3D Reconstruction of Sawtooth 180° Tail-to-Tail Domain Walls in Single Crystal BiFeO3

Previous studies of single crystal BiFeO₃ have found a dense domain structure with alternating sawtooth and flat domain walls (DWs). The nature of these domains and their 3D structure has remained elusive to date. Herein, several sections taken at different orientations are used to examine the structure in detail, concentrating here on the sawtooth DWs using diffraction contrast transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). All DWs are found to be 180° type; the flat walls have head-to-head polarity while the sawtooth DWs are tail-to-tail with peaks elongated along the polar [111] axis, formed by neutral ($11\overline{2}$) DW facets and slightly charged facets with orientations close to ($3\overline{2}1$) and ($\overline{2}31$). The neutral DW facets are Ising type and very abrupt, while the charged DW facets have mixed Néel/Bloch/Ising character with a chiral nature and a width of about 2 nm.     

Multipoint Defect Synergy Realizing the Excellent Thermoelectric Performance of n‐Type Polycrystalline SnSe via Re Doping

SnSe has attracted much attention due to the excellent thermoelectric (TE) properties of both p‐ and n‐type single crystals. However, the TE performance of polycrystalline SnSe is still low, especially in n‐type materials, because SnSe is an intrinsic p‐type semiconductor. In this work, a three‐step doping process is employed on polycrystalline SnSe to make it n‐type and enhance its TE properties. It is found that the Sn_0.97Re_0.03Se_0.93Cl_0.02 sample achieves a peak ZT value of ≈1.5 at 798 K, which is the highest ZT reported, to date, in n‐type polycrystalline SnSe. This is attributed to the synergistic effects of a series of point defects: $V_{\mathrm{Se}}^{\mathrm{..}},{\mathrm{Cl}}_{\mathrm{Se}}^{.},V_{\mathrm{Sn}}^{,,},{\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{Sn}}^{\times },{\mathrm{Re}}_{}^0$. In those defects, the $V_{\mathrm{Se}}^{\mathrm{..}}$ compensates for the intrinsic Sn vacancies in SnSe, the ${\mathrm{Cl}}_{\mathrm{Se}}^{.}$ acts as a donor, the $V_{\mathrm{Sn}}^{,,}$acts as an acceptor, all of which contribute to optimizing the carrier concentration. Rhenium (Re) doping surprisingly plays dual‐roles, in that it both significantly enhances the electrical transport properties and largely reduces the thermal conductivity by introducing the point defects, ${\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{Sn}}^{\times },{\mathrm{Re}}_{}^0$. The method paves the way for obtaining high‐performance TE properties in SnSe crystals using multipoint‐defect synergy via a step‐by‐step multielement doping methodology.     

Giant Piezoelectricity of Ternary Perovskite Ceramics at High Temperatures

Here, novel ferroelectric ceramics of (0.95 ? x)BiScO₃‐xPbTiO₃‐0.05Pb(Sn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ (BS‐xPT‐PSN) of complex perovskite structure are reported with compositions near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), and which exhibit a piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ = 555 pC N^?1, a large‐signal coefficient $d_{33}^{?}$ ≈ 1200 pm V^?1 at room temperature, and a high Curie temperature T_C of 408 °C. More interestingly, this ternary system exhibits a giant and stable piezoelectric response at 200 °C with a large‐signal $d_{33}^{?}$ ≈ 2500 pm V^?1, matching that of the costly relaxor‐based piezoelectric single crystals at room temperature. The mechanisms of such giant piezoelectricity and its characteristic temperature dependence are attributed to the spontaneous polarization rotation and extension under an electric field and the MPB‐related phase transition. The findings reveal that the BS‐xPT‐PSN ceramics constitute a new family of high‐performance piezoelectric materials suitable for electromechanical transducers that can be operated at high temperatures (at 200 °C, or higher).     

A Near-Surface Structure Reconfiguration Strategy to Regulate Mn3+/Mn4+ and O2−/(O2)n− Redox for Stabilizing Lithium-Rich Oxide Cathode

Lithium-rich layered oxides (LROs) are one class of the most competitive high-capacity cathode materials due to their anion/cation synergistic redox activity. However, excessive oxidation of the oxygen sublattices can induce serious oxygen loss and structural imbalance. Hence, a near-surface reconfiguration strategy by fluorinating graphene is proposed to precisely regulate Mn³⁺/Mn⁴⁺ and O²⁻/(O₂)ⁿ⁻ redox couples for remarkably stabilizing high-capacity LROs and realizing the simultaneous reduction of the lattice stress, regulation of the Mn metal at a lower charge state, and construction of 3D Li⁺ diffusion channels. Combining with a highly conductive graphene-coating layer, the surface oxygen loss, transition metal dissolution, and electrolyte catalytic decomposition are suppressed. Benefiting from this synergy, the modified LROs disclose higher initial Coulombic efficiency and discharge-specific capacity and improve cyclability compared with pristine LROs. Further, it is revealed that the F⁻ impact becomes easier for the O sites at the lattice interface of C2/m and R$\overline{3}$m to sufficiently buffer lattice stress. Moreover, lithium ions coupled to the doped F atoms at the lattice interface migrate to the Ni-rich R$\overline{3}$m lattice sites with lower migration energies. This consolidated understanding will open new avenues to regulate reversible oxygen redox of LROs for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries.     

Promoting “Strong Adsorption” and “Fast Conversion” of Polysulfides in Li-S batteries Based on Conductive Sulfides Host with Hollow Prism Structure and Surface Defects

The chemical binding between metal compounds and polysulfides provides a good solution to inhibit shuttle effect in Li-S batteries. However, the Sabatier principle predicts that overly strong adsorption will commonly hinder the conversion of polysulfides, so building the synergetic effect mechanism between “strong adsorption” and “fast conversion” for polysulfides is a significant strategy. To realize this goal, in this study, the defect-enriched Co₉S₈ hollow prisms (DHCPs) as both S host and catalyst material for Li-S batteries are designed. Based on in situ UV–vis spectroscopy results, it is found that DHCPs can profitably promote the generation of ${\mathrm{S}}_3^{·-}$ radicals during the discharge process. In the case of the relatively high conversion barrier of “liquid–liquid” reaction, the generated ${\mathrm{S}}_3^{·-}$ radicals are responsible for the fast conversion reaction via a unique reaction pathway. When the sulfur loading is 4.63 mg cm⁻², the cell with DHCP/S cathode delivers a high areal capacity of 4.75 mAh cm⁻² at 0.1 C and keeps a high capacity of 2.99 mAh cm⁻² after 100 cycles at 0.5 C. This study provides a positive attempt to achieve “strong adsorption” and “fast conversion” of polysulfides simultaneously, which will convincingly boost the development and practical process of Li-S batteries.     

Macroscopic and Microscopic Structures of Cesium Lead Iodide Perovskite from Atomistic Simulations

A first‐principles‐based effective Hamiltonian is developed and employed to investigate finite‐temperature structural properties of a prototype of perovskite halides, that is CsPbI₃. Such simulations, when using first‐principles‐extracted coefficients, successfully reproduce the existence of an orthorhombic Pnma state and its iodine octahedral tilting angles around room temperature. However, they also yield a direct transformation from Pnma to cubic $Pm\overline{3}m$ upon heating, unlike measurements that reported the occurrence of an intermediate long‐range‐tilted tetragonal P4/mbm phase in‐between the orthorhombic and cubic phases. Such disagreement, which may cast some doubts about the extent to which first‐principle methods can be trusted to mimic hybrid perovskites, can be resolved by “only” changing one short‐range tilting parameter in the whole set of effective Hamiltonian coefficients. In such a case, some reasonable values of this specific parameter result in the predictions that i) the intermediate P4/mbm state originates from fluctuations over many different tilted states; and ii) the cubic $Pm\overline{3}m$ phase is highly locally distorted and develops strong transverse antiphase correlation between first‐nearest neighbor iodine octahedral tiltings, before undergoing a phase transition to P4/mbm under cooling.     

Giant Electric Field-Induced Strain with High Temperature-Stability in Textured KNN-Based Piezoceramics for Actuator Applications

Large-strain (K,Na)NbO₃ (KNN) based piezoceramics are attractive for next-generation actuators because of growing environmental concerns. However, inferior performance with poor temperature stability greatly hinders their industrialized procedure. Herein, a feasible strategy is proposed by introducing ${\mathrm{V}}_{\text{K/Na}}^{{}^{\prime }}$-${\mathrm{V}}_{\stackrel{\mathrm{..}}{\mathrm{O}}}$ defect dipoles and constructing grain orientation to enhance the strain performance and temperature stability of KNN-based piezoceramics. This textured ceramics with 90.3% texture degree exhibit a giant strain (1.35%) and a large converse piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃^* (2700 pm V⁻¹), outperforming most lead-free piezoceramics and even some single crystals. Meanwhile, the strain deviation at high temperature of 100 °C–200 °C is obviously alleviated from 61% to 35% through texture engineering. From the perspective of practical applications, piezo-actuators are commonly utilized in the form of multilayer. In order to illustrate the applicability on multilayer actuators, a stack-type actuator consisted of 5 layers of 0.4 mm thick ceramics is fabricated. It can generate large field-induced displacement (11.6 µm), and the promising potential in precise positioning and optical modulation are further demonstrated. This work provides a textured KNN-based piezoceramic with temperature-stable giant strain properties, and facilitates the lead-free piezoceramic materials in actuator applications.     

Anisotropic Phonon Response of Few‐Layer PdSe2 under Uniaxial Strain

PdSe₂, an emerging 2D material with a novel anisotropic puckered pentagonal structure, has attracted growing interest due to its layer‐dependent electronic bandgap, high carrier mobility, and good air stability. Herein, a detailed Raman spectroscopic study of few‐layer PdSe₂ (two to five layers) under the in‐plane uniaxial tensile strain up to 3.33% is performed. Two of the prominent PdSe₂ Raman peaks are influenced differently depending on the direction of strain application. The $A_g^1$ mode redshifts more than the $A_g^3$ mode when the strain is applied along the a‐axis of the crystal, while the $A_g^3$ mode redshifts more than the $A_g^1$ mode when the strain is applied along the b‐axis. Such an anisotropic phonon response to strain indicates directionally dependent mechanical and thermal properties of PdSe₂ and also allows the identification of the crystal axes. The results are further supported using first‐principles density‐functional theory. Interestingly, the near‐zero Poisson’s ratios for few‐layer PdSe₂ are found, suggesting that the uniaxial tensile strain can easily be applied to few‐layer PdSe₂ without significantly altering their dimensions at the perpendicular directions, which is a major contributing factor to the observed distinct phonon behavior. The findings pave the way for further development of 2D PdSe₂‐based flexible electronics.     

Incommensurate Magnetic Order in Hole-Doped Infinite-Layer Nickelate Superconductors due to Competing Magnetic Interactions

The discovery of superconductivity in hole-doped infinite-layer nickelates has fueled intense research to identify the critical factor responsible for high-T_c superconductivity. Magnetism and superconductivity are closely entangled, and elucidating the magnetic interactions in hole-doped nickelates is critical for understanding the pairing mechanism. Here, these calculations based on the generalized Bloch theorem (GBT) and magnetic force theorem (MFT) consistently reveal that hole doping stabilizes an incommensurate (IC) spin state and increases the IC wave vector continuously, in a way strikingly similar to hole-doped cuprates. Going further, a nonlinear Heisenberg model including first-neighbor and third-neighbor in-plane magnetic interactions is developed. The analytical solutions successfully reproduce GBT and MFT results and reveal that the competition between the two magnetic interactions is the decisive factor for the IC magnetic transition. Eventually, by analyzing the doping-controlled spin splitting of $d_{x^2-y^2}$ band and orbital-contributed exchange interactions, direct links between hole doping, magnetization, exchange constants, and magnetic order are established. This discovery of the IC spin state, new understanding of its electronic origin, and establishment of direct connection with the paring $d_{x^2-y^2}$ electrons radically change the current understanding of the magnetic properties in hole-doped NdNiO₂ and open new perspectives for the superconducting mechanism in nickelates superconductors.     

Does Salt Concentration Matter? New Insights on the Intercalation Behavior of PF6−${\rm{PF}}_6^ - $ into Graphite Cathode for the Dual-Ion Battery

A high-concentration electrolyte is favored in dual-ion batteries (DIBs) due to the lower onset potential for anion intercalation, higher specific discharge capacity, and better oxidation stability. Inspired by the correlation between the high-concentration electrolytes and localized high-concentration electrolytes, it is suspected that it is not the salt concentration but the solution structure of the electrolyte that determines the intercalation behavior of anion into graphite cathode. To prove the viewpoint, a series of electrolytes are prepared by controlling the salt concentration or solution structure and the intercalation behavior of $P{F}_6^{-}$ within the graphite cathode is investigated in Li||graphite and graphite||graphite cells. It is found that $P{F}_6^{-}$ anions exhibit similar onset potentials and specific discharge capacities in the electrolytes with different salt concentrations but similar solution structures. This study provides a new perspective on designing promising electrolytes for DIBs, which can accelerate the further exploitation of high-performance DIBs.     

Interfacial and Bulk Magnetic Properties of Stoichiometric Cerium Doped Terbium Iron Garnet Polycrystalline Thin Films

One of the best magneto‐optical claddings for optical isolators in photonic integrated circuits is sputter deposited cerium‐doped terbium iron garnet (Ce:TbIG) which has a large Faraday rotation (≈?3500° cm^?1 at 1550 nm). Near‐ideal stoichiometry $\left(\frac{\text{Ce}+\text{Tb}}{\text{Fe}}=0.57\right)$ of Ce_0.5Tb_2.5Fe_4.75O₁₂ is found to have a 44 nm magnetic dead layer that can impede the interaction of propagating modes with garnet claddings. The effective anisotropy of Ce:TbIG on Si is also important, but calculations using bulk thermal mismatch overestimate the effective anisotropy. Here, X‐ray diffraction measurements yield highly accurate measurements of strain that show anisotropy favors an in‐plane magnetization in agreement with the positive magnetostriction of Ce:TbIG. Upon doping TbIG with Ce, a slight decrease in compensation temperature occurs which points to preferential rare‐earth occupation in dodecahedral sites and an absence of cation redistribution between different lattice sites. The high Faraday rotation, large remanent ratio, large coercivity, and preferential in‐plane magnetization enable Ce:TbIG to be an in‐plane latched garnet, immune to stray fields with magnetization collinear to direction of light propagation.     

Monolayer Oxidized-MXene Piezo-Resonators with Single Resonant Peak by Interior Schottky Effect

Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) of 2D nanomaterials are potent exploration devices for high-sensitive mechanical coupling, mass testing, and biosensing. Nevertheless, the internal interference from the multiple resonant states easily causes the deviation and overlap of the target signal. Here, an oxidized-MXene resonant system performs the unique response peak at the fundamental frequency f_0,1 of 3.37 ± 0.04 MHz within the ultrawide frequency up to 400 MHz, due to the ferroelectric-conductive structure. This unique resonant peak can effectively avoid the dispute of indistinguishable vibratal states. The resonator exhibits advanced performances with a large dynamic range of 70.41 ± 0.15 dB and low thermomechanical motion spectral density of $669\frac{\text{fm}}{\sqrt{\text{Hz}}}$. The molecular sensing mechanisms of the oxidized-MXene system are systematically studied to achieve repeatable detection with high mass resolution (low to 8.00 ± 0.01 × 10^-19 g). These consequences can afford potential guidelines for the NEMS devices in terms of the credible and legible sensors for ultra-accurate and interference-free measurements.     

Limitations of the Tauc Plot Method

The Tauc plot is a method originally developed to derive the optical gap of amorphous semiconductors such as amorphous germanium or silicon. By measuring the absorption coefficient α(hν) and plotting ${(\alpha hv)}^{\frac{1}{2}}$ versus photon energy hν, a value for the optical gap (Tauc gap) is determined. In this way non-direct optical transitions between approximately parabolic bands can be examined. In the last decades, a modification of this method for (poly-) crystalline semiconductors has become popular to study direct and indirect interband transitions. For this purpose, (ahν)ⁿ (n = $\frac{1}{2}$, 2) is plotted against hν to determine a value of the electronic bandgap. Due to the ease of performing UV–vis measurements, this method has nowadays become a standard to analyze various (poly-) crystalline solids, regardless of their different electronic structure. Although this leads partially to widely varying values of the respective bandgap of nominally identical materials, there is still no study that critically questions which peculiarities in the electronic structure prevent a use of the Tauc plot for (poly-) crystalline solids and to which material classes this applies. This study aims to close this gap by discussing the Tauc plot and its limiting factors for exemplary (poly-) crystalline solids with different electronic structures.     

Out‐of‐Plane Polarization in Bent Graphene‐Like Zinc Oxide and Nanogenerator Applications

Highly efficient piezoelectric nanogenerator operation is demonstrated based on dynamic bending of graphene‐like ZnO nanosheets. Energy is harvested by an external resistor by virtue of a strong time‐varying piezoelectric polarization component perpendicular to the graphene‐like ZnO plane. It is shown analytically and verified numerically using molecular dynamics simulations that the $\overline{6}$m2 point group of flat graphene‐like ZnO is reduced to monoclinic m symmetry for bent graphene‐like ZnO. The latter symmetry allows for a nonzero and large piezoelectric polarization component perpendicular to the plane of the 2D structure. The numerical results confirm that flexoelectric effects are negligible subject to graphene‐like ZnO bending operation.     

Constructing a Thin Disordered Self-Protective Layer on the LiNiO2 Primary Particles Against Oxygen Release

One of the major challenges facing the application of layered LiNiO₂ (LNO) cathode materials is the oxygen release upon electrochemical cycling. Here it is shown that tailoring the provided lithium content during synthesis process can create a disordered layered Li_1-xNi_1+xO₂ phase at the primary particle surface. The disordered surface, which serves as a self-protective layer to alleviate the oxygen loss, possesses the same layered rhombohedral structure (R$\overline{3}$m) as the inner core of primary particles of the Li_1-xNi_1+xO₂ (x ≈ 0). With advanced synchrotron-based x-ray 3D imaging and spectroscopic techniques, a macroporous architecture within the agglomerates of LNO with ordered surface (LNO-OS) is revealed after only 40 cycles, concomitant with the reduction of nickel on the primary particle surface throughout the whole secondary particles. Such chemomechanical degradation accelerates the deterioration of LNO-OS cathodes. Comparably, there are only slight changes in the nickel valence state and interior architecture of LNO with a thin disordered surface layer (LNO-DS) after cycling, mainly arising from an improved robustness of the oxygen framework on the surface. More importantly, the disordered surface can suppress the detrimental H2 ⇋ H3 phase transition upon cycling compared to the ordered one.     

Design Rules for Addressing Material Asymmetry Induced by Templated Epitaxy for Integrated Heteroepitaxial On-Chip Light Sources

Integrating quantum dot (QD) gain elements onto Si photonic platforms via direct epitaxial growth is the ultimate solution for realizing on-chip light sources. Tremendous improvements in device performance and reliability have been demonstrated in devices grown on planar Si substrates in the last few years. Recently, electrically pumped QD lasers deposited in narrow oxide pockets in a butt-coupled configuration and on-chip coupling have been realized on patterned Si photonic wafers. However, the device yield and reliability, which ultimately determines the scalability of such technology, are limited by material uniformity. Here, detailed analysis is performed, both experimentally and theoretically, on the material asymmetry induced by the pocket geometry and provides unambiguous evidence suggesting that all pockets should be aligned to the [1 $\overline{1}0$] direction of the III-V crystal for high yield, high performance, and scalable on-chip light sources at 300 mm scale.     

Ferroelectric Control of Polarity of the Spin-polarized Current in Van Der Waals Multiferroic Heterostructures

Ferroelectric (FE) control of magnetism at nanoscale, for instance, FE control of the polarity of spin-polarized current is crucial for technological advances in magnetoelectric and spintronic applications. However, this fascinating functionality has not been reported in nanoscale systems yet. Herein, a new class of FE/A-type antiferromagnetic heterobilayer/FE van der Waals (vdW) multiferroic structures is found, in which the FE control of polarity of spin-polarized current is found possible. Take Sc₂CO₂/CrSiTe₃/CrGeTe₃/Sc₂CO₂ heterostructure as a successful example. First-principles calculations reveal that its polarity of half-metallicity can be switched by flipping the FE polarization orientation. Meanwhile, device transport simulation shows that its up/down spin current transmission ratio is as large as 0.1 × 10³ at $\overrightarrow{\mathrm{P}}\uparrow \uparrow$ Sc₂CO₂ configuration and is only 2.6 × 10⁻³ at $\overrightarrow{\mathrm{P}}\downarrow \downarrow$ Sc₂CO₂ configuration in the vdW multiferroic heterostructures. Essentially, it stems from the reversible FE switch of the internal electric field across the CrSiTe₃/CrGeTe₃ heterobilayer and the FE control of the interfacial effect between Sc₂CO₂ and Cr(Si/Ge)Te₃ layers. This work opens a direction for constructing low-energy-dissipation, non-volatile, and high-sensitive spintronic devices such as spin field-effect transistors.     

Achieving Large Second Harmonic Generation Effects via Optimal Planar Alignment of Triangular Units

Trigonal planar units with large polarizability anisotropy and high physicochemical stability are ideal structural units for exploring nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Integrating the merits of two types of triangular-like moieties, a family of second-order NLO-active hybrid halides, MATX (X = Cl (1), Br ( 2 ), and I ( 3 )), are achieved. MATX crystallizes in a nonpolar space group of $P\overline{6}$2c but exhibits the optimal spatial arrangement and superior NLO performance. The low coordination planar trigonal AgX₃ units enable segregation in layers of the three-winged propeller-like Me₃TPA units. All of the layers are packed in a perfect parallel fashion, making the functional materials exhibit superior NLO performances, including the phase matchable behavior with strong SHG responses (6.2/ 1 , 6.5/ 2, and 7.6/ 3 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate), large birefringence (0.232/ 1 , 0.252/ 2 and 0.260/ 3 at 1064 nm), high laser damage threshold, wide transparent window, and easiness of crystal growth. The first-principles calculations reveal that the coexistence of strong linear and nonlinear optical properties are ascribed to the synergistic effect of the trigonal moieties. This study points out a useful path for the rational design of excellent NLO materials.     

A deep learning based latency aware predictive routing model for network-on-chip architectures

Network on Chip (NoC) is an evolving platform for communications related applications, which are executed on a single silicon chip. There are several routing models in NoC architectures, but the accuracy of these models is limited, and the existing models are degraded because of over and under fitting issues. This research introduces the new deep learning-based latency aware predictive routing model for on-chip networks to route packets with better performance and power efficiency. The deep learning model used in this research is a new convolutional residual gated recurrent unit (CRGRU) with queuing theory. Moreover, the source and channel queuing delay is comprised of features to learn spatial and sequential information that improves the overall prediction accuracy. This router is modified by the intrusion of the Router States Monitor unit and the CRGRU hardware engine. The work is executed using the Xilinx platform, and the performance measures like latency and throughput are obtained by varying the network size as $4\times 4$, $8\times 8$, and $12\times 12$ and also varying the buffer space and length as $L=4,B=9$, $L=9,B=4$, and $L=14,B=3$, respectively. In addition, the squared correlation coefficient (SCC) and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) are evaluated and compared with existing learning models to validate the proposed model.