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    Layered manganese bismuth tellurides with GeBi4Te7- and GeBi6Te10-type structures: Towards multifunctional materials
    (London : RSC Publ., 2019) Souchay, Daniel; Nentwig, Markus; Günther, Daniel; Keilholz, Simon; de Boor, Johannes; Zeugner, Alexander; Isaeva, Anna; Ruck, Michael; Wolter, Anja U.B.; Büchnerde, Bernd; Oeckler, Oliver
    The crystal structures of new layered manganese bismuth tellurides with the compositions Mn0.85(3)Bi4.10(2)Te7 and Mn0.73(4)Bi6.18(2)Te10 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, including the use of microfocused synchrotron radiation. These analyses reveal that the layered structures deviate from the idealized stoichiometry of the 12P-GeBi4Te7 (space group P3m1) and 51R-GeBi6Te10 (space group R3m) structure types they adopt. Modified compositions Mn1-xBi4+2x/3Te7 (x = 0.15-0.2) and Mn1-xBi6+2x/3Te10 (x = 0.19-0.26) assume cation vacancies and lead to homogenous bulk samples as confirmed by Rietveld refinements. Electron diffraction patterns exhibit no diffuse streaks that would indicate stacking disorder. The alternating quintuple-layer [M2Te3] and septuple-layer [M3Te4] slabs (M = mixed occupied by Bi and Mn) with 1 : 1 sequence (12P stacking) in Mn0.85Bi4.10Te7 and 2 : 1 sequence (51R stacking) in Mn0.81Bi6.13Te10 were also observed in HRTEM images. Temperature-dependent powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry show that the compounds are high-temperature phases, which are metastable at ambient temperature. Magnetization measurements are in accordance with a MnII oxidation state and point at predominantly ferromagnetic coupling in both compounds. The thermoelectric figures of merit of n-type conducting Mn0.85Bi4.10Te7 and Mn0.81Bi6.13Te10 reach zT = 0.25 at 375 °C and zT = 0.28 at 325 °C, respectively. Although the compounds are metastable, compact ingots exhibit still up to 80% of the main phases after thermoelectric measurements up to 400 °C. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019.
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    Electrical and magnetic properties of NiTiO3 nanoparticles synthesized by the sol-gel synthesis method and microwave sintering
    (Amsterdam : Elsevier B.V., 2019) Pavithra, C.; Madhuri, W.
    In this paper, we focused on microwave sintered NiTiO3 nanoparticles synthesized via sol-gel method. The crystal structure was determined by the X-ray diffraction. Vibrational bands related to Ni-O and Ti-O bands were confirmed using the Fourier transform infrared spectrum. These NiTiO3 ceramics obeyed semiconductor behavior of Arrhenius type. The activation energy was found to be 0.04 μeV. The M-H curve exhibited superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature.
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    Remarkable performance recovery in highly defective perovskite solar cells by photo-oxidation
    (London [u.a.] : RSC, 2023) Goetz, Katelyn P.; Thome, Fabian T. F.; An, Qingzhi; Hofstetter, Yvonne J.; Schramm, Tim; Yangui, Aymen; Kiligaridis, Alexander; Loeffler, Markus; Taylor, Alexander D.; Scheblykin, Ivan G.; Vaynzof, Yana
    Exposure to environmental factors is generally expected to cause degradation in perovskite films and solar cells. Herein, we show that films with certain defect profiles can display the opposite effect, healing upon exposure to oxygen under illumination. We tune the iodine content of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite from understoichiometric to overstoichiometric and expose them to oxygen and light prior to the addition of the top layers of the device, thereby examining the defect dependence of their photooxidative response in the absence of storage-related chemical processes. The contrast between the photovoltaic properties of the cells with different defects is stark. Understoichiometric samples indeed degrade, demonstrating performance at 33% of their untreated counterparts, while stoichiometric samples maintain their performance levels. Surprisingly, overstoichiometric samples, which show low current density and strong reverse hysteresis when untreated, heal to maximum performance levels (the same as untreated, stoichiometric samples) upon the photooxidative treatment. A similar, albeit smaller-scale, effect is observed for triple cation and methylammonium-free compositions, demonstrating the general application of this treatment to state-of-the-art compositions. We examine the reasons behind this response by a suite of characterization techniques, finding that the performance changes coincide with microstructural decay at the crystal surface, reorientation of the bulk crystal structure for the understoichiometric cells, and a decrease in the iodine-to-lead ratio of all films. These results indicate that defect engineering is a powerful tool to manipulate the stability of perovskite solar cells.
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    Comprehensive scan for nonmagnetic Weyl semimetals with nonlinear optical response
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Xu, Q.; Zhang, Y.; Koepernik, K.; Shi, W.; van den Brink, J.; Felser, C.; Sun, Y.
    First-principles calculations have recently been used to develop comprehensive databases of nonmagnetic topological materials that are protected by time-reversal or crystalline symmetry. However, owing to the low symmetry requirement of Weyl points, a symmetry-based approach to identifying topological states cannot be applied to Weyl semimetals (WSMs). To date, WSMs with Weyl points in arbitrary positions are absent from the well-known databases. In this work, we develop an efficient algorithm to search for Weyl points automatically and establish a database of nonmagnetic WSMs with Weyl points near the Fermi level based on the experimental non-centrosymmetric crystal structures in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). In total, 46 Weyl semimetals were discovered to have nearly clean Fermi surfaces and Weyl points within 300 meV of the Fermi level. Nine of them are chiral structures which may exhibit the quantized circular photogalvanic effect. In addition, the nonlinear optical response is studied and the giant shift current is explored. Besides nonmagnetic WSMs, our powerful tools can also be used in the discovery of magnetic topological materials.