Large domain-wall currents in epitaxial Au/BiFeO3/SrRuO3 thin-film capacitors with modulated oxygen vacancy and wall densities

Large domain wall (DW) conductivity in an insulating ferroelectric plays an important role in the future nanosensors and nonvolatile memories. However, the wall current was usually too small to drive high-speed memory circuits and other agile nanodevices requiring high output-powers. Here, a large domain-wall current of 67.8 μA in a high on/off ratio of ~4460 was observed in an epitaxial Au/BiFeO₃/SrRuO₃ thin-film capacitor with the minimized oxygen vacancy concentration. The studies from read current-write voltage hysteresis loops and piezo-response force microscope images consistently showed remaining of partially unswitched domains after application of an opposite poling voltage that increased domain wall density and wall current greatly. A theoretical model was proposed to explain the large wall current. According to this model, the domain reversal occurs with the appearance of head-to-head and tail-to-tail 180° domain walls (DWs), resulting in the formation of highly conductive wall paths. As the applied voltage increased, the domain-wall number increased to enhance the on-state current, in agreement with the measurements of current-voltage curves. This work paves a way to modulate DW currents within epitaxial Au/BiFeO₃/SrRuO₃ thin-film capacitors through the optimization of both oxygen vacancy and domain wall densities to achieve large output powers of modern domain-wall nanodevices.     

控制爆破法处理卡钻事故

介绍了在包头市某工程实施管道穿越黄河施工中,采用爆破法处理卡钻的经验。针对深水环境条件及钻杆内径小不宜采用集团装药的条件,确定采用"小直径爆破筒,钻杆内部装药"的爆破方案,阐述了爆破设计及施工注意事项。可供类似工程参考。     

Magnetic field-enhanced photocatalytic nitrogen fixation over defect-rich ferroelectric Bi2WO6

Photocatalytic N₂ fixation is a promising and sustainable manufacturing process of ammonia (NH₃); however, the NH₃ production rate by this method is very low, thus severely restricting further application of this sustainable technology. Therefore, developing an efficient photocatalyst for N₂ fixation under mild conditions is urgently required. Herein, ferroelectric Bi₂WO₆ materials with different surface oxygen defects were prepared, and the concentration of corresponding defects was controlled by adjusting the thermal reduction time. The abundant oxygen defects in Bi₂WO₆ can provide more reactive sites to promote the effective adsorption of N₂, and the photogenerated charge carrier can be efficiently separated benefiting from the internal electric field. These would weaken the N₂ triple bond and reduce the activation energy barrier for the conversion of N₂ to NH₃ under mild conditions. In the absence of sacrificial agents and cocatalysts, the optimized Bi₂WO₆ with oxygen defects shows an indigenous NH₃ yield of 132.175 μmol·g^-1·L^-1·h^-1, which is more than two times higher than that of the original Bi₂WO₆. Surprisingly, the Bi₂WO₆ with oxygen defects produced more than eight times NH₃ (471.13 μmol·g^-1·L^-1·h^-1) than that of the original Bi₂WO₆ when assisted by an external magnetic field, thus providing a new perspective for further enhancing the N₂ fixation performance.     

A Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS) method for image color clustering

Image color clustering is a basic technique in image processing and computer vision, which is often applied in image segmentation, color transfer, contrast enhancement, object detection, skin color capture, and so forth. Various clustering algorithms have been employed for image color clustering in recent years. However, most of the algorithms require a large amount of memory or a predetermined number of clusters. In addition, some of the existing algorithms are sensitive to the parameter configurations. In order to tackle the above problems, we propose an image color clustering method named Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS), which can automatically obtain clustering results, without requiring a large amount of memory, and is not dependent on the parameters of the algorithm or the number of clusters. In tDPCSS, superpixels are obtained based on automatic and constrained simple non-iterative clustering, to automatically decrease the image data volume. A Student's t kernel function and a cluster center selection method are adopted to eliminate the dependence of the density peak clustering on parameters and the number of clusters, respectively. The experiments undertaken in this study confirmed that the proposed approach outperforms k-means, fuzzy c-means, mean-shift clustering, and density peak clustering with superpixel segmentation in the accuracy of the cluster centers and the validity of the clustering results.     

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of nonstoichiometric crystalline TaO2F and Ta2O5 with carbon coating

Pure and carbon-coated tantalum-based oxides photocatalysts were synthesized via the mesocrystalline precursor transformation method by annealing pure and polydopamine-coated (NH₄)₂Ta₂O₃F₆ mesocrystals in Ar. The oxygen-poor atmosphere thermal annealing process assisted the formation of nonstoichiometric TaO₂F mesocrystals with more F and Ta₂O₅ nanorods with oxygen vacancies and the associated lower valence state Ta ions (Ta⁴⁺). Furthermore, the carbon coating, decomposed from coated polydopamine, helped to control their particle size within 100 nm by isolating the connection of (NH₄)₂Ta₂O₃F₆ subunits. Hence, as-synthesized products, particularly carbon-coated Ta₂O₅ nanosheets, owning large surface area (67.6 m² g^?1), fine particle size (<100 nm), excellent electronic conductivity, decreased bandgap energy, enhanced and extended absorption in the visible range, exhibited preferable photocatalytic activity in the photodegradation of methylene blue, reaching a 76.54 % and 41.71 % removal under ultraviolet and visible light illumination, suggesting a promising candidate for wide-range responsive photocatalytic applications.     

Evaluation of bismuth doped La2-xBixNiO4+δ (x = 0, 0.02 and 0.04) as cathode materials for solid oxide fuel cells

Bismuth doped La_2-xBi_xNiO_4+δ (x = 0, 0.02 and 0.04) oxides are investigated as SOFC cathodes. The effects of Bi doping on the phase structure, thermal expansion, electrical conduction behavior as well as electrochemical performance are studied. All the samples exist as a tetragonal Ruddlesden-Popper structure. Bi-doped LBNO-0.02 and LBNO-0.04 have good chemical and thermal compatibility with LSGM electrolyte. The average TEC over 20–900°С was 13.4 × 10^?6 and 14.2 × 10^?6 K^?1 for LBNO-0.02 and LBNO-0.04, respectively. The electrical conductivity was decreasing with the rise of Bi doping content. EIS measurement indicates Bi doping can decrease the ASR values. At 750 °C, the obtained ASR for LBNO-0.04 is 0.18 Ωcm², which is 56% lower than that of the sample without Bi doping, suggesting Bi doping is beneficial to the electrochemical catalytic activity of LBNO cathodes.     

Controlled Secure Direct Communication Protocol via the Three-Qubit Partially Entangled Set of States

In this paper, we first re-examine the previous protocol of controlled quantum secure direct communication of Zhang et al.’s scheme, which was found insecure under two kinds of attacks, fake entangled particles attack and disentanglement attack. Then, by changing the party of the preparation of cluster states and using unitary operations, we present an improved protocol which can avoid these two kinds of attacks. Moreover, the protocol is proposed using the three-qubit partially entangled set of states. It is more efficient by only using three particles rather than four or even more to transmit one bit secret information. Given our using state is much easier to prepare for multiqubit states and our protocol needs less measurement resource, it makes this protocol more convenient from an applied point of view.