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Background: Magnetic nanoparticles are attracting much attention toward easyoperation and size controllable synthesis methods. We develop a method to synthesize MnO, Co,CoO, and Ni nanoparticles by thermal decomposition of metal 2,4-pentanedionates in the presenceof oleylamine (OLA), oleic acid (OA), and 1-octadecene (ODE). Methods: Similar experimental conditions are used to prepare nanoparticles except for the metalstarting materials (manganese 2,4-pentanedionate, nickel 2,4-pentanedionate, and cobalt 2,4-pentanedionate), leading to different products. For the manganese 2,4-pentanedionate startingmaterial, MnO nanoparticles are always obtained as the reaction is controlled with differenttemperatures, precursor concentrations, ligand ratios, and reaction time. For the cobalt 2,4-pentanedionate starting material, only three experimental conditions can produce pure phase CoOand Co nanoparticles. For the nickel 2,4-pentanedionate starting material, only three experimentalconditions lead to the production of pure phase Ni nanoparticles. Results: The nanoparticle sizes increase with the increase of reaction temperatures. It is observedthat the reaction time affects nanoparticle growth. The nanoparticles are studied by XRD, TEM,and magnetic measurements. Conclusion: This work presents a facile method to prepare nanoparticles with different sizes,which provides a fundamental understanding of nanoparticle growth in solution. 

Topological Dirac semimetal α-Sn exhibits unexpectedly large bilinear magnetoelectric resistance at room temperature. 

CrBr 3 is a layered van der Waals material with magnetic ordering down to the 2D limit. For decades, based on optical measurements, it is believed that the energy gap of CrBr 3 is in the range of 1.68–2.1 eV. However, controversial results have indicated that the band gap of CrBr 3 is possibly smaller than that. An unambiguous determination of the energy gap is critical to the correct interpretations of the experimental results of CrBr 3 . Here, we present the scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/S) results of CrBr 3 thin and thick flakes exfoliated onto highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to reveal the small energy gap (peak-to-peak energy gap to be 0.57 ± 0.04 eV; or the onset signal energy gap to be 0.29 ± 0.05 eV from d I /d V spectra). Atomic resolution topography images show the defect-free crystal structure and the d I /d V spectra exhibit multiple peak features measured at 77 K. The conduction band – valence band peak pairs in the multi-peak d I /d V spectrum agree very well with all reported optical transitions. STM topography images of mono- and bi-layer CrBr 3 flakes exhibit edge degradation due to short air exposure (∼15 min) during sample transfer. The unambiguously determined small energy gap settles the controversy and is the key in better understanding CrBr 3 and similar materials. 

This article reports damping enhancement in a ferromagnetic NiFe thin film due to an adjacent α‐Sn thin film. Ferromagnetic resonance studies show that an α‐Sn film separated from a NiFe film by an ultrathin Ag spacer can cause an extra damping in the NiFe film that is three times bigger than the intrinsic damping of the NiFe film. Such an extra damping is absent in structures where the α‐Sn film interfaces directly with a NiFe film, or is replaced by a β‐Sn film. The data suggest that the extra damping is associated with topologically nontrivial surface states in the topological Dirac semimetal phase of the α‐Sn film. This work suggests that, like topological insulators, topological Dirac semimetal α‐Sn may have promising applications in spintronics.