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We report comprehensive transport, electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy studies on the transition-metal chalcogenides Cu1.89Te single crystals. The metallic Cu1.89Te displays successive metal-semiconductor transitions at low temperatures and almost ideal linear MR when magnetic field up to 33T. Through the electron diffraction patterns, the stable room temperature phase is identified as a 3×3×2 modulated superstructure based on Nowotny hexagonal structure. The superlattice spots of Transmission electron microscopy and Scanning tunneling microscopy clearly show the structural transitions from the room temperature Commensurate Ⅰ (C-Ⅰ) phase to the low temperature Commensurate Ⅱ (C-Ⅱ) phase. All the results can be understood in term of charge density wave (CDW) instability, yielding intuitive evidences for the CDW formations in Cu1.89Te. The additional Raman modes below room temperature further reveal that the zone-folded phonon modes may play an important role on the CDW transitions. Our research sheds light on the novel electron features of Cu1.89Te at low temperature, and may provide potential applications for future nano-devices.

Plasma wall interaction inevitably occurs during the operation of tokamaks. The coaxial gun device has low operation cost and the parameters of plasma produced by the gun are close to those of type I edge localized mode (ELM); therefore, the coaxial gun is suitable in simulation experiments as a heat flux source of transient events such as type I ELM under the condition of H-mode in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. In this paper, the plasma generated by the discharge of a tapered coaxial accelerator thermal shock on a tungsten target is used to simulate the damage effect of the divertor. The plasma parameters are measured in the experiment. The velocity of the plasma is 41.7 km s−1, and the kinetic energy of a single hydrogen ion is 9.2 eV. The energy density at the center of the plasma can reach 1.5 MJ m−2, and the density can reach about 2.78 × 1015 cm−3. The reflection of plasma in the process of exposure at different angles is observed. It is observed that droplets of millimeter size splash from the target. Traces of liquid flow are observed on the surface of the target, which shows that there is a melting process on the surface of the target. The mass loss of the target is of the order of milligrams after 20 pulses. The ablation and residual stress of the target surface both decrease with a decrease in the angle. This is because the accumulated energy per unit area of the target surface decreases with a decrease in the angle. The results of the simulation experiment help us to understand the working state around the divertor target in tokamak devices.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials attached with flexible substrates enable possibilities to apply their superior properties to the rapidly increasing demand for foldable displays and wearable biosensors in the internet-of-things technology. However, previous two-step strategy to construct the flexible devices, namely first obtaining 2D materials elsewhere and then transferring them onto flexible substrates, can cause huge problems, including irreversibly undermining the device performance and limiting the material size. Here we propose a new one-step strategy (other than the liquid phase processing and low temperature synthesis methods), namely directly depositing appropriate 2D materials onto flexible substrates, which involves no transferring and can maintain the crystal quality and properties to the greatest extent. More importantly, this strategy in principle has no limit in the film size, hence removing a main obstacle for the practical use of flexible films, such as complex logic operations and large-area optoelectronic applications. Using this strategy, a centimeter-scale SnSe2film is directly grown on polydimethylsiloxane, which is characterized as a uniform, out-of-plane oriented and semiconducting film that is robust to deformations. Based on the film, a flexible photodetector is fabricated and distinct photoresponse to a broad spectrum of light (405 - 830 nm) is observed, with remarkable technical parameters.

Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials are the building bricks for next-generation electronics and optoelectronics, which demand plentiful functional properties in mechanics, transport, magnetism and photoresponse. For electronic devices, not only metals and high-performance semiconductors but also insulators and dielectric materials are highly desirable. Layered structures composed of 2D materials of different properties can be delicately designed as various useful heterojunction or homojunction devices, in which the designs on the same material (namely homojunction) are of special interest because preparation techniques can be greatly simplified and atomically seamless interfaces can be achieved. We demonstrate that the insulating pristine ZnPS3, a ternary transition-metal phosphorus trichalcogenide, can be transformed into a highly conductive metal and an n-type semiconductor by intercalating Co and Cu atoms, respectively. The field-effect-transistor (FET) devices are prepared via an ultraviolet exposure lithography technique. The Co-ZnPS3 device exhibits an electrical conductivity of 8 × 104 S/m, which is comparable to the conductivity of graphene. The Cu-ZnPS3 FET reveals a current ON/OFF ratio of 105 and a mobility of 3 × 10−2 cm2⋅V−1⋅s−1. The realization of an insulator, a typical semiconductor and a metallic state in the same 2D material provides an opportunity to fabricate n-metal homojunctions and other in-plane electronic functional devices.

The insulator-metal transition triggered by pressure in charge transfer insulator NiS2 is investigated by combining high-pressure electrical transport, synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy measurements up to 40–50 GPa. Upon compression, we show that the metallization firstly appears in the low temperature region at ∼3.2 GPa and then extends to room temperature at ∼8.0 GPa. During the insulator-metal transition, the bond length of S–S dimer extracted from the synchrotron x-ray diffraction increases with pressure, which is supported by the observation of abnormal red-shift of the Raman modes between 3.2 and 7.1 GPa. Considering the decreasing bonding-antibonding splitting due to the expansion of S–S dimer, the charge gap between the S-ppπ* band and the upper Hubbard band of Ni-3d e g state is remarkably decreased. These results consistently indicate that the elongated S–S dimer plays a predominant role in the insulator-metal transition under high pressure, even though the p-d hybridization is enhanced simultaneously, in accordance with a scenario of charge-gap-controlled type.

PtS2, which is one of the group-10 transition metal dichalcogenides, attracts increasing attention due to its extraordinary properties under external modulations as predicted by theory, such as tunable bandgap and indirect-to-direct gap transition under strain; however, these properties have not been verified experimentally. Here we report the first experimental exploration of its optoelectronic properties under external pressure. We find that the photocurrent is weakly pressure-dependent below 3 GPa but increases significantly in the pressure range of 3 GPa–4 GPa, with a maximum ~ 6 times higher than that at ambient pressure. X-ray diffraction data shows that no structural phase transition can be observed up to 26.8 GPa, which indicates a stable lattice structure of PtS2 under high pressure. This is further supported by our Raman measurements with an observation of linear blue-shifts of the two Raman-active modes to 6.4 GPa. The pressure-enhanced photocurrent is related to the indirect-to-direct/quasi-direct bandgap transition under pressure, resembling the gap behavior under compression strain as predicted theoretically.

We have measured the temperature dependence of internal friction Q−1(T), Young's modulus E(T), and resistivity ρ(T) in situ along with the measurements of magnetization M(T) on optimally doped manganites La0.67Ca0.33MnOy with different oxygen contents. With the reduction of the oxygen content y, the Q−1 peak in the paramagnetic region, suggested to originate from the formation of the magnetic clusters (MC), shifts to a lower temperature and its magnitude decreases and finally disappears. The results of M(T) and ρ(T) indicates that both the effective magnetic moment μeff and the hopping distance of electrons decrease with the increase of oxygen vacancies, which may suppress the MC. In addition, the analysis of the results of E(T) indicates that the cooperative effects of lattice distortions may favour the formation of MC.

The effect of compressive strain on charge/orbital ordering (COO) transition in epitaxial La7/8Sr1/8MnO3 (LSMO) thin films was investigated. The compressive strain of LSMO thin films grown on LaAlO3 substrates can be modified by varying the film thickness which was verified by x-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements. It was found that both the COO transition and magnetic transition of LSMO thin films could be suppressed by the compressive strain and their transition temperatures could be tuned by strain relaxation. The variation of COO transition with compressive strain can be explained by the strain-dependent lattice deformation by structural phase transition. These results indicate that the lattice degree of freedom plays a crucial role in the stabilization of COO phase in LSMO, and will be beneficial to the understanding of the microscopic origin of the COO phase in lightly doped manganites.