Search results for "nanotechnology"
showing 10 items of 9818 documents
Thiol-Stabilized Atomically Precise, Superatomic Silver Nanoparticles for Catalyzing Cycloisomerization of Alkynyl Amines
2018
Abstract Both the electronic and surface structures of metal nanomaterials play critical roles in determining their chemical properties. However, the non-molecular nature of conventional nanoparticles makes it extremely challenging to understand the molecular mechanism behind many of their unique electronic and surface properties. In this work, we report the synthesis, molecular and electronic structures of an atomically precise nanoparticle, [Ag206L72]q (L = thiolate, halide; q = charge). With a four-shell Ag7@Ag32@Ag77@Ag90 Ino-decahedral structure having a nearly perfect D5h symmetry, the metal core of the nanoparticle is co-stabilized by 68 thiolate and 4 halide ligands. Both electroche…
Electronic shell structures in bare and protected metal nanoclusters
2016
This short review discusses the concept of the electronic shell structure in the context of metal nanoclusters. Electronic shell structure is a natural consequence of quantization of fermionic states in a quantum confinement, where the symmetry of the confining potential creates energetically close-lying sets of states that reflect the symmetry of the potential. It was introduced in cluster physics in early 1980s and initially influenced greatly by the related model of nuclear shell structure from 1950’s. Three application areas are discussed consisting of free gas phase clusters, clusters supported by insulating oxides or oxide thin films, and clusters that are synthesized by wet chemistry…
Flat-band superconductivity in strained Dirac materials
2016
We consider superconducting properties of a two-dimensional Dirac material such as graphene under strain that produces a flat band spectrum in the normal state. We show that in the superconducting state, such a model results in a highly increased critical temperature compared to the case without the strain, inhomogenous order parameter with two-peak shaped local density of states and yet a large and almost uniform and isotropic supercurrent. This model could be realized in strained graphene or ultracold atom systems and could be responsible for unusually strong superconductivity observed in some graphite interfaces and certain IV-VI semiconductor heterostructures.
Topological polarization, dual invariants, and surface flat band in crystalline insulators
2020
We describe a three-dimensional crystalline topological insulator (TI) phase of matter that exhibits spontaneous polarization. This polarization results from the presence of (approximately) flat bands on the surface of such TIs. These flat bands are a consequence of the bulk-boundary correspondence of polarized topological media, and contrary to related nodal line semimetal phases also containing surface flat bands, they span the entire surface Brillouin zone. We also present an example Hamiltonian exhibiting a Lifshitz transition from the nodal line phase to the TI phase with polarization. Utilizing elasticity tetrads, we show a complete classification of 3D crystalline TI phases and invar…
Finite-frequency spin susceptibility and spin pumping in superconductors with spin-orbit relaxation
2020
Static spin susceptibility of superconductors with spin-orbit relaxation has been calculated in the seminal work of A.A. Abrikosov and L.P. Gor'kov [Sov. Phys. JETP, {\bf 15}, 752 (1962)]. Surprisingly the generalization of this result to finite frequencies has not been done despite being quite important for the modern topic of superconducting spintronics. The present paper fills this gap by deriving the analytical expression for spin susceptibility. The time-dependent spin response is shown to be captured by the quasiclassical Eilenberger equation with collision integrals corresponding to the ordinary and spin-orbit scattering. Using the developed formalism we study the linear spin pumping…
Proximity Effect in Superconducting Heterostructures with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling and Spin Splitting
2019
It has been shown that singlet Cooper pairs can be converted into triplet ones and diffuse into a ferromagnet over a long distance in a phenomenon known as the long-range proximity effect (LRPE). This happens in materials with inhomogeneous magnetism or spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Most of the previous studies focus on the cases with small SOC and exchange field. However, the physics was not clear when SOC and exchange field strength are both much greater than the disorder strength. In this work, we consider a two dimensional system with a large Rashba-type SOC and exchange field in the case where only one band is partially occupied. We develop a generalized quasiclassical theory by projectin…
Superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature of twisted bilayer graphene
2019
We study superconductivity of twisted bilayer graphene with local and non-local attractive interactions. We obtain the superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature for microscopic tight-binding and low-energy continuum models. We predict qualitative differences between local and non-local interaction schemes which could be distinguished experimentally. In the flat band limit where the pair potential exceeds the band width we show that the superfluid weight and BKT temperature are determined by multiband processes and quantum geometry of the band.
Competition of electron-phonon mediated superconductivity and Stoner magnetism on a flat band
2018
The effective attractive interaction between electrons, mediated by electron-phonon coupling, is a well-established mechanism of conventional superconductivity. In metals exhibiting a Fermi surface, the critical temperature of superconductivity is exponentially smaller than the characteristic phonon energy. Therefore, such superconductors are found only at temperatures below a few kelvin. Systems with flat energy bands have been suggested to cure the problem and provide a route to room-temperature superconductivity, but previous studies are limited to only BCS models with an effective attractive interaction. Here we generalize Eliashberg's theory of strong-coupling superconductivity to syst…
Field dependence of the vortex-core sizes in dirty two-band superconductors
2019
We study the structure of Abrikosov vortices in two-band superconductors for different external magnetic fields and different parameters of the bands. The vortex core size determined by the coherence lengths are found to have qualitatively different behaviour from that determined by the quasiparticle density of states spatial variation. These different vortex core length scales coincide near the upper critical field, while the discrepancy between them becomes quite significant at lower fields. Within the diffusive approximation we demonstrate several generic regimes in the field dependence of the vortex core sizes determined by the disparity of diffusion constants in the two bands.
Chirality selective spin interactions mediated by the moving superconducting condensate
2018
We show that superconducting correlations in the presence of nonzero condensate velocity can mediate the peculiar interaction between localized spins that breaks the global inversion symmetry of magnetic moments. The proposed interaction mechanism is capable of removing fundamental degeneracies between topologically distinct magnetic textures. For the generic system of three magnetic impurities in the current-carrying superconductor, we find the energy term proportional to spin chirality. In realistic superconductor/ferromagnetic/superconductor setups we reveal significant energy differences between various magnetic textures with opposite chiralities. We calculate Josephson energies of junc…