Volume 8, Issue 10

October 2024

Browse Issues:

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Characterizing the chemical potential disorder in the topological insulator ${({Bi}_{1 - x} {Sb}_{x})}_{2} {Te}_{3}$ thin films

Jens Brede, Mahasweta Bagchi, Adrian Greichgauer, Anjana Uday, Andrea Bliesener, Gertjan Lippertz, Roozbeh Yazdanpanah, Alexey Taskin, and Yoichi Ando

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104202 (2024) - Published 29 October, 2024

Compensation doping is a successful strategy to realize bulk-insulating topological insulators, but it comes at the cost of large chemical-potential fluctuations. Here, STM is used to map these fluctuations in (Bi $_{1 - x}$ Sb $_{x}$ ) $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ thin films with varying Sb-concentration x. The fluctuation amplitude is found to be 5 – 14 meV in quasi-bulk-insulating films, but it increases to 30 – 40 meV in highly bulk-insulating films. Landau-level spectroscopy under perpendicular magnetic fields allows for identifying the Dirac point. At x ≈ 0.65, the Fermi level is found to lie within 10 meV from the Dirac point and yet the potential fluctuations are relatively modest at 14 meV.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Enhanced magnetization by defect-assisted exciton recombination in atomically thin ${CrCl}_{3}$

Xin-Yue Zhang, Thomas K. M. Graham, Hyeonhu Bae, Yu-Xuan Wang, Nazar Delegan, Jonghoon Ahn, Zhi-Cheng Wang, Jakub Regner, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Minkyung Jung, Zdeněk Sofer, Fazel Tafti, David D. Awschalom, F. Joseph Heremans, Binghai Yan, and Brian B. Zhou

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104402 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

Optically controlled magnetism offers prospects for high efficiency information processing, but such investigations are often restricted to magnets with special readout properties. Here, the authors utilize nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center magnetometry to directly image the transient, photoinduced stray fields in a material proximal to the NV center. They discover that the antiferromagnetic layer magnetization in atomically thin CrCl $_{3}$ is enhanced by exciton pumping, which they attribute to a charge transfer between water-related surface adsorbates and the spin-polarized conduction band during nonradiative exciton recombination. Their work demonstrates how defects can enhance 2D magnetism and broadens the study of photoinduced magnetic effects.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Optically resolved exchange splittings in the doped van der Waals ferromagnet ${CrBr}_{3} : {Yb}^{3 +}$

Thom J. Snoeren, Kimo Pressler, and Daniel R. Gamelin

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104410 (2024) - Published 23 October, 2024

The use of impurities to generate new properties in magnetic CrX $_{3}$ compounds remains surprisingly underexplored. The authors report the magneto-optical properties of Yb $^{3 +}$ -doped CrBr $_{3}$ , in which Yb $^{3 +}$ serves as a spin-bearing optical point defect. Their data reveal that ground- and excited-state Yb $^{3 +}$ spin degeneracies are spontaneously lifted through strong magnetic exchange with neighboring Cr $^{3 +}$ ions, such that individual Yb $^{3 +}$ spin transitions are resolved even at zero external field, and Yb $^{3 +}$ spins are easily manipulated via CrBr $_{3}$ magnetization. The large Yb $^{3 +}$ spin splittings present unique opportunities for optical spin manipulation of point defects and highlight the use of impurities to add spin-photonic functionalities to this classic 2D van der Waals magnet.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Probing enhanced superconductivity in van der Waals polytypes of $V_{x} {TaS}_{2}$

Wojciech R. Pudelko, Huanlong Liu, Francesco Petocchi, Hang Li, Eduardo Bonini Guedes, Julia Küspert, Karin von Arx, Qisi Wang, Ron Cohn Wagner, Craig M. Polley, Mats Leandersson, Jacek Osiecki, Balasubramanian Thiagarajan, Milan Radović, Philipp Werner, Andreas Schilling, Johan Chang, and Nicholas C. Plumb

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104802 (2024) - Published 25 October, 2024

Interfacing different layer types of 2D materials is a promising route for developing quantum devices and exploring the fundamental physics of complex matter. In this work, the authors employ angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to elucidate the factors behind a strong enhancement of superconductivity that occurs when insulating $1 T$ structural layers of the compound TaS $_{2}$ are inserted between layers of its superconducting $2 H$ polymorph, forming new bulk structures, such as the $4 H b$ polytype. Using a novel synthesis approach — vanadium intercalation — they demonstrate how the intercalant acts as a chemical knob, enabling precise manipulation of the material’s structural configurations. From detailed analysis of the spectral signatures of many-body interactions, the study reveals a substantial and highly momentum-dependent boost in electron-phonon coupling in the $4 H b$ phase, which is found to account for the elevated transition temperature.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

LETTER

Stretch-inactivated ion transport through subnanoporous two-dimensional membranes

Yechan Noh and Alex Smolyanitsky

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L103001 (2024) - Published 3 October, 2024

Aqueous ions permeate subnanoscale pores in two-dimensional materials by leaping local energy barriers, not through simple diffusion. Depending on the local ion-pore and ion-solvent interactions, seemingly non-intuitive behaviors can arise. The authors combine molecular dynamics simulations, quantum-chemical calculations, and kinetic theory to demonstrate that electrostatically driven flow of aqueous alkali cations through subnanoscale pores can be $i n a c t i v a t e d$ by stretching the two-dimensional membrane hosting the pores. More specifically, they show that potassium transport significantly decreases in response to moderate membrane strain, while sodium transport increases. This behavior is attributed to a clearly observed strain-induced repulsive-to-attractive transition in the ion-pore electrostatic interactions.

LETTERS

Development of new methods for materials

LETTER

Short-range order parameter expansions for simple configurational energetics

Flynn Walsh

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L100801 (2024) - Published 3 October, 2024

Two-dimensional materials

LETTER

Machine learning electron-phonon interactions in two-dimensional semiconducting materials: The case of zero-point renormalization

Anubhab Haldar, Quentin Clark, Marios Zacharias, Feliciano Giustino, and Sahar Sharifzadeh

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L101001 (2024) - Published 11 October, 2024

LETTER

Van der Waals exciton polaritons with linewidth approaching homogeneous limit

Xin Li, Haochen Wang, Yuquan Zhou, Song Luo, Hang Zhou, Yaofeng Zhu, Hongming Zhang, Long Zhang, and Zhanghai Chen

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L101002 (2024) - Published 24 October, 2024

Superconducting materials

LETTER

Can the noble metals (Au, Ag, and Cu) be superconductors?

Giovanni Alberto Ummarino and Alessio Zaccone

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L101801 (2024) - Published 15 October, 2024

Nanomaterials

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

LETTER

Stretch-inactivated ion transport through subnanoporous two-dimensional membranes

Yechan Noh and Alex Smolyanitsky

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L103001 (2024) - Published 3 October, 2024

ARTICLES

Crystal growth, crystallization, and kinetics

Real-time study of the interplay between phase formation and stress evolution at the $W_{1 - x} {Si}_{x} / a − Si$ interface

Bärbel Krause, Clarisse Furgeaud, Cédric Mastail, Anny Michel, Salomé Parent, Gregory Abadias, Andrea Resta, Alessandro Coati, Yves Garreau, and Alina Vlad

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103401 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

Structural and mechanical properties

Elasticity and acoustic velocities of $δ − AlOOH$ at extreme conditions: A methodology assessment

Chenxing Luo (罗晨星), Yang Sun (孙阳), and Renata M. Wentzcovitch

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103601 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

Irradiation-induced creep in ${UO}_{2} :$ The role of grain boundaries

William D. Neilson, Conor O. T. Galvin, Shen J. Dillon, Michael W. D. Cooper, and David A. Andersson

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103602 (2024) - Published 7 October, 2024

Transitions in thermally activated glide mechanisms in the MoNbTaVW refractory multiprincipal element alloy up to $0.3 T_{m}$

Morgan R. Jones, Pulkit Garg, and Irene J. Beyerlein

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103603 (2024) - Published 7 October, 2024

Computational design of high-entropy rare earth aluminum garnets for advanced thermal and environmental barrier coatings

Shiqiang Hao, Richard P. Oleksak, Ömer N. Doğan, and Michael C. Gao

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103604 (2024) - Published 8 October, 2024

Grain boundary segregation prediction with a dual-solute model

Zuoyong Zhang and Chuang Deng

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103605 (2024) - Published 18 October, 2024

Development of new methods for materials

Identifying crystal structures beyond known prototypes from x-ray powder diffraction spectra

Abhijith S. Parackal, Rhys E. A. Goodall, Felix A. Faber, and Rickard Armiento

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103801 (2024) - Published 2 October, 2024

Morphology selection in dealloying: A phase field study of the coupling among kinetic mechanisms

Justin Kerr, Nathan Bieberdorf, Laurent Capolungo, and Mark Asta

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103802 (2024) - Published 3 October, 2024

Thermodynamically informed priors for uncertainty propagation in first-principles statistical mechanics

Derick E. Ober and Anton Van der Ven

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103803 (2024) - Published 11 October, 2024

Latent space active learning with message passing neural network: The case of ${HfO}_{2}$

Xinjian Ouyang, Zhilong Wang, Xiao Jie, Feng Zhang, Yanxing Zhang, Laijun Liu, and Dawei Wang

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103804 (2024) - Published 11 October, 2024

Artificial-neural-network descriptor enhancing accuracy of machine-learning interatomic potential and its application to lattice defects in Si

M. Uchida, T. Yokoi, Y. Ogura, and K. Matsunaga

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 103805 (2024) - Published 21 October, 2024

Two-dimensional materials

Holistic structural understanding of epitaxially-grown Bi/Au(111) moiré superstructures

Pablo Vezzoni Vicente, Tobias Weiss, Dennis Meier, Wenchao Zhao, Birce Sena Tömekçe, Marc G. Cuxart, Benedikt P. Klein, David A. Duncan, Tien-Lin Lee, Anthoula C. Papageorgiou, Matthias Muntwiler, Ari Paavo Seitsonen, Willi Auwärter, Peter Feulner, Johannes V. Barth, and Francesco Allegretti

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104001 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

Liquid-substrate fluctuation effects on crystal growth and disordered hyperuniformity of two-dimensional materials

S. K. Mkhonta, Zhi-Feng Huang, and K. R. Elder

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104002 (2024) - Published 2 October, 2024

Influence of dislocations in multilayer graphene stacks: A phase field crystal study

K. R. Elder, Zhi-Feng Huang, and T. Ala-Nissila

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104003 (2024) - Published 2 October, 2024

Uncovering hidden Fermi surface instabilities through visualizing unconventional quasiparticle interference in ${CeTe}_{3}$

B. R. M. Smith, Y. Fujisawa, P. Wu, T. Nakamura, N. Tomoda, S. Kuniyoshi, D. Ueta, R. Kobayashi, R. Okuma, K. Arai, K. Kuroda, C.-H. Hsu, G. Chang, C.-Y. Huang, H. Lin, Z. Y. Wang, T. Kondo, and Y. Okada

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104004 (2024) - Published 9 October, 2024

Topological and Dirac materials

High-throughput magnetic co-doping and design of exchange interactions in topological insulators

Rubel Mozumder, Johannes Wasmer, David Antognini Silva, Stefan Blügel, and Philipp Rüßmann

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104201 (2024) - Published 17 October, 2024

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Characterizing the chemical potential disorder in the topological insulator ${({Bi}_{1 - x} {Sb}_{x})}_{2} {Te}_{3}$ thin films

Jens Brede, Mahasweta Bagchi, Adrian Greichgauer, Anjana Uday, Andrea Bliesener, Gertjan Lippertz, Roozbeh Yazdanpanah, Alexey Taskin, and Yoichi Ando

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104202 (2024) - Published 29 October, 2024

Magnetic, ferroelectric, and multiferroic materials

Single-crystal growth and magnetic properties of quasi one-dimensional compounds ${CeFe}_{2} {Ga}_{8}$ and ${SmFe}_{2} {Ga}_{8}$

X. T. Deng, D. Y. Yan, C. X. Wang, C. W. Zhang, Y. Li, Hai L. Feng, and Y. G. Shi

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104401 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Enhanced magnetization by defect-assisted exciton recombination in atomically thin ${CrCl}_{3}$

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104402 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024

Record-large magnetically driven polarization in room temperature ferromagnets $Os X_{2}$ monolayers

Ying Zhou, Haoshen Ye, Junting Zhang, and Shuai Dong

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104403 (2024) - Published 8 October, 2024

Machine learning-accelerated discovery of iron cobalt phosphides as rare-earth-free magnets

Timothy Liao, Weiyi Xia, Masahiro Sakurai, Chao Zhang, Huaijun Sun, Renhai Wang, Kai-Ming Ho, Cai-Zhuang Wang, and James R. Chelikowsky

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104404 (2024) - Published 11 October, 2024

Unraveling the origin of antiferromagnetic coupling at YIG/permalloy interface

Jiangchao Qian, Yi Li, Zhihao Jiang, Robert Busch, Hsu-Chih Ni, Tzu-Hsiang Lo, Axel Hoffmann, André Schleife, and Jian-Min Zuo

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104405 (2024) - Published 11 October, 2024

Electric-field-induced controlled motion of polar meron in epitaxially strained ${BiFeO}_{3}$ thin film

Sukriti Mantri, Sergei Prokhorenko, Yousra Nahas, and Laurent Bellaiche

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104406 (2024) - Published 15 October, 2024

Interplay of altermagnetism and pressure in hexagonal and orthorhombic MnTe

Nayana Devaraj, Anumita Bose, and Awadhesh Narayan

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104407 (2024) - Published 17 October, 2024

Tuning the spin dynamics and magnetic phase transitions of the Cantor alloy via composition and sample processing protocols: A muon spin relaxation study

Emma Zappala, Timothy A. Elmslie, Gerald D. Morris, Mark W. Meisel, Rémi Dingreville, James J. Hamlin, and Benjamin A. Frandsen

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104408 (2024) - Published 21 October, 2024

Origin of the difference in spin-dependent transport properties between half-metallic $C o_{2} FeG a_{0.5} G e_{0.5}$ and $C o_{2} M n_{0.5} F e_{0.5} Si$ with the Ag spacer

Kodchakorn Simalaotao, Yoshio Miura, and Yuya Sakuraba

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104409 (2024) - Published 23 October, 2024

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Optically resolved exchange splittings in the doped van der Waals ferromagnet ${CrBr}_{3} : {Yb}^{3 +}$

Thom J. Snoeren, Kimo Pressler, and Daniel R. Gamelin

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104410 (2024) - Published 23 October, 2024

Thin film synthesis, structural analysis, and magnetic properties of novel ternary transition metal nitride ${MnCoN}_{2}$

Sita Dugu, Rebecca W. Smaha, Shaham Quadir, Andrew Treglia, Julia Martin, Shaun O'Donnell, Sharad Mahatara, Glenn Teeter, Stephan Lany, James R. Neilson, and Sage R. Bauers

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104411 (2024) - Published 24 October, 2024

Canted antiferromagnetism in a van der Waals metallic material ${TaNi}_{2} {Te}_{2}$

Haige Tan, Yan Feng, Xiang Ma, Changlong Wang, Ruimin Li, Junjie Wu, Lizhen Huang, Yalin Lu, and Bin Xiang

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104412 (2024) - Published 25 October, 2024

Tunable polar distortions and magnetism in ${Gd}_{x} {La}_{1 - x} PtSb$ epitaxial films

Dongxue Du, Chenyu Zhang, Jingrui Wei, Yujia Teng, Konrad T. Genser, Paul M. Voyles, Karin M. Rabe, and Jason K. Kawasaki

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104413 (2024) - Published 29 October, 2024

Real-space visualization of atomic displacements in a long-wavelength charge density wave using cryogenic 4D-STEM

Haoyang Ni, William R. Meier, Hu Miao, Andrew F. May, Brian C. Sales, Jian-Min Zuo, and Miaofang Chi

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104414 (2024) - Published 30 October, 2024

Advances in cryogenic four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) enables the capture of local convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns at cryogenic temperatures for collocated mapping of charge density wave (CDW) microstructure, polarity and atomic displacements. Using this newfound capability, the authors reveal the nature of long-wavelength incommensurate CDWs in EuAl $_{4}$ in the form of periodic symmetry fluctuations, resulted from two out-of-phase sinusoidal, transverse, atomic displacement modes on the Eu and Al sublattices. The results demonstrate cryogenic 4D-STEM as a powerful method for probing atomic modulations and local symmetry.

Semiconducting materials

Polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy reveals the atomic local ordering in silicon germanium tin epitaxial alloys

Agnieszka Anna Corley-Wiciak, Omar Concepción, Marvin Hartwig Zoellner, Gianfranco Sfuncia, Florian Bärwolf, Giuseppe Nicotra, Detlev Grützmacher, Dan Buca, Giovanni Capellini, and Davide Spirito

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104601 (2024) - Published 4 October, 2024

Valleytronics and negative differential resistance in cubic boron nitride: A first-principles study

Benjamin Hatanpää and Austin J. Minnich

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104602 (2024) - Published 8 October, 2024

Electron mobilities in ${SrTiO}_{3}$ and ${KTaO}_{3}$ : Role of phonon anharmonicity, mass renormalization, and disorder

Luigi Ranalli, Carla Verdi, Marios Zacharias, Jacky Even, Feliciano Giustino, and Cesare Franchini

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104603 (2024) - Published 9 October, 2024

Republished: Colossal density-driven resistance response in the negative charge transfer insulator ${MnS}_{2}$

Jasmine K. Hinton, Dylan Durkee, Melanie White, Nathan Dasenbrock-Gammon, G. Alexander Smith, Elliot Snider, Dean Smith, Christian Childs, Keith V. Lawler, and Ashkan Salamat

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104604 (2024) - Published 16 October, 2024

Applied voltage-induced AgBr formation and associated conduction process changes in $Ag / {CH}_{3} {NH}_{3} {PbBr}_{3} / {TiO}_{2}$ heterojunction memory

Priya Kaith, Parul Garg, and Ashok Bera

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104605 (2024) - Published 21 October, 2024

Superconducting materials

Gate-controlled proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet van der Waals heterostructures

G. A. Bobkov, K. A. Bokai, M. M. Otrokov, A. M. Bobkov, and I. V. Bobkova

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104801 (2024) - Published 15 October, 2024

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Probing enhanced superconductivity in van der Waals polytypes of $V_{x} {TaS}_{2}$

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 104802 (2024) - Published 25 October, 2024

Other electronic materials

Thickness-driven formation of a magnetic insulating state in monoclinic ${SrIrO}_{3}$ films

Wanyin Zhao, Minghui Gu, Dongdong Xiao, Qian Li, Xiaoran Liu, Kui Jin, Haizhong Guo, Meng Meng, and Jiandong Guo

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105001 (2024) - Published 15 October, 2024

Structure prediction of stable sodium germanides at 0 and 10 GPa

James P. Darby, Angela F. Harper, Joseph R. Nelson, and Andrew J. Morris

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105002 (2024) - Published 18 October, 2024

Metamaterials, optical, photonic, and plasmonic materials

Application of quantum graph theory to metamaterial design: Negative refraction of acoustic waveguide modes

T. M. Lawrie, T. A. Starkey, G. Tanner, D. B. Moore, P. Savage, and G. J. Chaplain

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105201 (2024) - Published 25 October, 2024

Materials for energy harvesting, storage, and generation

Electronic structure and optical properties of halide double perovskites from a Wannier-localized optimally-tuned screened range-separated hybrid functional

Francisca Sagredo, Stephen E. Gant, Guy Ohad, Jonah B. Haber, Marina R. Filip, Leeor Kronik, and Jeffrey B. Neaton

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105401 (2024) - Published 18 October, 2024

Space charge layers and interface potentials in $Li / γ − {Li}_{3} {PO}_{4} / {Li}_{x} {CoO}_{2}$ solid-state batteries: Insights from a first-principles-informed thermodynamic study

Xiumei Kang, Hongbin Lin, Guigui Xu, Jianming Tao, Yue Chen, Kehua Zhong, Jian-Min Zhang, and Zhigao Huang

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105402 (2024) - Published 21 October, 2024

Theoretical insights into inorganic antiperovskite nitrides ( $X_{3} N A$ : $X$ = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba; $A$ = As, Sb): An emerging class of materials for photovoltaics

Sanchi Monga, Manjari Jain, Claudia Draxl, and Saswata Bhattacharya

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105403 (2024) - Published 28 October, 2024

Soft, molecular, and amorphous materials

Slow relaxation dynamics of superparamagnetic colloidal beads in time-varying fields

Lucas H. P. Cunha, Aldo Spatafora-Salazar, Dana M. Lobmeyer, Kedar Joshi, Fred C. MacKintosh, and Sibani Lisa Biswal

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105601 (2024) - Published 22 October, 2024

Barrier-limited surface modification of nanochannels via binding polymers

Jiayu Zhang and Qiyun Tang

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105602 (2024) - Published 24 October, 2024

Materials for catalysis and electrochemistry

Atomic structure of different surface terminations of polycrystalline ZnPd

M. Lowe, A. Al-Mahboob, D. Ivarsson, M. Armbrüster, J. Ardini, G. Held, F. Maccherozzi, A. Bayer, V. Fournée, J. Ledieu, J. T. Sadowski, R. McGrath, and H. R. Sharma

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 105801 (2024) - Published 15 October, 2024

Nanomaterials

Design rules for doped transition metal dichalcogenides heterostructures

Elliot Perviz, Antonio Cammarata, and Tomas Polcar

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 106001 (2024) - Published 22 October, 2024

Materials for Quantum Technologies

First-principles study of the Stark shift effect on the zero-phonon line of the NV center in diamond

Louis Alaerts, Yihuang Xiong, Sinéad Griffin, and Geoffroy Hautier

Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 106201 (2024) - Published 1 October, 2024