发现科学之美——中国科学院物理研究所“科学与美的融合”主题讨论侧记

正"理解科学需要艺术,而理解艺术也需要科学。"——(美)乔治·萨顿科学美不美?面对这个问题,从事自然科学的人都会异口同声地说出同一个答案——"科学很美"。但如果再接着问:科学为什么美?科学哪里美?也许,很多人就要摸一摸脑袋想一想该怎么说了。诚然,科学真的很美,但科学如何成为美?又该如何     

Charge density wave states in phase-engineered monolayer VTe2

Charge density wave (CDW) strongly affects the electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials and can be tuned by phase engineering. Among 2D transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), VTe$_{2}$ was predicted to require small energy for its phase transition and shows unexpected CDW states in its T-phase. However, the CDW state of H-VTe$_{2}$ has been barely reported. Here, we investigate the CDW states in monolayer (ML) H-VTe$_{2}$, induced by phase-engineering from T-phase VTe$_{2}$. The phase transition between T- and H-VTe$_{2}$ is revealed with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) measurements. For H-VTe$_{2}$, scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) results show a robust $2\sqrt 3 \times 2\sqrt 3 $ CDW superlattice with a transition temperature above 450 K. Our findings provide a promising way for manipulating the CDWs in 2D materials and show great potential in its application of nanoelectronics.     

迈向火星的第一步——中国科学院物理研究所“火星，我们来了”主题讨论侧记

<正>"日月安属?列星安陈?"——屈原《天问》千年以来,人类在仰望火星。古代的人们时常在夜空中望见一颗红色的行星,亮度常变而轨迹复杂。"荧荧火光,离离乱惑",被称为"荧惑"的火星在某些天象中或许是某种灾祸的化身。现代科学告诉我们,火星是地球的近邻,位于地球的外侧,无论是自转周期还是季节性气候变化,火星与地球都有着很大的相似之处。火星不仅引发了人们科学观测和科学研究的巨大兴趣,也成为许多科幻小说、