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.     

2D Porous Polymers with sp2‐Carbon Connections and Sole sp2‐Carbon Skeletons

2D porous polymers with a planar architecture and high specific surface area have significant applications potential, such as for photocatalysis, electrochemical catalysis, gas storage and separation, and sensing. Such 2D porous polymers have generally been classified as 2D metal–organic frameworks, 2D covalent organic frameworks, graphitic carbon nitride, graphdiyne, and sandwich‐like porous polymer nanosheets. Among these, 2D porous polymers with sp²‐hybridized carbon ( $C_{s{p}^2}$) bonding are an emerging field of interest. Compared with 2D porous polymers linked by B? O, C?N, or C?C bonds, $C_{s{p}^2}$‐linked 2D porous polymers exhibit extended electron delocalization resulting in unique optical/electrical properties, as well as high chemical/photostability and tunable electrochemical performance. Furthermore, such 2D porous polymers are one of the best precursors for the fabrication of 2D porous carbon materials and carbon skeletons with atomically dispersed transition‐metal active sites. Herein, rational synthetic approaches for 2D porous polymers with $C_{s{p}^2}$ bonding are summarized. Their current practical photoelectric applications, including for gas separation, luminescent sensing and imaging, electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors, and photocatalysis are also discussed.     

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.     

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).     

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.     

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.     

Achieving Rich and Active Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Heterostructures via Interface Engineering on 2D 1T‐MoS2 Quantum Sheets

Large‐scale production of hydrogen from water‐alkali electrolyzers is impeded by the sluggish kinetics of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts. The hybridization of an acid‐active HER catalyst with a cocatalyst at the nanoscale helps boost HER kinetics in alkaline media. Here, it is demonstrated that 1T–MoS₂ nanosheet edges (instead of basal planes) decorated by metal hydroxides form highly active ${\text{edge}}_{{\text{1T‐MoS}}_{\text{2}}}$/ ${\text{edge}}_{\text{Ni}{(\text{OH})}_{\text{2}}}$ heterostructures, which significantly enhance HER performance in alkaline media. Featured with rich ${\text{edge}}_{{\text{1T‐MoS}}_{\text{2}}}$/ ${\text{edge}}_{\text{Ni}{(\text{OH})}_{\text{2}}}$ sites, the fabricated 1T–MoS₂ QS/Ni(OH)₂ hybrid (quantum sized 1T–MoS₂ sheets decorated with Ni(OH)₂ via interface engineering) only requires overpotentials of 57 and 112 mV to drive HER current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm^?2, respectively, and has a low Tafel slope of 30 mV dec^?1 in 1 m KOH. So far, this is the best performance for MoS₂‐based electrocatalysts and the 1T–MoS₂ QS/Ni(OH)₂ hybrid is among the best‐performing non‐Pt alkaline HER electrocatalysts known. The HER process is durable for 100 h at current densities up to 500 mA cm^?2. This work not only provides an active, cost‐effective, and robust alkaline HER electrocatalyst, but also demonstrates a design strategy for preparing high‐performance catalysts based on edge‐rich 2D quantum sheets for other catalytic reactions.     

Strain Anisotropy Driven Spontaneous Formation of Nanoscrolls from 2D Janus Layers

2D Janus transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted attention due to their emergent properties arising from broken mirror symmetry and self-driven polarization fields. While it has been proposed that their vdW superlattices hold the key to achieving superior properties in piezoelectricity and photovoltaic, available synthesis has ultimately limited their realization. Here, the first packed vdW nanoscrolls made from Janus TMDs through a simple one-drop solution technique are reported. The results, including ab initio simulations, show that the Bohr radius difference between the top sulfur and the bottom selenium atoms within Janus ${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Se}}^{\mathrm{S}}$ (M = Mo, W) results in a permanent compressive surface strain that acts as a nanoscroll formation catalyst after small liquid interaction. Unlike classical 2D layers, the surface strain in Janus TMDs can be engineered from compressive to tensile by placing larger Bohr radius atoms on top (${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{S}}^{\mathrm{Se}})$to yield inverted C scrolls. Detailed microscopy studies offer the first insights into their morphology and readily formed Moiré lattices. In contrast, spectroscopy and FETs studies establish their excitonic and device properties and highlight significant differences compared to 2D flat Janus TMDs. These results introduce the first polar Janus TMD nanoscrolls and introduce inherent strain-driven scrolling dynamics as a catalyst to create superlattices.     

Pilot-aided 1 × 2 and 2 × 2 space-time line code systems with transmit antenna selection

The space-time line code (STLC), which has been recently proposed in the literature, assumes fully known channel state information at the transmitter and not the receiver. However, the effective channel gain is still required at the receiver to coherently detect $M$-ary quadrature amplitude modulation ( $M$QAM) symbols. In this paper, we propose pilot-aided STLC systems, which do not require the effective channel gain at the receiver to detect the $M$QAM symbols. In order to further improve the error performance of the proposed schemes, we present the pilot-aided STLC systems with transmit antenna selection (TAS). Using a more direct and simpler approach, we derive the average symbol error probability (ASEP) of the coherent $1\times 2$ STLC systems with TAS, which represents the lower bound of the pilot-aided $1\times 2$ STLC systems with TAS. For comparison, in a similar manner, we also derive the ASEP of the coherent $2\times 2$ STLC systems without TAS, which represents the lower bound of the pilot-aided $2\times 2$ STLC systems. For pilot-aided $1\times 2$ STLC systems with TAS, the gap between the simulated symbol error rate (SER) and the derived theoretical ASEP lower bound is very small. For a given number of transmit antennas, the simulated SER and theoretical ASEP also show that the error performance of the pilot-aided $2\times 2$ STLC systems with or without TAS is superior to the pilot-aided $1\times 2$ STLC systems with TAS by at least 1.8 dB.     

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.     

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.     

An eight-element sequentially rotated crescent-slot-coupled dielectric resonator antenna array for WIFI applications

In this communication, the author presents an eight-element sequentially rotated (SR) circularly polarized (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for operation in the IEEE 802.11a standard. A novel resonating element composed of a crescent slot (CS) used to excite a rectangular dielectric resonator (RDR) is proposed that has two orthogonal modes ${\mathit{TE}}_{1\delta 1}^y$ and ${\mathit{TE}}_{\delta 21}^x$ as required for CP radiation. An SR series–parallel geometry is used to prototype the array feed network to allocate the array elements to symmetrical positions. The phase progression of each element was 45° along the array, and the signal magnitude was distributed evenly based on the binomial theory to enhance the antenna performance. The prototyped SR array had a size of $46\times 46\times 0.813$ mm³ and was measured and characterized in order to authenticate the design. The resonance bandwidth (S₁₁ ˂ −10 dB) was found to be 14.28% with a 3 dB axial ratio (AR) of 17.7% for right-hand CP. The gain varied from 15.71 to 16.26 dBi within the operating band. The size, gain, and impedance bandwidth of the proposed array make it a potential candidate for devices operating in the IEEE 802.11a band.     

Layer Sliding And Twisting Induced Electronic Transitions In Correlated Magnetic 1t-Nbse2 Bilayers

Correlated 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 is tentatively ascribed to interactions among the ${\mathrm{d}}_{{\mathrm{z}}^2}$orbitals of Ta or Nb atoms. Here, it is theoretically shown that the interlayer hybridization and localization strength of interfacial Se p_z orbitals, rather than Nb ${\mathrm{d}}_{z^2}$orbitals, govern the variation of electron-correlated properties upon interlayer sliding or twisting in correlated magnetic 1T-NbSe₂ bilayers. Each of the layers is in a star-of-David (SOD) charge-density-wave phase. Geometric and electronic structures and magnetic properties of 28 different stacking configurations are examined and analyzed using density-functional-theory calculations. It is found that the SOD contains a localized region, in which interlayer Se p_z 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 demonstrate the effectiveness of interlayer interactions to modulate correlated magnetic properties in a prototypical correlated magnetic insulator.     

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.     

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.     

Performance analysis of satellite link using Gaussian mixture model under rain

The evolution of communication systems to the next generation, for example, B5G and 6G, demands an ultrareliable performance regardless of weather conditions. Such ultrareliable system design will require that the effects of adverse weather events on the communication system have to be computed more accurately so that physical layer compensation should be optimally and dynamically adaptive to such events. The performance of satellite links is severely affected by dynamic rain attenuation, and thus, accurate and reliable modeling of performance parameters is essential for dynamic fade countermeasures, especially above 10 GHz. In this work, we model the energy per bit to noise spectral density ratio ( $E_b/N_0$) using Gaussian mixture (GM) model during rainy events. The developed mathematical expression is used to accurately model the average $E_b/N_0$, bit error rate (BER), outage probability, and ergodic channel capacity of the link. The average BER, upper bound on BER, and average ergodic capacity of an M-ary phase shift keying scheme (MPSK) using the GM model of $E_b/N_0$ are derived to evaluate the performance of the link under such weather impairments. We then show the numerical results and analysis using the GM model of the measured $E_b/N_0$ data obtained with the AMoS-7 satellite at a site located in Israel.     

On the performance of energy harvesting-assisted Nth best relay cooperative networks in Nakagami-m fading

We study the energy harvesting (EH)-assisted system model based on the performance of a dual-hop cooperative communication system that is subjected to Nakagami- $m$ fading. Through the partial relay selection method, the selection of $N$th best relay (BR) is performed among $M$ amplify and forward (AF) relays, which can harvest energy from radio frequency signals. At the receiver, the selection combining scheme is considered to select between the signals of $N$th best relaying path and the direct path. For this considered system, we compute the closed-form expressions of outage probability (OP) and the average symbol error rate (ASER) for higher order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) techniques, especially for rectangular QAM, cross QAM, and hexagonal QAM. Further, a new moment-generating function expression is obtained which is used to derive the ASER expression related to the generalized non-coherent modulation technique. We also give the asymptotic expression of OP to find out the diversity order. Furthermore, we study the effect of fading parameters, $N$th BR, and other factors on system behavior. Finally, we verify the derived expressions with Monte Carlo simulations.