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- ItemA new bifunctional hybrid nanostructure as an active platform for photothermal therapy and MR imaging(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Khafaji, Mona; Vossoughi, Manouchehr; Hormozi-Nezhad, M. Reza; Dinarvand, Rassoul; Börrnert, Felix; Irajizad, AzamAs a bi-functional cancer treatment agent, a new hybrid nanostructure is presented which can be used for photothermal therapy by exposure to one order of magnitude lower laser powers compared to similar nanostructures in addition to substantial enhancment in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast. This gold-iron oxide hybrid nanostructure (GIHN) is synthesized by a cost-effective and high yield water-based approach. The GIHN is sheilded by PEG. Therefore, it shows high hemo and biocompatibility and more than six month stability. Alongside earlier nanostructures, the heat generation rate of GIHN is compareable with surfactnat-capped gold nanorods (GNRs). Two reasons are behind this enhancement: Firstly the distance between GNRs and SPIONs is adjusted in a way that the surface plasmon resonance of the new nanostructure is similar to bare GNRs and secondly the fraction of GNRs is raised in the hybrid nanostructure. GIHN is then applied as a photothermal agent using laser irradiation with power as low as 0.5 W.cm−2 and only 32% of human breast adenocarcinoma cells could survive. The GIHN also acts as a dose-dependent transvers relaxation time (T2) MRI contrast agent. The results show that the GINH can be considered as a good candidate for multimodal photothermal therapy and MRI.
- ItemEdge states and topological insulating phases generated by curving a nanowire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling(College Park : American Physical Society, 2015) Gentile, Paola; Cuoco, Mario; Ortix, CarmineWe prove that curvature effects in low-dimensional nanomaterials can promote the generation of topological states of matter by considering the paradigmatic example of quantum wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which are bent in a nanoscale periodic serpentine structure. The effect of the periodic curvature generally results in the appearance of insulating phases with a corresponding novel butterfly spectrum characterized by the formation of finite measure complex regions of forbidden energies. When the Fermi energy lies in the gaps, the system displays localized end states protected by topology. We further show that for certain superstructure periods the system possesses topologically nontrivial insulating phases at half filling. Our results suggest that the local curvature and the topology of the electronic states are inextricably intertwined in geometrically deformed nanomaterials.
- ItemNesting-driven multipolar order in CeB6 from photoemission tomography(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Koitzsch, A.; Heming, N.; Knupfer, M.; Büchner, B.; Portnichenko, P.Y.; Dukhnenko, A.V.; Shitsevalova, N.Y.; Filipov, V.B.; Lev, L.L.Some heavy fermion materials show so-called hidden-order phases which are invisible to many characterization techniques and whose microscopic origin remained controversial for decades. Among such hidden-order compounds, CeB6 is of model character due to its simple electronic configuration and crystal structure. Apart from more conventional antiferromagnetism, it shows an elusive phase at low temperatures, which is commonly associated with multipolar order. Here we show that this phase roots in a Fermi surface instability. This conclusion is based on a full 3D tomographic sampling of the electronic structure by angle-resolved photoemission and comparison with inelastic neutron scattering data. The hidden order is mediated by itinerant electrons. Our measurements will serve as a paradigm for the investigation of hidden-order phases in f-electron systems, but also generally for situations where the itinerant electrons drive orbital or spin order.
- ItemTheoretical approach to resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in iron-based superconductors at the energy scale of the superconducting gap(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Marra, Pasquale; van den Brink, Jeroen; Sykora, SteffenWe develop a phenomenological theory to predict the characteristic features of the momentum-dependent scattering amplitude in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the energy scale of the superconducting gap in iron-based super-conductors. Taking into account all relevant orbital states as well as their specific content along the Fermi surface we evaluate the charge and spin dynamical structure factors for the compounds LaOFeAs and LiFeAs, based on tight-binding models which are fully consistent with recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data. We find a characteristic intensity redistribution between charge and spin dynamical structure factors which discriminates between sign-reversing and sign-preserving quasiparticle excitations. Consequently, our results show that RIXS spectra can distinguish between s± and s++ wave gap functions in the singlet pairing case. In addition, we find that an analogous intensity redistribution at small momenta can reveal the presence of a chiral p-wave triplet pairing.
- ItemChiral surface twists and Skyrmion stability in nanolayers of cubic helimagnets(College Park : American Physical Society, 2016) Leonov, A. O.; Togawa, Y.; Monchesky, T. L.; Bogdanov, A. N.; Kishine, J.; Kousaka, Y.; Miyagawa, M.; Koyama, T.; Akimitsu, J.; Koyama, Ts.; Harada, K.; Mori, S.; McGrouther, D.; Lamb, R.; Krajnak, M.; McVitie, S.; Stamps, R. L.; Inoue, K.Theoretical analysis and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) investigations in an FeGe wedge demonstrate that chiral twists arising near the surfaces of noncentrosymmetric ferromagnets [Meynell et al., Phys. Rev. B 90, 014406 (2014)] provide a stabilization mechanism for magnetic Skyrmion lattices and helicoids in cubic helimagnet nanolayers. The magnetic phase diagram obtained for freestanding cubic helimagnet nanolayers shows that magnetization processes differ fundamentally from those in bulk cubic helimagnets and are characterized by the first-order transitions between modulated phases. LTEM investigations exhibit a series of hysteretic transformation processes among the modulated phases, which results in the formation of the multidomain patterns.
- ItemUnderstanding the catalyst-free transformation of amorphous carbon into graphene by current-induced annealing(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Barreiro, Amelia; Börrnert, Felix; Avdoshenko, Stanislav M.; Rellinghaus, Bernd; Cuniberti, Gianaurelio; Rümmeli, Mark H.; Vandersypen, Lieven M.K.We shed light on the catalyst-free growth of graphene from amorphous carbon (a–C) by current-induced annealing by witnessing the mechanism both with in-situ transmission electron microscopy and with molecular dynamics simulations. Both in experiment and in simulation, we observe that small a–C clusters on top of a graphene substrate rearrange and crystallize into graphene patches. The process is aided by the high temperatures involved and by the van der Waals interactions with the substrate. Furthermore, in the presence of a–C, graphene can grow from the borders of holes and form a seamless graphene sheet, a novel finding that has not been reported before and that is reproduced by the simulations as well. These findings open up new avenues for bottom-up engineering of graphene-based devices.
- ItemHall-plot of the phase diagram for Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Iida, Kazumasa; Grinenko, Vadim; Kurth, Fritz; Ichinose, Ataru; Tsukada, Ichiro; Ahrens, Eike; Pukenas, Aurimas; Chekhonin, Paul; Skrotzki, Werner; Teresiak, Angelika; Hühne, Ruben; Aswartham, Saicharan; Wurmehl, Sabine; Erbe, Manuela; Hänisch, Jens; Holzapfel, Bernhard; Drechsler, Stefan-Ludwig; Efremov, Dmitri V.The Hall effect is a powerful tool for investigating carrier type and density. For single-band materials, the Hall coefficient is traditionally expressed simply by , where e is the charge of the carrier, and n is the concentration. However, it is well known that in the critical region near a quantum phase transition, as it was demonstrated for cuprates and heavy fermions, the Hall coefficient exhibits strong temperature and doping dependencies, which can not be described by such a simple expression, and the interpretation of the Hall coefficient for Fe-based superconductors is also problematic. Here, we investigate thin films of Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 with compressive and tensile in-plane strain in a wide range of Co doping. Such in-plane strain changes the band structure of the compounds, resulting in various shifts of the whole phase diagram as a function of Co doping. We show that the resultant phase diagrams for different strain states can be mapped onto a single phase diagram with the Hall number. This universal plot is attributed to the critical fluctuations in multiband systems near the antiferromagnetic transition, which may suggest a direct link between magnetic and superconducting properties in the BaFe2As2 system.
- ItemDirect evidence for a pressure-induced nodal superconducting gap in the Ba0.65Rb0.35Fe2As2 superconductor(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Guguchia, Z.; Amato, A.; Kang, J.; Luetkens, H.; Biswas, P.K.; Prando, G.; von Rohr, F.; Bukowski, Z.; Shengelaya, A.; Keller, H.; Morenzoni, E.; Fernandes, Rafael M.; Khasanov, R.The superconducting gap structure in iron-based high-temperature superconductors (Fe-HTSs) is non-universal. In contrast to other unconventional superconductors, in the Fe-HTSs both d-wave and extended s-wave pairing symmetries are close in energy. Probing the proximity between these very different superconducting states and identifying experimental parameters that can tune them is of central interest. Here we report high-pressure muon spin rotation experiments on the temperature-dependent magnetic penetration depth in the optimally doped nodeless s-wave Fe-HTS Ba0.65Rb0.35Fe2As2. Upon pressure, a strong decrease of the penetration depth in the zero-temperature limit is observed, while the superconducting transition temperature remains nearly constant. More importantly, the low-temperature behaviour of the inverse-squared magnetic penetration depth, which is a direct measure of the superfluid density, changes qualitatively from an exponential saturation at zero pressure to a linear-in-temperature behaviour at higher pressures, indicating that hydrostatic pressure promotes the appearance of nodes in the superconducting gap.
- ItemHigh-field ESR studies of the quantum spin magnet CaCu2O 3(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2006) Goiran, M.; Costes, M.; Broto, J.M.; Chou, F.C.; Klingeler, R.; Arushanov, E.; Drechsler, S.-L.; Büchner, B.; Kataev, V.We report an electron spin resonance (ESR) study of the s = 1/2 Heisenberg pseudo-ladder magnet CaCu2O3 in pulsed magnetic fields up to 40 T. At sub-terahertz frequencies we observe an ESR signal originating from a small amount of uncompensated spins residing presumably at the imperfections of the strongly antiferromagnetically correlated host spin lattice. The data give evidence that these few per cent of 'extra' spin states are coupled strongly to the bulk spins and are involved in the antiferromagnetic (AF) ordering at TN = 25 K. By mapping the frequency/resonance field diagram we have determined a small gap for magnetic excitations below TN of the order of ~0.3–0.8 meV. Such a small value of the gap explains the occurrence of the spin-flop transition in CaCu2O3 at weak magnetic fields μ0Hsf ~ 3 T. Qualitative changes of the ESR response with the increasing field strength give indications that strong magnetic fields reduce the AF correlations and may even suppress the long-range magnetic order in CaCu2O3. ESR data support scenarios with a significant role of the 'extra' spin states for the properties of low-dimensional quantum magnets.
- ItemTwo-dimensional membrane as elastic shell with proof on the folds revealed by three-dimensional atomic mapping(London : Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Zhao, Jiong; Deng, Qingming; Ly, Thuc Hue; Han, Gang Hee; Sandeep, Gorantla; Rümmeli, Mark H.The great application potential for two-dimensional (2D) membranes (MoS2, WSe2, graphene and so on) aroused much effort to understand their fundamental mechanical properties. The out-of-plane bending rigidity is the key factor that controls the membrane morphology under external fields. Herein we provide an easy method to reconstruct the 3D structures of the folded edges of these 2D membranes on the atomic scale, using high-resolution (S)TEM images. After quantitative comparison with continuum mechanics shell model, it is verified that the bending behaviour of the studied 2D materials can be well explained by the linear elastic shell model. And the bending rigidities can thus be derived by fitting with our experimental results. Recall almost only theoretical approaches can access the bending properties of these 2D membranes before, now a new experimental method to measure the bending rigidity of such flexible and atomic thick 2D membranes is proposed.