBeSi-type structure with an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state below TN = 11.2 K. There is a competition between AFM and ferromagnetic (FM) interactions below TN revealed by electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. With the increasing magnetic field, EuCuBi evolves from the AFM ground state with a small amount of FM component, going through two possible metamagnetic phases, finally reaches the field-induced FM phase. Based on the first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that the Dirac, Weyl, and possible mirror Chern insulator can be achieved in EuCuBi by tuning the temperature and applying magnetic field, making EuCuBi a promising candidate for exploring multiple topological phases.

In this paper, we investigate the low temperature magnetic properties of the rare-earth garnet compound Nd$_3$Ga$_5$O$_{12}$ in detail by means of magnetization, specific heat and magnetocaloric effect measurements. The magnetic thermal properties along with the crystal field calculations reveal that the Nd$^{3+}$ ions form into a frustrated hyper-kagome lattice with connected triangles have an Ising-like ground state with the easy axis along the local [100], [010] and [001] directions. Instead of a quantum spin liquid ground state, an antiferromagnetically ordered state is found below $T_{\mathrm{N}}=0.52~\rm K$. With applying field in the [111] direction, the antiferromagnetic order is suppressed at the critical field of $B_{\mathrm{c}}=0.75~\rm T$, and enhancement of the critical fluctuations with linear crossover behaviors is observed near the critical point.

In this report, we investigated a new rare earth based one-dimensional Ising spin chain magnet~\DNG~by means of magnetization, specific heat and powder neutron diffraction measurements. Due to the crystalline electrical field splitting, the magnetic Dy ions share an Ising like ground doublet state. Owning to the local point symmetry, these Ising moments form into two canted magnetic sublattices, which were further confirmed by the angle-dependent magnetization measurement. In zero fields, two successive antiferromagnetic phase transitions were found at temperatures $T_{\mathrm{N1}}=6~\rm K$ and $T_{\mathrm{N2}}=5~\rm K$, respectively. Only part of the moments are statically ordered in this intermediate state between $T_{\mathrm{N1}}$ and $T_{\mathrm{N2}}$. Powder neutron diffraction experiments at different temperatures were performed as well. An incommensurate magnetic propagation vector of $\mathbf{k_{\rm m}}=(0.5,0.4,0.5)$ was identified. The refined spin configurations through the irreducible representation analysis confirmed that these Ising spins are canted in the crystal $ab$~plane.

Superconducting diode effect (SDE) with nonreciprocal supercurrent transport has attracted intense attention recently, not only for its intriguing physics, but also for its great application potential in superconducting circuits. It is revealed in this work that planar Josephson junctions (JJs) based on type-II Weyl semimetal (WSM) MoTe$_2$ can exhibit a prominent SDE due to the emergence of asymmetric Josephson effect (AJE) in perpendicular magnetic fields. The AJE manifests itself in a very large asymmetry in the critical supercurrents with respect to the current direction. The sign of this asymmetry can also be effectively modulated by the external magnetic field. Considering the special noncentrosymmetric crystal symmetry of MoTe$_2$, this AJE is understood in terms of the Edelstein effect, which induces a nontrivial phase shift in the current phase relation of the junctions. Besides these, it is further demonstrated that the rectification of supercurrent in such MoTe$_2$ JJs with the rectification efficiency up to 50.4%, unveiling the great application potential of WSMs in superconducting electronics.

One-dimensional Floquet topological superconductors possess two types of degenerate Majorana edge modes at zero and $\pi$ quasieneriges, leaving more room for the design of boundary time crystals and quantum computing schemes than their static counterparts. In this work, we discover Floquet superconducting phases with large topological invariants and arbitrarily many Majorana edge modes in periodically driven Kitaev chains. Topological winding numbers defined for the Floquet operator and Floquet entanglement Hamiltonian are found to generate consistent predictions about the phase diagram, bulk-edge correspondence and numbers of zero and $\pi$ Majorana edge modes of the system under different driving protocols. The bipartite entanglement entropy further show non-analytic behaviors around the topological transition point between different Floquet superconducting phases. These general features are demonstrated by investigating the Kitaev chain with periodically kicked pairing or hopping amplitudes. Our discovery reveals the rich topological phases and many Majorana edge modes that could be brought about by periodic driving fields in one-dimensional superconducting systems. It further introduces a unified description for a class of Floquet topological superconductors from their quasienergy bands and entanglement properties.

LiV$_2$O$_4$ is a mixed-valent spinel oxide and one of a few transition-metal compounds to host a heavy fermion phase at low temperatures. While numerous experimental studies have attempted to elucidate how its 3$d$ electrons undergo giant mass renormalization, spectroscopic probes that may provide crucial hints, such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), remain to be applied. A prerequisite is atomically flat and pristine surfaces, which, in the case of LiV$_2$O$_4$, are difficult to obtain by cleavage of small, three-dimensional crystals. We report the epitaxial growth of LiV$_2$O$_4$ thin films with bulklike properties on SrTiO$_3$(111) via pulsed laser deposition and stable STM imaging of the LiV$_2$O$_4$(111) surface. The as-grown films were transferred $ex$ $situ$ to a room-temperature STM, where subsequent annealing with optional sputtering in ultrahigh vacuum enabled compact islands with smooth surfaces and a hexagonal 1$\times$1 atomic lattice to be resolved. Our STM measurements provide insights into growth mechanisms of LiV$_2$O$_4$ on SrTiO$_3$(111), as well as demonstrate the feasibility of performing surface-sensitive measurements of this heavy fermion compound.

Non-Hermitian quasicrystal forms a unique class of matter with symmetry-breaking, localization and topological transitions induced by gain and loss or nonreciprocal effects. In this work, we introduce a non-Abelian generalization of the non-Hermitian quasicrystal, in which the interplay between non-Hermitian effects and non-Abelian quasiperiodic potentials create mobility edges and rich transitions among extended, critical and localized phases. These generic features are demonstrated by investigating three non-Abelian variants of the non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper model. A unified characterization is given to their spectrum, localization, entanglement and topological properties. Our findings thus add new members to the family of non-Hermitian quasicrystal and uncover unique physics that can be triggered by non-Abelian effects in non-Hermitian systems.

Correlated two-dimensional (2D) layers, like 1T-phases of TaS2, TaSe2 and NbSe2, exhibit rich tunability through varying interlayer couplings, which promotes the understanding of electron-correlation in the 2D limit. However, the coupling mechanism is, so far, poorly understood and was tentatively ascribed to interactions among the d_(z^2 ) orbitals of Ta or Nb atoms. Here, we theoretically show that the interlayer hybridization and localization strength of interfacial Se pz orbitals, rather than Nb d_(z^2 ) orbitals, govern the variation of electron-correlated properties upon interlayer sliding or twisting in correlated magnetic 1T-NbSe2 bilayers. Each of the both layers is in a star-of-David (SOD) charge-density-wave phase. Geometric and electronic structures, and magnetic properties of 28 different stacking configurations were examined and analyzed using density-functional-theory calculations. We found that the SOD contains a localized region (Reg-L), in which interlayer Se pz hybridization plays a paramount role in varying the energy levels of the two Hubbard bands. These variations lead to three electronic transitions among four insulating states, which demonstrated the effectiveness of interlayer interactions to modulate correlated magnetic properties in a prototypical correlated magnetic insulator.

In a Dirac semimetal, the massless Dirac fermion has zero chirality, leading to surface states connected adiabatically to a topologically trivial surface state as well as vanishing anomalous Hall effect (AHE). Recently, it is predicted that in the nonrelativistic limit of certain collinear antiferromagnets, there exists a type of chiral Dirac-like fermion, whose dispersion manifests four-fold degenerate crossing points formed by spin-degenerate linear bands, with topologically protected Fermi arcs. Such unconventional chiral fermion, protected by a hidden SU(2) symmetry in the hierarchy of an enhanced crystallographic group, namely spin space group, is not experimentally verified yet. Here, by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, we reveal the surface origin of the electron pocket at the Fermi surface in collinear antiferromagnet CoNb3S6. Combining with neutron diffraction and first-principles calculations, we suggest a multidomain collinear AFM configuration, rendering the the existence of the Fermi-arc surface states induced by chiral Dirac-like fermions. Our work provides spectral evidence of the chiral Dirac-like fermion caused by particular spin symmetry in CoNb3S6, paving an avenue for exploring new emergent phenomena in antiferromagnets with unconventional quasiparticle excitations.

The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator is a topological quantum state with quantized Hall resistance and zero longitudinal resistance in the absence of an external magnetic field. The QAH insulator carries spin-polarized dissipation-free chiral edge current and thus provides a unique opportunity to develop energy-efficient transformative information technology. Despite promising advances on the QAH effect over the past decade, the QAH insulator has thus far eluded any practical applications. In addition to its low working temperature, the QAH state in magnetically doped topological insulator (TI) films/heterostructures usually deteriorates with time in ambient conditions. In this work, we prepare three QAH devices with similar initial properties and store them in different environments to investigate the evolution of their transport properties. The QAH device without a protection layer in air show clear degradation and becomes hole-doped with the charge neutral point shifting significantly to positive gate voltages. The QAH device kept in an argon glove box without a protection layer shows no measurable degradation after 560 hours and the device protected by a 3 nm AlOx protection layer in air shows minimal degradation with stable QAH properties. Our work shows a route to preserve the dissipation-free chiral edge state in QAH devices for potential applications in quantum information technology.

To achieve thermoelectric energy conversion, a large transverse thermoelectric effect in topological materials is crucial. However, the general relationship between topological electronic structures and transverse thermoelectric effect remains unclear, restricting the rational design of novel transverse thermoelectric materials. Herein, we demonstrate a topological transition-induced giant transverse thermoelectric effect in polycrystalline Mn-doped Mg3+\deltaBi2 material, which has a competitively large transverse thermopower (617 uV/K), power factor (20393 uWm-1K-2), magnetoresistance (16600%), and electronic mobility (35280cm2V-1S-1). The high performance is triggered by the modulation of chemical pressure and disorder effects in the presence of Mn doping, which induces the transition from a topological insulator to a Dirac semimetal. The high-performance polycrystalline Mn-doped Mg3+\delta Bi2 described in this work robustly boosts transverse thermoelectric effect through topological phase transition, paving a new avenue for the material design of transverse thermoelectricity.

The controllable phase transition and nanopatterning of topological states in a ferroelectric system under external stimuli are critical for realizing the potential applications in nanoelectronic devices such as logic, memory, race-track, etc. Herein, using the phase-field simulations, we demonstrate the mechanical manipulation of polar skyrmions in ferroelectric superlattices by applying external local compressive stress through an atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip. Different switching pathways are observed: under small to moderate force (<1 uN), the skyrmions coalesce to form a long stripe; while increasing the applied load (e.g., above 2 uN) leads to the suppression of spontaneous polarization, forming a new metastable topological structure, namely the post-skyrmion. It is constructed by attaching multiple merons onto a center Bloch skyrmion, showing a topological charge of 1.5 (under 2 uN) or 2 (under 3 uN). We have further designed a mechanical nanopatterning process, where the stripes can form a designed pattern by moving the AFM tip (write), which can also be switched back to a full skyrmion state under an applied electric field (erase). We believe this study will spur further interest in mechanical manipulation and nanopatterning of polar topological phases through mechanical forces.

Controlling the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic materials plays a key role in magnetic switching devices and spintronic applications. Examples of spin-orbit torque devices with different magnetic anisotropy geometries (in-plane or out-of-plane directions) have been demonstrated with novel magnetization switching mechanisms for extended device functionalities. Normally, the intrinsic magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic materials is unchanged within a fixed direction, and thus, it is difficult to realize multifunctionality devices. Therefore, continuous modulation of magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic materials is highly desired but remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a gate-tunable magnetic anisotropy transition from out-of-plane to canted and finally to in-plane in layered Fe$_5$GeTe$_2$ by combining the measurements of the angle-dependent anomalous Hall effect and magneto-optical Kerr effect with quantitative Stoner-Wohlfarth analysis. The magnetic easy axis continuously rotates in a spin-flop pathway by gating or temperature modulation. Such observations offer a new avenue for exploring magnetization switching mechanisms and realizing new spintronic functionalities.

A $d$-dimensional, $n$th-order topological insulator or superconductor has localized eigenmodes at its $(d-n)$-dimensional boundaries ($n\leq d$). In this work, we apply periodic driving fields to two-dimensional superconductors, and obtain a wide variety of Floquet second-order topological superconducting (SOTSC) phases with many Majorana corner modes at both zero and $\pi$ quasienergies. Two distinct Floquet SOTSC phases are found to be separated by three possible kinds of transformations, i.e., a topological phase transition due to the closing/reopening of a bulk spectral gap, a topological phase transition due to the closing/reopening of an edge spectral gap, or an entirely different phase in which the bulk spectrum is gapless. Thanks to the strong interplay between driving and intrinsic energy scales of the system, all the found phases and transitions are highly controllable via tuning a single hopping parameter of the system. Our discovery not only enriches the possible forms of Floquet SOTSC phases, but also offers an efficient scheme to generate many coexisting Majorana zero and $\pi$ corner modes that may find applications in Floquet quantum computation.

One-dimensional (1D) topologically protected states are usually formed at the interface between two-dimensional (2D) materials with different topological invariants. Therefore, 1D chiral interface channels (CICs) can be created at the boundary of two quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with different Chern numbers. Such a QAH junction can function as a chiral edge current distributer at zero magnetic field, but its realization remains challenging. Here, by employing an in-situ mechanical mask, we use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize QAH insulator junctions, in which two QAH insulators with different Chern numbers are connected along a 1D junction. For the junction between C = 1 and C = -1 QAH insulators, we observe quantized transport and demonstrate the appearance of the two parallel propagating CICs along the magnetic domain wall at zero magnetic field. Moreover, since the Chern number of the QAH insulators in magnetic topological insulator (TI)/TI multilayers can be tuned by altering magnetic TI/TI bilayer periods, the junction between two QAH insulators with arbitrary Chern numbers can be achieved by growing different periods of magnetic TI/TI on the two sides of the sample. For the junction between C = 1 and C = 2 QAH insulators, our quantized transport shows that a single CIC appears at the interface. Our work lays down the foundation for the development of QAH insulator-based electronic and spintronic devices, topological chiral networks, and topological quantum computations.

Quantum phase transitions universally exist in the ground and excited states of quantum many-body systems, and they have a close relationship with the nonequilibrium dynamical phase transitions, which however are challenging to identify. In the system of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, though dynamical phase transitions with correspondence to equilibrium phase transitions in the ground state and uppermost excited state have been probed, those taken place in intermediate excited states remain untouched in experiments thus far. Here we unravel that both the ground and excited-state quantum phase transitions in spinor condensates can be diagnosed with dynamical phase transitions. A connection between equilibrium phase transitions and nonequilibrium behaviors of the system is disclosed in terms of the quantum Fisher information. We also demonstrate that near the critical points parameter estimation beyond standard quantum limit can be implemented. This work not only advances the exploration of excited-state quantum phase transitions via a scheme that can immediately be applied to a broad class of few-mode quantum systems, but also provides new perspective on the relationship between quantum criticality and quantum enhanced sensing.

Opening a band gap and realizing static valley control have been long sought after in graphenebased two-dimensional (2D) materials. Motivated by the recent success in synthesizing 2D materials passivated by Si-N layers, here, we propose two new graphene-based materials, 2D C2SiN and CSiN, via first-principles calculations. Monolayer C2SiN is metallic and realizes superconductivity at low temperatures. Monolayer CSiN enjoys excellent stability and mechanical property. It is a semiconductor with a ternary valley structure for electron carriers. Distinct from existing valleytronic platforms, these valleys can be controlled by applied uniaxial strain. The valley polarization of carriers further manifest as a pronounced change in the anisotropic conductivity, which can be detected in simple electric measurement. The strong interaction effects also lead to large exciton binding energy and enhance the optical absorption in the ultraviolet range. Our work opens a new route to achieve superconductivity, ternary valley structure, and semiconductor with enhanced optical absorption in 2D materials.

The electronic structure and the physical properties of quantum materials can be significantly altered by charge carrier doping and magnetic state transition. Here we report a discovery of a giant and reversible electronic structure evolution with doping in a magnetic topological material. By performing high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements on EuCd2As2,we found that a huge amount of hole doping can be introduced into the sample surface due to surface absorption. The electronic structure exhibits a dramatic change with the hole doping which can not be described by a rigid band shift. Prominent band splitting is observed at high doping which corresponds to a doping-induced magnetic transition at low temperature (below -15 K) from an antiferromagnetic state to a ferromagnetic state. These results have established a detailed electronic phase diagram of EuCd2As2 where the electronic structure and the magnetic structure change systematically and dramatically with the doping level. They further suggest that the transport, magnetic and topological properties of EuCd2As2 can be greatly modified by doping. These work will stimulate further investigations to explore for new phenomena and properties in doping this magnetic topological material.

This work provides a convenient and powerful means towards the engineering of Floquet bands via Bloch oscillations, by adding a tilted linear potential to periodically driven lattice systems. The added linear field not only restricts the spreading of a time-evolving wavepacket but also, depending on the ratio between the Bloch oscillation frequency and the modulation frequency of the periodic driving, dramatically modifies the band profile and topology. Specifically, we consider a driven Aubry-André-Harper model as a working example, in the presence of a linear field. Almost flat Floquet bands or Floquet bands with large Chern numbers due to the interplay between the periodic driving and Bloch oscillations can be obtained, with the band structure and topology extensively tunable by adjusting the ratio of two competing frequencies. To confirm our finding, we further execute the Thouless pumping of one and two interacting bosons in such a lattice system and establish its connection with the topological properties of single- and two-particle Floquet bands.

Niobium superconducting radiofrequency cavities enable applications in modern accelerators and quantum computers. However, the surface resistance significantly deteriorates the cavities performance. Nitrogen doping surface treatment can consistently increase cavity performance by reducing surface resistance, but the improvement mechanism is not fully understood. Herein, we employed transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy to uncover the structural and chemical differences of the Nb-air interface between the non-doped and nitrogen-doped cavities. The results indicate that nitrogen doping passivates the Nb surface by introducing a compressive strain close to the Nb/air interface, which impedes the oxygen diffusion and hydrogen atoms and reduces surface oxide thickness.