Rice University Research Repository
The Rice Research Repository (R-3) provides access to research produced at Rice University, including theses and dissertations, journal articles, research center publications, datasets, and academic journals. Managed by Fondren Library, R-3 is indexed by Google and Google Scholar, follows best practices for preservation, and provides DOIs to facilitate citation. Woodson Research Center collections, including Rice Images and Documents and the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice, have moved here.
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Reversible non-volatile electronic switching in a near-room-temperature van der Waals ferromagnet
(Springer Nature, 2024) Wu, Han; Chen, Lei; Malinowski, Paul; Jang, Bo Gyu; Deng, Qinwen; Scott, Kirsty; Huang, Jianwei; Ruff, Jacob P. C.; He, Yu; Chen, Xiang; Hu, Chaowei; Yue, Ziqin; Oh, Ji Seop; Teng, Xiaokun; Guo, Yucheng; Klemm, Mason; Shi, Chuqiao; Shi, Yue; Setty, Chandan; Werner, Tyler; Hashimoto, Makoto; Lu, Donghui; Yilmaz, Turgut; Vescovo, Elio; Mo, Sung-Kwan; Fedorov, Alexei; Denlinger, Jonathan D.; Xie, Yaofeng; Gao, Bin; Kono, Junichiro; Dai, Pengcheng; Han, Yimo; Xu, Xiaodong; Birgeneau, Robert J.; Zhu, Jian-Xin; da Silva Neto, Eduardo H.; Wu, Liang; Chu, Jiun-Haw; Si, Qimiao; Yi, Ming; Rice Center for Quantum Materials
Non-volatile phase-change memory devices utilize local heating to toggle between crystalline and amorphous states with distinct electrical properties. Expanding on this kind of switching to two topologically distinct phases requires controlled non-volatile switching between two crystalline phases with distinct symmetries. Here, we report the observation of reversible and non-volatile switching between two stable and closely related crystal structures, with remarkably distinct electronic structures, in the near-room-temperature van der Waals ferromagnet Fe5−δGeTe2. We show that the switching is enabled by the ordering and disordering of Fe site vacancies that results in distinct crystalline symmetries of the two phases, which can be controlled by a thermal annealing and quenching method. The two phases are distinguished by the presence of topological nodal lines due to the preserved global inversion symmetry in the site-disordered phase, flat bands resulting from quantum destructive interference on a bipartite lattice, and broken inversion symmetry in the site-ordered phase.
Observation of flat bands and Dirac cones in a pyrochlore lattice superconductor
(Springer Nature, 2024) Huang, Jianwei; Setty, Chandan; Deng, Liangzi; You, Jing-Yang; Liu, Hongxiong; Shao, Sen; Oh, Ji Seop; Guo, Yucheng; Zhang, Yichen; Yue, Ziqin; Yin, Jia-Xin; Hashimoto, Makoto; Lu, Donghui; Gorovikov, Sergey; Dai, Pengcheng; Denlinger, Jonathan D.; Allen, J. W.; Hasan, M. Zahid; Feng, Yuan-Ping; Birgeneau, Robert J.; Shi, Youguo; Chu, Ching-Wu; Chang, Guoqing; Si, Qimiao; Yi, Ming; Rice Center for Quantum Materials
Emergent phases often appear when the electronic kinetic energy is comparable to the Coulomb interactions. One approach to seek material systems as hosts of such emergent phases is to realize localization of electronic wavefunctions due to the geometric frustration inherent in the crystal structure, resulting in flat electronic bands. Recently, such efforts have found a wide range of exotic phases in the two-dimensional kagome lattice, including magnetic order, time-reversal symmetry breaking charge order, nematicity, and superconductivity. However, the interlayer coupling of the kagome layers disrupts the destructive interference needed to completely quench the kinetic energy. Here we demonstrate that an interwoven kagome network—a pyrochlore lattice—can host a three dimensional (3D) localization of electron wavefunctions. Meanwhile, the nonsymmorphic symmetry of the pyrochlore lattice guarantees all band crossings at the Brillouin zone X point to be 3D gapless Dirac points, which was predicted theoretically but never yet observed experimentally. Through a combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, fundamental lattice model and density functional theory calculations, we investigate the novel electronic structure of a Laves phase superconductor with a pyrochlore sublattice, CeRu2. We observe evidence of flat bands originating from the Ce 4f orbitals as well as flat bands from the 3D destructive interference of the Ru 4d orbitals. We further observe the nonsymmorphic symmetry-protected 3D gapless Dirac cone at the X point. Our work establishes the pyrochlore structure as a promising lattice platform to realize and tune novel emergent phases intertwining topology and many-body interactions.
Resolved ALMA observations of water in the inner astronomical units of the HL Tau disk
(Springer Nature, 2024) Facchini, Stefano; Testi, Leonardo; Humphreys, Elizabeth; Vander Donckt, Mathieu; Isella, Andrea; Wrzosek, Ramon; Baudry, Alain; Gray, Malcom D.; Richards, Anita M. S.; Vlemmmings, Wouter
The water molecule is a key ingredient in the formation of planetary systems, with the water snowline being a favourable location for the growth of massive planetary cores. Here we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data of the ringed protoplanetary disk orbiting the young star HL Tauri that show centrally peaked, bright emission arising from three distinct transitions of the main water isotopologue ($${\mathrm{H}}_{2}^{16}{\mathrm{O}}$$). The spatially and spectrally resolved water content probes gas in a thermal range down to the water sublimation temperature. Our analysis implies a stringent lower limit of 3.7 Earth oceans of water vapour available within the inner 17 astronomical units of the system. We show that our observations are limited to probing the water content in the atmosphere of the disk, due to the high dust column density and absorption, and indicate that the main water isotopologue is the best tracer to spatially resolve water vapour in protoplanetary disks.
Revealing the impact of ammonium ions from different low-dimensional perovskite structures on the film formation and degradation mechanism of FAPbI3 via sequential deposition
(AIP Publishing LLC, 2024) Wang, Yafei; Yuan, Shihao; Feng, Rongsen; Diao, Zecheng; Huang, Jie; Liao, Jiacai; Sidhik, Siraj; Shuai, Xinting; Wang, Meicong; Zou, Tao; Liang, Zhongwei; Zhang, Ting; Mohite, Aditya D.; Li, Shibin
In recent years, the organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite community has been widely employed as the photo-active layer in optical-electronic devices. The black α-phase formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) is the most popular perovskite for realizing high-efficiency solar cells due to its suitable bandgap. However, the issue of stability is also a concern in the research on FAPbI3 solar cells. In this study, different ammonium ions, such as butylamine (BA), guanidine (GA), and butylene diamine (BDA), which are commonly used to construct two-dimensional perovskites, including Ruddlesden–Popper, Dion–Jacobson, and alternating cations in the interlayer space, respectively, were introduced in the fabrication of FAPbI3 using a sequential deposition method. Several structures of PbI2 precursor films were formed by introducing the aforementioned ions, which exhibited different arrangements and connection modes in lead iodides. BA-PbI2 precursor films exhibited higher specific surface areas, which were beneficial to the diffusion, ion exchange, and sequential reaction of FA+. The BDA-PbI2 precursor film slowed down the sequential reaction of FAPbI3 because of reduced van der Waals bonds. The nucleation dynamics and degradation processes of perovskites were deeply investigated in this study. Solar cells based on BA-PbI2, GA-PbI2, and BDA-PbI2 were also fabricated.
Expansion of a neural crest gene signature following ectopic MYCN expression in sympathoadrenal lineage cells in vivo
(Public Library of Science, 2024) Ibarra-García-Padilla, Rodrigo; Nambiar, Annika; Hamre, Thomas A.; Singleton, Eileen W.; Uribe, Rosa A.
Neural crest cells (NCC) are multipotent migratory stem cells that originate from the neural tube during early vertebrate embryogenesis. NCCs give rise to a variety of cell types within the developing organism, including neurons and glia of the sympathetic nervous system. It has been suggested that failure in correct NCC differentiation leads to several diseases, including neuroblastoma (NB). During normal NCC development, MYCN is transiently expressed to promote NCC migration, and its downregulation precedes neuronal differentiation. Overexpression of MYCN has been linked to high-risk and aggressive NB progression. For this reason, understanding the effect overexpression of this oncogene has on the development of NCC-derived sympathoadrenal progenitors (SAP), which later give rise to sympathetic nerves, will help elucidate the developmental mechanisms that may prime the onset of NB. Here, we found that overexpressing human EGFP-MYCN within SAP lineage cells in zebrafish led to the transient formation of an abnormal SAP population, which displayed expanded and elevated expression of NCC markers while paradoxically also co-expressing SAP and neuronal differentiation markers. The aberrant NCC signature was corroborated with in vivo time-lapse confocal imaging in zebrafish larvae, which revealed transient expansion of sox10 reporter expression in MYCN overexpressing SAPs during the early stages of SAP development. In these aberrant MYCN overexpressing SAP cells, we also found evidence of dampened BMP signaling activity, indicating that BMP signaling disruption occurs following elevated MYCN expression. Furthermore, we discovered that pharmacological inhibition of BMP signaling was sufficient to create an aberrant NCC gene signature in SAP cells, phenocopying MYCN overexpression. Together, our results suggest that MYCN overexpression in SAPs disrupts their differentiation by eliciting abnormal NCC gene expression programs, and dampening BMP signaling response, having developmental implications for the priming of NB in vivo.