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The unique combination of excellent mechanical and functional properties makes graphene an ideal component for high-performance ‘smart’ composites, which are sensitive to thermal, optical, electrical and mechanical excitations, hence being potential in application of a range of sensors. It has confirmed that the addition of graphene into metal matrix can significantly enhance the mechanical property and deliver surprising functional properties. Thus, graphene reinforced metal matrix composites (GMMCs) have long been regarded as potential prospects of nanotechnology applications. Recently, researchers mainly focused on: (i) solving the interfacial issues and realizing controllable alignment of graphene in metal matrix to achieve optimal performance; (ii) reasonable designing of the microstructures basing on usage requirement and then fabricating via efficient technique. Thus, it is necessary to figure out key roles of microstructure in fabrication process, mechanical and multi-functional properties. This review consists of four parts: (i) fabrication process. The fabrication processes are firstly divided into three kinds basing on the different bonding nature between graphene and metal matrix. (ii) Mechanical property. The microstructural characteristics of metal matrix accompanying by the incorporation of graphene and their vital effects on mechanical properties of GMMCs are systematically summarized. (iii) Functional property. The crucial effects of microstructure on electrical and thermal properties are summarized. (iv) Prospect applications and future challenges. Application and challenges basing on the research status are discussed to provide useful directions for future exploration in related fields. All these four parts are discussed with a focus on key role of microstructure characteristics, which is instructive for the microstructures design and fabrication process optimization during academic researches and potential commercial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with postpassivation plasma treatment are demonstrated and investigated for the first time. The results show that postpassivation plasma treatment can reduce the gate leakage and enhance the drain current. Comparing with the conventional devices, the gate leakage of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with postpassivation plasma decreases greatly while the drain current increases. Capacitance–voltage measurement and frequency-dependent conductance method are used to study the surface and interface traps. The mechanism analysis indicates that the surface traps in the access region can be reduced by postpassivation plasma treatment and thus suppress the effect of virtual gate, which can explain the improvement of DC characteristics of devices. Moreover, the density and time constant of interface traps under the gate are extracted and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) metal halide materials have recently attracted much attention due to their layered structures, direct bandgap, and high absorption coefficient, rendering them promising applications for electronics and optoelectronics. In addition, they have shown remarkable tunable magnetic properties depending on layer thickness and stacking order. In this letter, recent studies on 2D metal halides and their structural and optical properties, synthesis methods, and applications are reviewed. First, their layered crystal and electronic band structures are presented. Next, synthesis methods, such as mechanical exfoliation, liquid phase method, and vapor phase deposition, are summarized. Additionally, their device performance in field-effect transistors, photodetectors, spintronics, and 2D van der Waals heterostructures are presented. Finally, some conclusions and an outlook for future research are stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent observation of superconductivity in thin films of infinite-layer nickelate Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 has received considerable attention. Despite the many efforts to understand the superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates, a consensus on the underlying mechanism for the superconductivity has yet to be reached, partly owing to the challenges with the material synthesis. Here, we report the successful growth of superconducting infinite-layer Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films by pulsed laser deposition and soft chemical reduction. The details on the growth process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two-dimensional (2D) transient simulations of an AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) are carried out and analyzed to investigate the current collapse due to trapping effects. The coupling effect of the trapping and thermal effects are taken into account in our simulation. The turn-on pulse gate-lag transient responses with different quiescent biases are obtained, and the pulsed current–voltage (I–V) curves are extracted from the transients. The experimental results of both gate-lag transient current and pulsed I–V curves are reproduced by the simulation, and the current collapse due to the trapping effect is explained from the view of physics based on the simulation results. In addition, the results show that bulk acceptor traps can influence the gate-lag transient characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs besides surface traps and that the thermal effect can accelerate the emission of captured electrons for traps. Pulse transient simulation is meaningful in analyzing the mechanism of dynamic current collapse, and the work in this paper will benefit the reliability study and model development of GaN-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We generalize BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) to the scenario where the receiver adopts a heralded quantum memory (QM). With the heralded QM, the valid dark count rate of the receiver's single photon detectors can be mitigated obviously, which will lower the quantum bit error rate, and thus improve the performance of decoy-state BB84 QKD systems in long distance range. Simulation results show that, with practical experimental system parameters, decoy-state BB84 QKD with QM can exhibit performance comparable to that of without QM in short distance range, and exhibit performance better than that without QM in long distance range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High temperature superconductivity in cuprates is realized by doping the Mott insulator with charge carriers. A central issue is how such an insulating state can evolve into a conducting or superconducting state when charge carriers are introduced. Here, by in situ vacuum annealing and Rb deposition on the Bi2Sr2Ca0.6Dy0.4Cu2O8 + δ (Bi2212) sample surface to push its doping level continuously from deeply underdoped (Tc = 25 K, doping level p ∼ 0.066) to the near-zero doping parent Mott insulator, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements are carried out to observe the detailed electronic structure evolution in the lightly hole-doped region for the first time. Our results indicate that the chemical potential lies at about l eV above the charge transfer band for the parent state at zero doping, which is quite close to the upper Hubbard band. With increasing hole doping, the chemical potential moves continuously towards the charge transfer band and the band structure evolution exhibits a rigid band shift-like behavior. When the chemical potential approaches the charge transfer band at a doping level of ∼0.05, the nodal spectral weight near the Fermi level increases, followed by the emergence of the coherent quasiparticle peak and the insulator–superconductor transition. Our observations provide key insights in understanding the insulator–superconductor transition in doping the parent cuprate compound and for establishing related theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of nanomechanical properties of a single amyloid fibril in a confined space provides important information for understanding the role of fibrils in a cell microenvironment. In this study, the structure and nanomechanical properties of different fibrils formed in water nanofilms on mica surface are carefully investigated by using the new atomic force microscopy imaging mode-peak force quantitative nanomechanics (PF-QNM). We find that two types of fibrils with different morphologies are formed in water nanofilm on mica. The compression elasticities of these two types of fibrils are 3.9±0.9 and 2.5±0.6GPa, respectively. The remarkable difference is possibly due to the structural discrepancy in two types of fibrils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonalloyed ohmic contacts regrown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition are performed on AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors. Low ohmic contact resistance of 0.15ω·mm is obtained. It is found that the sidewall obliquity near the regrown interface induced by the plasma dry etching has great influence on the total contact resistance. The fabricated device with a 100-nm T-shaped gate demonstrates a maximum drain current density of 0.95 A/mm at Vgs = 1 V and a maximum peak extrinsic transcondutance Gm of 216 mS/mm. Moreover, a current gain cut-off frequency fT of 115 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency fmax of 127 GHz are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study rectangular AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) with 22-nm and 12-nm AlGaN barrier layers are fabricated, respectively. Using the measured capacitance–voltage and current–voltage characteristics of the prepared devices with different Schottky areas, it is found that after processing the device, the polarization Coulomb field (PCF) scattering is induced and has an important influence on the two-dimensional electron gas electron mobility. Moreover, the influence of PCF scattering on the electron mobility is enhanced by reducing the AlGaN barrier thickness. This leads to the quite different variation of the electron mobility with gate bias when compared with the AlGaN barrier thickness. This mainly happens because the thinner AlGaN barrier layer suffers from a much stronger electrical field when applying a gate bias, which gives rise to a stronger converse piezoelectric effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements are carried out on transition metal dichalcogenide PdTe2 that is a superconductor with a Tc at 1.7 K. Combined with theoretical calculations, we discover for the first time the existence of topologically nontrivial surface state with Dirac cone in PbTe2 superconductor. It is located at the Brillouin zone center and possesses helical spin texture. Distinct from the usual three-dimensional topological insulators where the Dirac cone of the surface state lies at the Fermi level, the Dirac point of the surface state in PdTe2 lies deeply below the Fermi level at ∼1.75 eV binding energy and is well separated from the bulk states. The identification of topological surface state in PdTe2 superconductor deeply below the Fermi level provides a unique system to explore new phenomena and properties and opens a door for finding new topological materials in transition metal chalcogenides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CuxBi2Se3 is a superconductor that is a potential candidate for topological superconductors. We report our laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurement on the electronic structure of the CuxBi2Se3 superconductor, and a detailed magneto-resistance measurement in both normal and superconducting states. We find that the topological surface state of the pristine Bi2Se3 topological insulator remains robust after the Cu-intercalation, while the Dirac cone location moves downward due to electron doping. Detailed measurements on the magnetic field-dependence of the resistance in the superconducting state establishes an irreversibility line and gives a value of the upper critical field at zero temperature of ∼4000 Oe for the Cu0.3Bi2Se3 superconductor with a middle point Tc of 1.9K. The relation between the upper critical field Hc2 and temperature T is different from the usual scaling relation found in cuprates and in other kinds of superconductors. Small positive magneto-resistance is observed in Cu0.3Bi2Se3 superconductors up to room temperature. These observations provide useful information for further study of this possible candidate for topological superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the temperature-dependent dc performance of AlGaN/GaN polarization doped field effect transistors (PolFETs). The rough decrements of drain current and transconductance with the operation temperature are observed. Compared with the conventional HFETs, the drain current drop of the PolFET is smaller. The transconductance drop of PolFETs at different gate biases shows different temperature dependences. From the aspect of the unique carrier behaviors of graded AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, we propose a quasi-multi-channel model to investigate the physics behind the temperature-dependent performance of AlGaN/GaN PolFETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic structure of silicene on Ag(111) is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A flat band at 0.9 eV below the Fermi level is revealed. We find that the flat band is strongly suppressed near atomic defects, domain boundaries and step edges compared to that on the flat terraces. The discovery of the flat band and its sensitivity to local perturbations provides a new way to manipulate the electronic structure and properties of silicene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the optical response characteristics of Al/Ti bilayer transition edge sensors (TESs), which are mainly comprised of Al/Ti bilayer thermometers and suspended SiN membranes for thermal isolation. The measurement was performed in a 3He sorption refrigerator and the device's response to optical pulses was investigated using a pulsed laser source. Based on these measurements, we obtained the effective recovery time (τeff) of the devices at different biases and discussed the dependence of τeff on the bias. The device with a 940 μm × 940 μm continuous suspended SiN membrane demonstrated a fast response speed with τeff = 3.9 μs, which indicates a high temperature sensitivity (α = T/R · dR/dT = 326). The results also showed that the TES exhibits good linearity under optical pulses of variable widths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]