Search

Wood-based solar steam evaporators have been attracting increasing interest due to their great potential for addressing water scarcity by utilizing sustainable materials and energy. However, engineering a 3D porous structure within the wood lumens and its effect on solar vapor evaporation have not yet been well explored. Here, a natural wood-based solar evaporator with hierarchical pores is fabricated by assembling polyvinyl alcohol within the lumens through an ice-templating approach. The polyvinyl alcohol porous network is engineered from vertically aligned microchannels to dendritically bridged pores with a narrowed size of a few micrometers and significantly increased surface area. Although the formation of plenty of microscopic channels increases the capillary force in comparison to the native wood lumen, the morphology change induces a high tortuosity factor of the porous structure, resulting in a reduced water transportation rate as well as an increased contact angle. On the other hand, the high surface area of the engineered wood lumens and the good hydrophilicity of the filled polyvinyl alcohol improve the ratio of the formed intermediate water, contributing to reduced vaporization enthalpy. Consequently, by using polydopamine as the photothermal material, the hierarchically structured polyvinyl alcohol-wood solar evaporator exhibits an evaporation rate of 1.6 kg m

Magnetic topological insulators, possessing both magnetic order and topological electronic structure, provides an excellent platform to research unusual physical properties. Here, we report a high-pressure study on the anomalous Hall effect of magnetic TI MnSb4Te7 through transports measurements combined with first-principle theoretical calculations. We discover that the ground state of MnSb4Te7 experiences a magnetic phase transition from the A-type antiferromagnetic state to ferromagnetic dominating state at 3.78 GPa, although its crystal sustains a rhombohedral phase under high pressures up to 8 GPa. The anomalous Hall conductance {\sigma}xyA keeps around 10 {\Omega}-1 cm-1, dominated by the intrinsic mechanism even after the magnetic phase transition. The results shed light on the intriguing magnetism in MnSb4Te7 and pave the way for further studies of the relationship between topology and magnetism in topological materials., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

Iron-based superconductors (IBS) have attracted intense interest from scientists around the world. The first FeSe0.5Te0.5 hybrid coil including one FeSe0.5Te0.5 single pancake coil (SPC) and eight YBCO double pancake coils (DPCs) was successfully fabricated and test in this study. The FeSe0.5Te0.5 tape used in the hybrid coil is encapsulated strengthen tape which is with 0.15 mm thickness and 10.5 mm width to withstand the high stress during the cold test. The FeSe0.5Te0.5 encapsulated tape exhibits good performance at 4.2 K cold test. YBCO DPCs were divided into two groups connected to both sides of the FeSe0.5Te0.5 SPC. The critical current of the FeSe0.5Te0.5 coil was measured under the background field increased from 0 T to 10 T. The transport critical current of the FeSe0.5Te0.5 SPC showed 108.1 A at self-field and 17.4 A at 10 T, which had almost the same performance as the short sample. The results in this study showed that the FeSe0.5Te0.5 coated conductor coil have good performance in high magnetic fields.

Highly crystalline CoFeMoB4 synthesized by high-pressure and high-temperature method boosts the OER performance by synergistic effect of Co2+ and Fe3+ ions from the amorphous clusters and ultra-small grains at the surface layer.

Here, we use low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to study the polar surfaces of PdCoO

Nonreciprocal charge transport phenomena are widely studied in two-dimensional superconductors, which demonstrates unidirectional anisotropy behaviors as a result of symmetry breaking. Here, we report a strongly nonreciprocal transport phenomenon in superconducting CsV3Sb5 thin flakes. The second harmonic voltage, mainly originates from the rectification effect of vortex motion, is unambiguously developed with in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields, and its magnitude is comparable to that in noncentrosymmetric superconductors. The second harmonic magnetoresistance splits into several peaks and some of them reverse their sign by ramping the magnetic field or current within the superconducting transition. The vortex dynamics for the specifically nonreciprocal transport phenomenon is dominated by an unconventional superconductivity pairing symmetry, providing a promising path to explore the possible topological superconductivity in CsV3Sb5.

Here, we report on a new kind of compound, X

High-entropy alloy (HEA) is an attracting topic raising in materials science and condensed matter physics. Although several types of superconductors have been discovered in HEAs, the critical currents (Jc) of HEA superconductors remain uncharacterized up to now. Here, we systematically study the current-carrying ability of (TaNb)0.7(HfZrTi)0.5 HEA at various heat treatment conditions. We obtained the high upper critical field and large current carrying ability, which point to optimistic applications. Interestingly, the fishtail or second peak effect was found for the first time in HEA superconductors, and the position of the vortex pinning force shows a maximum at 0.72 of the reduced field, which is quite different from the cuprates and iron-based high-Tc superconductors. Together with the resistive measurements, the vortex phase diagram is obtained for HEA superconductor., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

Here we use low-temperature and variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy to study the pnictide superconductor, Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Ni$_2$As$_2$. In the low-temperature phase (triclinic phase) of BaNi$_2$As$_2$, we observe the unidirectional charge density wave (CDW) with $Q$ = 1/3 on both the Ba and NiAs surfaces. On the NiAs surface of the triclinic BaNi$_2$As$_2$, there are structural-modulation-induced chain-like superstructures with distinct periodicities. In the high-temperature phase (tetragonal phase) of BaNi$_2$As$_2$, the NiAs surface appears as the periodic 1 by 2 superstructure. Interestingly, in the triclinic phase of Ba$_{0.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$Ni$_2$As$_2$, the unidirectional CDW is suppressed on both the Ba/Sr and NiAs surfaces, and the Sr substitution stabilizes the periodic 1 by 2 superstructure on the NiAs surface, which enhance the superconductivity in Ba$_{0.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$Ni$_2$As$_2$. Our results provide important microscopic insights for the interplay among the unidirectional CDW, structural modulation, and superconductivity in this class of pnictide superconductors., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

Here we report on a new kind of compound, X{\delta}Ir4X12-{\delta} (X = P, As), the first hole-doped skutterudites superconductor. We provide atomic resolution images of the caging As atoms using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). By inserting As atoms into the caged structure under a high pressure, superconductivity emerges with a maximum transition temperature (Tc) of 4.4 K (4.8 K) in IrAs3 (IrP3). In contrast to all of the electron-doped skutterudites, the electronic states around the Fermi level in X{\delta}Ir4X12-{\delta} are dominated by the caged X atom, which can be described by a simple body-centered tight-binding model, implying a distinct paring mechanism. Our density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal an intimate relationship between the pressure-dependent local-phonon mode and the enhancement of Tc. The discovery of X{\delta}Ir4X12-{\delta} provides an arena to investigate the uncharted territory of hole-doped skutterudites, and the method proposed here represents a new strategy of carrier doping in caged structures, without introducing extra elements., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

We report the synthesis and superconducting properties of a layered cage compound Ba3Rh4Ge16. Similar to Ba3Ir4Ge16, the compound is composed of 2D networks of cage units, formed by noncubic Rh-Ge building blocks, in marked contrast to the reported rattling compounds. The electrical resistivity, magnetization, specific heat capacity, and muSR measurements unveiled moderately coupled s-wave superconductivity with a critical temperature Tc = 7.0 K, the upper critical field ~ 2.5 T, the electron-phonon coupling strength ~ 0.80, and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter ~ 7.89. The mass reduction by the substitution of Ir by Rh is believed to be responsible for the enhancement of Tc and coupling between the cage and guest atoms. Our results highlight the importance of the atomic weight of the framework in cage compounds in controlling the electron-phonon coupling strength and Tc., 8 pages, 7 figures,1 table

FeSe0.5Te0.5 coated conductor as a kind of 11-type iron-based superconductor is currently attracting much attention. Recently, the bare FeSe0.5Te0.5 coated conductor tapes were developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and verified their superconductivity. For the future application, the FeSe0.5Te0.5 tapes should be subjected to the high electromagnetic forces and stress–strain. In this study, the authors encapsulated the bare FeSe0.5Te0.5 coated conductor tapes with copper layers to enhance the mechanical performance. The reversible critical current performance of the bare and the copper encapsulated FeSe0.5Te0.5 tapes under uniaxial tensile strain was tested. The critical currents of two kinds of tapes were measured over a wide range of applied uniaxial tensile strain by the U-shaped bending spring, respectively. The results show the critical performance of the bare FeSe0.5Te0.5 tapes decreases linearly with respect to tensile strain. The copper encapsulated FeSe0.5Te0.5 tapes have better performance than the bare tapes, with an irreversible tensile strain limit of 0.15%. In addition, the actual irreversible tensile strain limit of the copper encapsulated FeSe0.5Te0.5 tapes reaches 0.29% after considering the influence of the cooling process.

As a new type of quantum state of matter hosting low energy relativistic quasiparticles, Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have attracted significant attention for scientific community and potential quantum device applications. In this study, we present a comprehensive investigation of the structural, magnetic, and transport properties of noncentrosymmetric RAlSi (R = Sm, Ce), which have been predicted to be new magnetic WSM candidates. Both samples exhibit nonsaturated magnetoresistance, with about 900% and 80% for SmAlSi and CeAlSi, respectively, at temperature of 1.8 K and magnetic field of 9 T. The carrier densities of SmAlSi and CeAlSi exhibit remarkable change around magnetic transition temperatures, signifying that the electronic states are sensitive to the magnetic ordering of rare-earth elements. At low temperatures, SmAlSi reveals prominent Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations associated with the nontrivial Berry phase. High-pressure experiments demonstrate that the magnetic order is robust and survival under high pressure. Our results would yield valuable insights into WSM physics and potentials in applications to next-generation spintronic devices in the RAlSi (R = Sm, Ce) family.

A search for the single material system that simultaneously exhibits topological phase and intrinsic superconductivity has been largely limited, although such a system is far more favorable especially for the quantum device applications. Except artificially engineered topological superconductivity in heterostructure systems, another alternative is to have superconductivity arising from the topological materials by pressure or other “clean” technology. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we first show that quasi-one-dimensional compound (NbSe4)2I represents a rare example of a chiral Weyl semimetal in which the set of symmetry-related Weyl points (WPs) exhibit the same chiral charge at a certain energy. The net chiral charge (NCC) of the below Fermi level EF (or a certain energy) can be tuned by pressure. In addition, a partial disorder induced by pressure accompanied with superconductivity emerges. Although amorphization of the iodine sub-lattice under high pressure, the one-dimensional NbSe4 chains in (NbSe4)2I remain intact and provide a superconducting channel in one dimension. Our combined theoretical and experimental research provide critical insight into a new phase of the one-dimensional system, in which distinctive phase transitions and correlated topological states emerge upon compression.