Probing the thermoelectric transport properties of n-type Bi2Te3 close to the limit of constitutional undercooling

Bulk n-type Bi2Te3 single crystals with optimized chemical composition were successfully prepared by a high temperature-gradient directional solidification method. We investigate the influence of alloy microstructure, chemical composition, and growth orientation on the thermoelectric transport properties. The results show that the composition of single-crystal Bi2Te3 alloy, along the c axis direction, could be slightly tuned by changing the growth rate of the crystal. At a rate of 18 mm/h, the formed Bi2Te3 crystal exhibits good thermoelectric properties. At 300 K, a maximum Seebeck coefficient of -245 μV/K and an electrical conductivity of 5.6 × 10 4 S/m are acquired. The optimal power factor is ob- tained as 3.3 × 10 -3 W/K2m, with a figure of merit of 0.74. It can be attributed to the increased tellurium allocation in the Bi2Te3 alloys, as verified well by the density functional theory caLculations.     

A b initio calculation of the growth of Te nanorods and Bi2Te3 nanoplatelets

In this paper the growth mechanism of a Te/Bi2Te3 novel structure is studied by ab-initio calculations. The results show that the growth of Te nanorods is determined by the adsorption energy of Te atoms on different crystalline Te surfaces. The adsorption energy of Te on the Te （001） surface is 3.29 eV, which is about 0.25 eV higher than that of Te on the Te （110）. This energy difference makes the preferential growth direction along the 〈 001 〉 direction. In addition, the higher surface energy of Bi2Te3 （110） and the lattice misfit between crystalline Bi2We3 and Te along 〈 001 〉 direction are considered to explain the growth of the Bi2Te3 nanoplatelets, in which Volmer-Weber model is used. The theoretical results are in agreement with experimental observation.     

Bi2Ti4－xTexO11的合成及相变研究

本文合成了系列Ｂｉ２Ｔｉ４－ｘＴｅｘＯ１１样品，拉曼光谱及Ｘ射线衍射谱表明该体系的相转化边界发生在ｘ＝０．５处，Ｂｉ２Ｔｅ４Ｏ１１的压致结构相变的压力为８．２ＧＰａ。本文结果证实了我们过去对Ｂｉ２Ｔｉ４Ｏ１１相变提出的机制     

Bi2Ti4－xTexO11的合成及相变研究

本文合成了系列Ｂｉ２Ｔｉ４－ｘＴｅｘＯ１１样品，拉曼光谱及Ｘ射线衍射谱表明该体系的相转化边界发生在ｘ＝０．５处，Ｂｉ２Ｔｅ４Ｏ１１的压致结构相变的压力为８．２ＧＰａ。本文结果证实了我们过去对Ｂｉ２Ｔｉ４Ｏ１１相变提出的机制     

Dissipation of Nonlinear Wave in Inhomogeneous Dust Plasma Crystal

A Korteweg-de Vires-type （KdV-type） equation and a modified Nonlinear Schrodinger equation （NLSE） for the dust lattice wave （DLW） are derived in a weakly inhomogeneous dust plasma crystal. It seems that the amplitude and the velocity of the dust lattice solitary waves decay exponentiaJly with increasing time in a dust lattice. The modulational instability of this dust lattice envelope waves is investigated as well. It is found that the waves are modulational stable under certain conditions. On the other hand, the waves are modulationaJ unstable if the conditions are not satisfied.     

硼掺杂拓扑绝缘体Bi2Se3单晶的电输运性质研究

本文首次报道了用自助溶剂法(self-flux)制备优良的硼(B)掺杂硒化铋(Bi2BxSe3-x)样品的探索。实验结果显示掺杂样品中大部分B是以替代Se位方式存在,少量B以插入Bi2Se3晶格或范德瓦尔斯间隙的形式存在。当B的含量逐渐增加时,Bi2Se3的晶格常数c先减小后增加,且样品具有清晰的层状结构。掺杂量x=0.05的样品局部区域出现纳米带结构,同时该样品在低温下出现了明显的金属-绝缘转变现象。Bi2Se3样品电阻率随掺杂含量的增加而增加,表明B掺杂提高了样品表面态对整体电导的贡献,同时纳米带结构也有助于增加表面态的贡献。     

Ferromagnetism on a paramagnetic host background in cobalt-doped Bi_2Se_3 topological insulator

Cobalt-doped Bi2Se3topological insulators have been grown though melt-grown reaction. The Bi2Se3matrix is diamagnetic and doped sample is a superposition of ferromagnetism(FM) and paramagnetism(PM) behavior at low temperature. The values of MSmol, Hc, and Mr increase as the Co concentration increases. Two possible explanations have been proposed for the origin of ferromagnetism in Co-doped Bi2Se3. One is the magnetic ordering from nanoclusters of Co–Se compound in the crystals, and the other is Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida(RKKY) interaction between magnetic impurities.     

Coherent optical phonon generation in Bi3Ge4O12

Time-domain spectroscopy of coherent optical phonons in bismuth germinate (Bi4Ge3O12) is presented. Utilizing both impulsive stimulated Raman scattering and time-domain terahertz spectroscopy, more than 12 unique vibrational states ranging in frequency from 2 to 11 THz are identified, each with coherent lifetimes ranging from 1 to 20 ps. These modes are highly sensitive to crystal orientation and demonstrate frequency shifts on picosecond timescales consistent with an anharmonic lattice potential.     

Effect of size polydispersity on the structural and vibrational characteristics of two-dimensional granular assemblies

Two-dimensional disordered granular assemblies composed of 2048 polydispersed frictionless disks are simulated using the discrete element method. The height of the first peak of the pair correlation function, g1, the local and global gbond orientational parameters lψ6and ψ6, and the fluctuations of these parameters decrease with increasing polydispersity s,implying the transition from a polycrystalline state to an amorphous state in the system. As s increases, the peak position of the boson peak ωBP shifts towards a lower frequency and the intensity of the boson peak D(ωBP)/ωBP increases, indicating that the position and the strength of the boson peak are controlled by the polydispersity of the system. Moreover, the inverse of the boson peak intensity ωBP/D(ωBP), the shear modulus G, and the basin curvature SIS all have a similar dependence on s, implying that the s dependence of the vibrational density of states at low frequencies likely originates from the s dependence of the basin curvature.     

Subsolidus phase relation in the Bi2O3-Fe203-La2O3 system

Bismuth-containing semiconductor material is a hot topic in photocatalysts because of its effective absorption under the visible light. In this paper, we expect to explore a new bismuth-based photocatalyst by studying the subsolidus phase relations of the Bi2O3-Fe2O3-La2O3 system. The X-ray diffraction data shows that in this ternary system the ternary compound does not exist, while seven binary compounds （including one solid solution series Bi1-xLaxO1.5 with 0.167 〈 x 〈 0.339） are obtained and eight compatibility triangles are determined.     

Iron trichloride as oxidizer in acid slurry for chemical mechanical polishing of Ge2Sb2Te5

The effect of iron trichloride （FeC13） on chemical mechanical polishing （CMP） of Ge2Sb2Te5 （GST） film is inves- tigated in this paper. The polishing rate of GST increases from 38 nm/min to 144 nm/min when the FeC13 concentration changes from 0.01 wt% to 0.15 wt%, which is much faster than 20 nm/min for the 1 wt% H2O2-based slurry. This polish- ing rate trends are inversely correlated with the contact angle data of FeCl3-based slurry on the GST film surface. Thus, it is hypothesized that the hydrophilicity of the GST film surface is associated with the polishing rate during CMP. Atomic force microscope （AFM） and optical microscope （OM） are used to characterize the surface quality after CMP. The chemical mechanism is studied by potentiodynamic measurements such as Ecorr and Icorr to analyze chemical reaction between FeCl3 and GST surface. Finally, it is verified that slurry with FeCl3 has no influence on the electrical property of the post-CMP GST film by the resistivity-temperature （RT） tests.     

Influence of reaction parameters on synthesis of high-quality single-layer graphene on Cu using chemical vapor deposition

Large-area monolayer graphene samples grown on polycrystalline copper foil by thermal chemical vapor deposition with differing CH4 flux and growth time are investigated by Raman spectra, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy. The defects, number of layers, and quality of graphene are shown to be controllable through tuning the reaction conditions: ideally to 2–3 sccm CH4 for 30 minutes.     

Effect of Varying Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction on the Bistable Nano-Scale Soliton Switching

The effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya （D-M） interaction on the bistable nano-scale soliton switching offers the possiblity of developing a new innovative approach for data storage technology. The dynamics of Heisenberg ferromagnetic spin system is expressed in terms of generalized inhomogeneous higher order nonlinear Schr6dinger （NLS） equation. The bistable soliton switching in the ferromagnetic medium is established by solving the associated coupled evolution equations for amplitude and velocity of the soliton using the fourth order Runge-Kutta method numerically.     

Direct growth of graphene on gallium nitride by using chemical vapor deposition without extra catalyst

Graphene on gallium nitride(GaN) will be quite useful when the graphene is used as transparent electrodes to improve the performance of gallium nitride devices. In this work, we report the direct synthesis of graphene on GaN without an extra catalyst by chemical vapor deposition. Raman spectra indicate that the graphene films are uniform and about 5–6 layers in thickness. Meanwhile, the effects of growth temperatures on the growth of graphene films are systematically studied, of which 950℃ is found to be the optimum growth temperature. The sheet resistance of the grown graphene is 41.1Ω/square,which is close to the lowest sheet resistance of transferred graphene reported. The mechanism of graphene growth on GaN is proposed and discussed in detail. XRD spectra and photoluminescence spectra indicate that the quality of GaN epi-layers will not be affected after the growth of graphene.     

Electronic states and vibration spectra of CdTe/ZnTe quantum dot superlattices

Electronic and vibrational states in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dot superlattices are studied using optical spectroscopy techniques (photoluminescence in a wide temperature range, IR reflection, and Raman scattering). The effect of the ZnTe barrier layer thickness on the luminescence spectra of the structures is discussed. The luminescence from electronically coupled islands is assumed to be due to spatially indirect excitons because of the specific features of the CdTe/ZnTe heterostructure band structure. A combination of quantum-dot vibrational modes, which has not been observed earlier, is detected in the Raman spectra. Analysis of the lattice IR reflection spectra shows that, in the case of large barrier thicknesses between the quantum-dot planes, elastic stresses are concentrated in the Zn_1?xCd_xTe layers, whereas in structures with lower barrier thicknesses the elastic-strain distribution exhibits a more complicated pattern.     

Density functional study of Bi2Te3 and Bi4Te6 molecules

Results of a density functional study for the molecules Bi₂Te₃ and Bi₄Te₆ are reported here. For Bi₂Te₃, calculations yield eight stable conformations. For Bi₄Te₆, eight stable isomers are identified. Equilibrium geometries, adiabatic ionisation potentials, atomisation energies, and vibrational bands are estimated. The lowest energy conformations in both cases are clusters of C_s symmetry with all Te atoms two-fold coordinated and all Bi atoms three-fold coordinated. The predicted low energy conformation for Bi₄Te₆ has alternating rows of Bi and Te atoms. This molecule seems a reasonable precursor to solid bismuth telluride, which has alternating Bi and Te layers.     

Effects of the vibrational and rotational excitation of reagent on the stereodynamics of the reaction S（3P） + H2→ SH + H

Quasiclassical trajectory （QCT） calculations are first carried out to study the stereodynamics of the S （3p） ＋ H2 → SH ＋ H reaction based on the ab initio 13Atr potential energy surface （PES） （Lii etal. 2012 J. Chem. Phys. 136 094308）. The QCT-calculated reaction probabilities and cross sections for the S ＋ H2 （v = 0, j = 0） reaction are in good agreement with the previous quantum mechanics （QM） results. The vector properties including the alignment, orientation, and polarization- dependent differential cross sections （PDDCSs） of the product SH are presented at a collision energy of 1.8 eV. The effects of the vibrational and rotational excitations of reagent on the stereodynamics are also investigated and discussed in the present work. The calculated QCT results indicate that the vibrational and rotational excitations of reagent play an important role in determining the stereodynamic properties of the title reaction.     

Uncovering a pressure-tuned electronic transition in Bi(1.98)Sr(2.06)Y(0.68)Cu(2)O(8+delta) using Raman scattering and x-ray diffraction

We report pressure-tuned Raman and x-ray diffraction data of Bi(1.98.)Sr(2.06)Y(0.68)Cu(2)O(8+delta) revealing a critical pressure at 21 GPa with anomalies in electronic Raman background, electron-phonon coupling lambda, spectral weight transfer, density dependent behavior of phonons and magnons, and a compressibility change in the c axis. For the first time in a cuprate, mobile charge carriers, lattice, and magnetism all show anomalies at a distinct critical pressure in the same experimental setting. Furthermore, the spectral changes suggest that the critical pressure at 21 GPa is related to the critical point at optimal doping.     

Effects of shape and dopant on structural,optical absorption,Raman, and vibrational properties of silver and copper quantum clusters: A density functional theory study

We investigate the effects of shape and single-atom doping on the structural, optical absorption, Raman, and vibra- tional properties of Ag13, Ag12CUl, CUl3, and Cul2Agl clusters by using the （time-dependent） density functional the- ory. The results show that the most stable structures are cuboctahedron （COh） for Ag13 and icosahedron （Ih） for CUl3, Agl2CUlcore, and Cul2Aglsur. In the visible-near infrared optical absorption, the transitions consist of the interband and the intraband transitions. Moreover, red shifts are observed as follows： 1） clusters change from Agl2CUlcore to Ag13 to Ag12Culsur with the same motifs, 2） the shapes of pure Agl3 and Agl2CUlcore clusters change from COh to Ih to decahe- dron （Dh）, 3） the shape of Agl2CUlsur clusters changes from Ih to COh to Dh, and 4） the shapes of pure CU13 and Cu12Agl clusters change from Ih to Dh to COb. All of the Raman and vibrational spectra exhibit many significant vibrational modes related to the shapes and the compositions of the clusters. The ranges of vibrational spectra of Ag13, Agl2CUl or CU13, and Cu12Agl clusters become narrower and the vibrational intensities increase as the shape of the clusters changes from Ih to Dh to COh.     

Improved crystal quality of GaN film with the in-plane lattice-matched Ino.17Alo.s3N interlayer grown on sapphire substrate using pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

We report on an improvement in the crystal quality of GaN film with an Ino.17Alo.83N interlayer grown by pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, which is in-plane lattice-matched to GaN films. The indium composition of about 17% and the reductions of both screw and edge threading dislocations （TDs） in GaN film with the InA1N interlayer are estimated by high resolution X-ray diffraction. Transmission electron microscopy （TEM） measurements are employed to understand the mechanism of reduction in TD density. Raman and photoluminescence measurements indicate that the InA1N interlayer can improve the crystal quality of GaN film, and verify that there is no additional residual stress induced into the GaN film with InA1N interlayer. Atomic force microscopy measurement shows that the InA1N interlayer brings in a smooth surface morphology of GaN film. All the results show that the insertion of the InA1N interlayer is a convenient method to achieve excellent crystal quality in GaN epitaxy.