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1. Bulk-like dielectric and magnetic properties of sub 100 nm thick single crystal Cr2O3 films on an epitaxial oxide electrode

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71619-1  

   Vu, N. M. ; Luo, X. ; Novakov, S. ; Jin, W. ; Nordlander, J. ; Meisenheimer, P. B. ; Trassin, M. ; Zhao, L. ; Heron, J. T. ( December 2020 , Scientific Reports)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The manipulation of antiferromagnetic order in magnetoelectric Cr 2 O 3 using electric field has been of great interest due to its potential in low-power electronics. The substantial leakage and low dielectric breakdown observed in twinned Cr 2 O 3 thin films, however, hinders its development in energy efficient spintronics. To compensate, large film thicknesses (250 nm or greater) have been employed at the expense of device scalability. Recently, epitaxial V 2 O 3 thin film electrodes have been used to eliminate twin boundaries and significantly reduce the leakage of 300 nm thick single crystal films. Here we report the electrical endurance and magnetic properties of thin (less than 100 nm) single crystal Cr 2 O 3 films on epitaxial V 2 O 3 buffered Al 2 O 3 (0001) single crystal substrates. The growth of Cr 2 O 3 on isostructural V 2 O 3 thin film electrodes helps eliminate the existence of twin domains in Cr 2 O 3 films, therefore significantly reducing leakage current and increasing dielectric breakdown. 60 nm thick Cr 2 O 3 films show bulk-like resistivity (~ 10 12 Ω cm) with a breakdown voltage in the range of 150–300 MV/m. Exchange bias measurements of 30 nm thick Cr 2 O 3 display a blocking temperature of ~ 285 K while room temperature optical second harmonic generation measurements possess the symmetry consistent with bulk magnetic order. 

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2. Control of hot-carrier relaxation time in Au-Ag thin films through alloying

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.406093  

   Memarzadeh, Sarvenaz ; Palm, Kevin J. ; Murphy, Thomas E. ; Leite, Marina S. ; Munday, Jeremy N. ( October 2020 , Optics Express)

   The plasmon resonance of a structure is primarily dictated by its optical properties and geometry, which can be modified to enable hot-carrier photodetectors with superior performance. Recently, metal alloys have played a prominent role in tuning the resonance of plasmonic structures through chemical composition engineering. However, it has been unclear how alloying modifies the time dynamics of the generated hot-carriers. In this work, we elucidate the role of chemical composition on the relaxation time of hot-carriers for the archetypal Au_xAg_1−xthin film system. Through time-resolved optical spectroscopy measurements in the visible wavelength range, we measure composition-dependent relaxation times that vary up to 8× for constant pump fluency. Surprisingly, we find that the addition of 2% of Ag into Au films can increase the hot-carrier lifetime by approximately 35% under fixed fluence, as a result of a decrease in optical loss. Further, the relaxation time is found to be inversely proportional to the imaginary part of the permittivity. Our results indicate that alloying is a promising approach to effectively control hot-carrier relaxation time in metals.

    

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3. Recent progress on topological semimetal IrO 2 : electronic structures, synthesis, and transport properties

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/ad3603  

   Zhang, T. X. ; Coughlin, A. L. ; Lu, Chi-Ken ; Heremans, J. J. ; Zhang, S. X. ( April 2024 , Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter)

   5dtransition metal oxides, such as iridates, have attracted significant interest in condensed matter physics throughout the past decade owing to their fascinating physical properties that arise from intrinsically strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and its interplay with other interactions of comparable energy scales. Among the rich family of iridates, iridium dioxide (IrO₂), a simple binary compound long known as a promising catalyst for water splitting, has recently been demonstrated to possess novel topological states and exotic transport properties. The strong SOC and the nonsymmorphic symmetry that IrO₂possesses introduce symmetry-protected Dirac nodal lines (DNLs) within its band structure as well as a large spin Hall effect in the transport. Here, we review recent advances pertaining to the study of this unique SOC oxide, with an emphasis on the understanding of the topological electronic structures, syntheses of high crystalline quality nanostructures, and experimental measurements of its fundamental transport properties. In particular, the theoretical origin of the presence of the fourfold degenerate DNLs in band structure and its implications in the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurement and in the spin Hall effect are discussed. We further introduce a variety of synthesis techniques to achieve IrO₂nanostructures, such as epitaxial thin films and single crystalline nanowires, with the goal of understanding the roles that each key parameter plays in the growth process. Finally, we review the electrical, spin, and thermal transport studies. The transport properties under variable temperatures and magnetic fields reveal themselves to be uniquely sensitive and modifiable by strain, dimensionality (bulk, thin film, nanowire), quantum confinement, film texture, and disorder. The sensitivity, stemming from the competing energy scales of SOC, disorder, and other interactions, enables the creation of a variety of intriguing quantum states of matter.

    

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4. Characterization of the optical and electronic properties of chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymer thin films

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.499063  

   Arouh, Stephanie ; Nishant, Abhinav ; Pyun, Jeffrey ; Norwood, Robert A. ( September 2023 , Optical Materials Express)

   Chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymers (CHIPs) are a new class of optical polymeric materials for imaging and photonic applications due to their high refractive indices and high optical transmission at visible and infrared wavelengths. In this study, we characterize these polymers to study the refractive index and delve into the electronic properties by way of measurements of their dielectric constants. Ellipsometry is used to determine the refractive indices for wavelengths from 500 nm to 12 µm, while we use capacitance measurements on thin film capacitors with a range of areas to find the dielectric constant. The results are in line with expectations based on the sulfur composition of the polymers-indices range from 1.7 to 1.85, and dielectric constants range from 2.6 to 3. With these measurements, these sulfur polymer materials are established to be good candidates for optical and photonic applications, particularly with respect to telecommunications. The dielectric constants suggest that applications such as electro-optic devices and capacitors may also be viable.

    

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5. Physics-informed machine learning for inverse design of optical metamaterials

   Sulagna Sarkar, Anqi Ji ( October 2023 , Advanced Photonics Research)

   Optical metasurfaces consist of densely arranged unit cells that manipulate light through various light confinement and scattering processes. Due to its unique advantages, such as high performance, small form factor and easy integration with semiconductor devices, metasurfaces have been gathering increasing attention in fields such as displays, imaging, sensing and optical computation. Despite advances in fabrication and characterization, a viable design prediction for suitable optical response remains challenging for complex optical metamaterial systems. The computation cost required to obtain the optimal design exponentially grows as the design complexity increases. Furthermore, the design prediction is challenging since the inverse problem is often ill-posed. In recent years, deep learning (DL) methods have shown great promise in the area of inverse design. Inspired by this and the capability of DL to produce fast inference, we introduce a physics-informed DL framework to expedite the computation for the inverse design of metasurfaces. Addition of the physics-based constraints improve generalizability of the DL model while reducing data burden. Our approach introduces a tandem DL architecture with physics-based learning to alleviate the nonuniqueness issue by selecting designs that are scientifically consistent, with low error in design prediction and accurate reconstruction of optical responses. To prove the concept, we focus on the inverse design of a representative plasmonic device that consists of metal gratings deposited on a dielectric film on top of a metal substrate. The optical response of the device is determined by the geometrical dimensions as well as the material properties. The training and testing data are obtained through Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis (RCWA), while the physics-based constraint is derived from solving the electromagnetic (EM) wave equations for a simplified homogenized model. We consider the prediction of design for the optical response of a single wavelength incident or a spectrum of wavelength in the visible light range. Our model converges with an accuracy up to 97% for inverse design prediction with the optical response for the visible light spectrum as input. The model is also able to predict design with accuracy up to 96% and optical response reconstruction accuracy of 99% for optical response of a single wavelength of light as input. 

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