Browsing by Author "Li, Sheng"

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    Room-Temperature Topological Phase Transition in Quasi-One-Dimensional Material Bi4I4
    (American Physical Society, 2021) Huang, Jianwei; Li, Sheng; Yoon, Chiho; Oh, Ji Seop; Wu, Han; Liu, Xiaoyuan; Dhale, Nikhil; Zhou, Yan-Feng; Guo, Yucheng; Zhang, Yichen; Hashimoto, Makoto; Lu, Donghui; Denlinger, Jonathan; Wang, Xiqu; Lau, Chun Ning; Birgeneau, Robert J.; Zhang, Fan; Lv, Bing; Yi, Ming
    Quasi-one-dimensional (1D) materials provide a superior platform for characterizing and tuning topological phases for two reasons: (i) existence for multiple cleavable surfaces that enables better experimental identification of topological classification and (ii) stronger response to perturbations such as strain for tuning topological phases compared to higher dimensional crystal structures. In this paper, we present experimental evidence for a room-temperature topological phase transition in the quasi-1D material Bi4I4, mediated via a first-order structural transition between two distinct stacking orders of the weakly coupled chains. Using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on the two natural cleavable surfaces, we identify the high-temperature β phase to be the first weak topological insulator with two gapless Dirac cones on the (100) surface and no Dirac crossing on the (001) surface, while in the low-temperature α phase, the topological surface state on the (100) surface opens a gap, consistent with a recent theoretical prediction of a higher-order topological insulator beyond the scope of the established topological materials databases that hosts gapless hinge states. Our results not only identify a rare topological phase transition between first-order and second-order topological insulators but also establish a novel quasi-1D material platform for exploring unprecedented physics.
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    Transport anomalies in the layered compound BaPt4Se6
    (Springer Nature, 2021) Li, Sheng; Zhang, Yichen; Wu, Hanlin; Zhai, Huifei; Liu, Wenhao; Petit, Daniel Peirano; Oh, Ji Seop; Denlinger, Jonathan; McCandless, Gregory T.; Chan, Julia Y.; Birgeneau, Robert J.; Li, Gang; Yi, Ming; Lv, Bing
    We report a layered ternary selenide BaPt4Se6 featuring sesqui-selenide Pt2Se3 layers sandwiched by Ba atoms. The Pt2Se3 layers in this compound can be derived from the Dirac-semimetal PtSe2 phase with Se vacancies that form a honeycomb structure. This structure results in a Pt (VI) and Pt (II) mixed-valence compound with both PtSe6 octahedra and PtSe4 square net coordination configurations. Temperature-dependent electrical transport measurements suggest two distinct anomalies: a resistivity crossover, mimic to the metal-insulator (M-I) transition at ~150 K, and a resistivity plateau at temperatures below 10 K. The resistivity crossover is not associated with any structural, magnetic, or charge order modulated phase transitions. Magnetoresistivity, Hall, and heat capacity measurements concurrently suggest an existing hidden state below 5 K in this system. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal a metallic state and no dramatic reconstruction of the electronic structure up to 200 K.