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Explaining the mechanism of superconductivity in the high-$T_c$ cuprates requires an understanding of what causes electrons to form Cooper pairs. Pairing can be mediated by phonons, the screened Coulomb force, spin or charge fluctuations, excitons, or by a combination of these. An excitonic pairing mechanism has been postulated, but experimental evidence for coupling between conduction electrons and excitons in the cuprates is sporadic. Here we use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) to monitor the temperature dependence of the $\underline{d}d$ exciton spectrum of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8-x}$ (Bi-2212) crystals with different charge carrier concentrations. We observe a significant change of the $\underline{d}d$ exciton spectra when the materials pass from the normal state into the superconductor state. Our observations show that the $\underline{d}d$ excitons start to shift up (down) in the overdoped (underdoped) sample when the material enters the superconducting phase. We attribute the superconductivity-induced effect and its sign-reversal from underdoped to overdoped to the exchange coupling of the site of the $\underline{d}d$ exciton to the surrounding copper spins., 13 pages, 10 figures

The field of two-dimensional materials has been developing at an impressive pace, with atomically thin crystals of an increasing number of different compounds that have become available, together with techniques enabling their assembly into functional heterostructures. The strategy to detect these atomically thin crystals has however remained unchanged since the discovery of graphene. Such an absence of evolution is starting to pose problems because for many of the 2D materials of current interest the optical contrast provided by the commonly used detection procedure is insufficient to identify the presence of individual monolayers or to determine unambiguously the thickness of atomically thin multilayers. Here we explore an alternative detection strategy, in which the enhancement of optical contrast originates from the use of optically inhomogeneous substrates, leading to diffusively reflected light. Owing to its peculiar polarization properties and to its angular distribution, diffusively reflected light allows a strong contrast enhancement to be achieved through the implementation of suitable illumination-detection schemes. We validate this conclusion by carrying out a detailed quantitative analysis of optical contrast, which fully reproduces our experimental observations on over 60 WSe$_2$ mono-, bi-, and trilayers. We further validate the proposed strategy by extending our analysis to atomically thin phosphorene, InSe, and graphene crystals. Our conclusion is that the use of diffusively reflected light to detect and identify atomically thin layers is an interesting alternative to the common detection scheme based on Fabry-Perot interference, because it enables atomically thin layers to be detected on substrates others than the commonly used Si/SiO$_2$, and it may offer higher sensitivity depending on the specific 2D material considered.

At ambient pressure, lithium molybdenum purple bronze (${\mathrm{Li}}_{0.9}{\mathrm{Mo}}_{6}{\mathrm{O}}_{17}$) is a quasi-one-dimensional solid in which the anisotropic crystal structure and the linear dispersion of the underlying bands produced by electronic correlations possibly bring about a rare experimental realization of Tomomaga-Luttinger liquid physics. It is also the sole member of the broader purple molybdenum bronzes family where a Peierls instability has not been identified at low temperatures. The present paper reports a pressure-induced series of phase transitions between 0 and 12 GPa. These transitions are strongly reflected in infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The most dramatic effect seen in optical conductivity is the metalization of the $c$ axis, concomitant to the decrease in conductivity along the $b$ axis. This indicates that high pressure drives the material away from its quasi-one-dimensional behavior at ambient pressure. Although the first pressure-induced structure of the series is resolved, the identification of the underlying mechanisms driving the dimensional change in the physics remains a challenge.

$3{d}^{2}$ vanadate perovskites exhibit an unusual phase diagram where the low temperature orbital and spin orders are strongly dependent upon the rare-earth cation size. Here, we demonstrate the delicate role of strain in epitaxial ${\mathrm{LaVO}}_{3}$ films by performing low-energy muon spin spectroscopy and ellipsometry measurements. The electronic structure is revealed by the measurement of the multipeak structure of the charge excitations. The analysis highlights the independent roles of the ${d}_{xy}$ band confinement and the ${d}_{zx},{d}_{zy}$ doublet polarization for the orbital ordering to establish.

One of the most widely discussed features of the cuprate high Tc superconductors is the presence of a pseudogap in the normal state. Recent transport and specific heat measurements have revealed an abrupt transition at the pseudogap critical point, denoted p*, characterized by a drop in carrier density and a strong mass enhancement. In order to give more details about this transition at p*, we performed low-temperature infrared spectroscopy in the normal state of cuprate superconductors La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and La1.8-xEu0.2SrxCuO4 (Eu-LSCO) for doping contents across the pseudogap critical point p* (from p = 0.12 to 0.24). Through the complex optical conductivity we can extract the spectral weight, K*, of the narrow Drude peak due the coherent motion of the quasi-particles, and the spectral weight enclosed inside the mid-infrared (MIR) band, KMIR, caused by coupling of the quasi-particles to collective excitations of the many-body system. K* is smaller than a third of the value predicted by band calculations, and KMIR forms a dome as a function of doping. We observe a smooth doping dependence of K* through p*, and demonstrate that this is consistent with the observed doping dependence of the carrier density and the mass enhancement. We argue that the superconducting dome is the result of the confluence of two opposite trends, namely the increase of the density of the quasi-particles and the decrease of their coupling to the collective excitations as a function of doping., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

In 2011, we initiated a sentinel surveillance network to assess changes in Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium) difficile antimicrobial susceptibility to fidaxomicin from 6 geographically dispersed medical centers in the United States. This report summarizes data from 2013 to 2016. C. difficile isolates or toxin-positive stools from patients were referred to a central laboratory. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by agar dilution. CLSI, EUCAST, or FDA breakpoints were used, where applicable. Toxin gene profiles were characterized by multiplex PCR on each isolate. A random sample of approximately 40% of isolates, stratified by institution and year, was typed by restriction endonuclease analysis (REA). Among 1,889 isolates from 2013 to 2016, the fidaxomicin MIC(90) was 0.5 μg/ml; all isolates were inhibited at ≤1 μg/ml. There were decreases in metronidazole and vancomycin MICs over time. Clindamycin resistance remained unchanged (27.3%). An increase in imipenem resistance was observed. By 2015 to 2016, moxifloxacin resistance decreased in all centers. The proportion of BI isolates decreased from 25.5% in 2011 to 2012 to 12.8% in 2015 to 2016 (P < 0.001). The BI REA group correlated with moxifloxacin resistance (BI 84% resistant versus non-BI 12.5% resistant). Fidaxomicin MICs have not changed among C. difficile isolates of U.S. origin over 5 years post licensure. There has been an overall decrease in MICs for vancomycin, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, and rifampin and an increase in isolates resistant to imipenem. Moxifloxacin resistance remained high among the BI REA group, but the proportion of BI isolates has decreased. Continued geographic variations in REA groups and antimicrobial resistance persist.

The advent of two-dimensional (2D) organic/inorganic layered and monolayer materials has ushered in an explosion of research to understand the synthesis, underlying physics, and exciting material properties of these materials. The field to date has produced preliminary design rules related to feasible synthesis routes that can be used to design 2D materials with a range of organic ligands and metal linkers. This review seeks to extend these design rules to predict which ligands and metals can be combined, and in what fashion, to control the thermal, mechanical, magnetic, and optoelectronic properties. Furthermore, we review the various synthetic techniques and how these can be modified to enable scalable manufacturing of 2D polymers and materials, and how this highlights the need for defect engineering and advanced characterization capabilities within the field. We conclude by discussing how together these design rules, manufacturing considerations, and characterization tools coalesce to enable new materials, applications, and fundamental insights. Particular emphasis is given to magnetism, electrical properties, and optics. Overall, this review serves as a roadmap and framework for identifying new and exciting material targets, strategies for engineering desirable properties, and conduits to streamline the manufacturing and processing of these exciting materials.

We here report a detailed high-pressure infrared transmission study of BiTeCl and BiTeBr. We follow the evolution of two band transitions: the optical excitation $\beta$ between two Rashba-split conduction bands, and the absorption $\gamma$ across the band gap. In the low pressure range, $p< 4$~GPa, for both compounds $\beta$ is approximately constant with pressure and $\gamma$ decreases, in agreement with band structure calculations. In BiTeCl, a clear pressure-induced phase transition at 6~GPa leads to a different ground state. For BiTeBr, the pressure evolution is more subtle, and we discuss the possibility of closing and reopening of the band gap. Our data is consistent with a Weyl phase in BiTeBr at 5$-$6~GPa, followed by the onset of a structural phase transition at 7~GPa., Comment: are welcome

We measure the far-infrared magneto-optical Kerr rotation and reflectivity spectra in graphite and achieve a highly accurate unified microscopic description of all data in a broad range of magnetic fields by taking rigorously the c-axis band dispersion and the trigonal warping into account. We find that the second- and the forth-order cyclotron harmonics are optically almost as strong as the fundamental resonance even at high fields. They must play, therefore, a major role in magneto-optical and magneto-plasmonic applications based on Bernal stacked graphite and multilayer graphene., 4 pages, 3 figures + Supplemental Material

We have measured the far-infrared reflectivity and Kerr angle spectra on a high-quality crystal of pure semimetallic bismuth as a function of magnetic field, from which we extract the conductivity for left- and right handed circular polarisations. The high spectral resolution allows us to separate the intraband Landau level transitions for electrons and holes. The hole transition exhibits 100% magnetic circular dichroism, it appears only for one polarisation as expected for a circular cyclotron orbit. However the dichroism for electron transitions is reduced to only $13\pm 1$%, which is quantitatively explained by the large effective mass anisotropy of the electron pockets of the Fermi surface. This observation is a signature of the mismatch between the metric experienced by the photons and the electrons. It allows for a contactless measurement of the effective mass anisotropy and provides a direction towards valley polarised magneto-optical pumping with elliptically polarised light.

We present an optical setup for spectroscopic measurements in the infrared and of Raman shift under high pressure and at low temperature. Using a membrane-driven diamond anvil cell, the pressure can be tuned in situ up to 20 GPa and the temperatures ranges from room temperature down to 18 K in transmission mode and 13 K in reflection mode. In transmission, the setup is entirely working under vacuum to reduce the water absorption features and obtain a higher spectral stability. Since the infrared throughput obtained with a thermal source is limited, the use of a synchrotron source allowed to enhance the performance, as illustrated with results obtained with various materials. The analysis of the reflectivity is adapted so that it benefits from ambient pressure data and produces quantitative optical conductivity curves that can be easily compared to the results at ambient pressure.

BiTeI is a giant Rashba spin splitting system, in which a non-centro symmetric topological phase has recently been suggested to appear under high pressure. We investigated the optical properties of this compound, reflectivity and transmission, under pressures up to $15$ GPa. The gap feature in the optical conductivity vanishes above $p \sim 9$ GPa and does not reappear up to at least $15$ GPa. The plasma edge, associated with intrinsically doped charge carriers, is smeared out through a phase transition at $9$ GPa. Using high pressure Raman spectroscopy, we follow the vibrational modes of BiTeI, providing additional clear evidence that the transition at 9 GPa involves a change of crystal structure. This change of crystal structure possibly inhibits the high-pressure topological phase from occurring., 11 pages, 7 figures, with Supplemental Material, Accepted by PRL Dec 17, 2013

The temperature dependence of the complex optical properties of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi${}_{2}$Te${}_{2}$Se is reported for light polarized in the a-b planes at ambient pressure, as well as the effects of pressure at room temperature. This material displays a semiconducting character with a bulk optical gap of ${E}_{g}\ensuremath{\simeq}300$ meV at 295 K. In addition to the two expected infrared-active vibrations observed in the planes, there is an additional fine structure that is attributed to either the removal of degeneracy or the activation of Raman modes due to disorder. A strong impurity band located at $\ensuremath{\simeq}200$ cm${}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ is also observed. At and just above the optical gap, several interband absorptions are found to show a strong temperature and pressure dependence. As the temperature is lowered these features increase in strength and harden. The application of pressure leads to a very abrupt closing of the gap above 8 GPa, and strongly modifies the interband absorptions in the midinfrared spectral range. While ab initio calculations fail to predict the collapse of the gap, they do successfully describe the size of the band gap at ambient pressure, and the magnitude and shape of the optical conductivity.

The infrared beamline at the Swiss light source uses dipole radiation and is designed to transport light to four experimental stations, A, B, C, D. Branch A is dedicated to far IR work in vacuum; branch B is a micro-spectrometer; branch C is dedicated to high resolution spectroscopy in the gas phase; branch D is a pump and probe set-up. This contribution describes the optical layout and provides a brief survey of currently available experimental stations. The beamline is in regular user operation since 2009.

We performed far-infrared optical spectroscopy measurements on the heavy fermion compound URu${}_{2}$Si${}_{2}$ as a function of temperature. The light's electric field was applied along the $\mathbf{a}$ or $\mathbf{c}$ axis of the tetragonal structure. We show that in addition to a pronounced anisotropy, the optical conductivity exhibits for both axis a partial suppression of spectral weight around 12 meV and below 30 K. We attribute these observations to a change in the band structure below 30 K. However, since these changes have no noticeable impact on the entropy nor on the DC transport properties, we suggest that this is a crossover phenomenon rather than a thermodynamic phase transition.

Searching for a 3D multiferroic material with a strong magnetoelectric coupling and high critical temperature is a major challenge in modern condensed matter research. CuO is the building block of high temperature superconductors and triggered a new interest when it was established as potential high temperature multiferroic. We have succeeded in growing high quality single crystals of CuO with two different methods namely the floating zone under high oxygen pressure and the chemical vapor transport growth. The fact that we are able to grow crystals of the same compound by different techniques makes it possible to study the effect of slightly different chemical compositions various kinds of defects and variable strain on the final properties of the compound. Optical spectroscopy has been deployed to study the optical response of cupric oxide. Thereby we achieved a deeper insight of the optical electronic and structural properties by measuring the infrared reflectivity under a magnetic field and the Raman shift under hydrostatic high pressure.