We report comprehensive angle-resolved photoemission investigations on the electronic structure of single crystal multiple-layer FeSe films grown on CaF₂ substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. Measurements on FeSe/CaF₂ samples with different superconducting transition temperatures T_c of 4 K, 9 K, and 14 K reveal electronic difference in their Fermi surface and band structure. Indication of the nematic phase transition is observed from temperature-dependent measurements of these samples; the nematic transition temperature is 140–160 K, much higher than~90 K for the bulk FeSe. Potassium deposition is applied onto the surface of these samples; the nematic phase is suppressed by potassium deposition which introduces electrons to these FeSe films and causes a pronounced electronic structure change. We compared and discussed the electronic structure and superconductivity of the FeSe/CaF₂ films by PLD method with the FeSe/SrTiO₃ films by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method and bulk FeSe. The PLD-grown multilayer FeSe/CaF₂ is more hole-doped than that in MBE-grown multiple-layer FeSe films. Our results on FeSe/CaF₂ films by PLD method establish a link between bulk FeSe single crystal and FeSe/SrTiO₃ films by MBE method, and provide important information to understand superconductivity in FeSe-related systems.

Asymmetrical graphene plasmon reflection patterns are found in infrared near-field images of tapered graphene ribbons epitaxially grown on silicon carbon substrates. Comparing experimental data with numerical simulations, the asymmetry of these patterns is attributed to reflection of plasmons by wrinkled edges naturally grown in the graphene. These graphene wrinkles are additional plasmon reflectors with varying optical conductivity, which act as nanometer scale plasmonic modulators and thus have potential applications in photoelectric information detectors, transmitters, and modulators.

Directed networks such as gene regulation networks and neural networks are connected by arcs (directed links). The nodes in a directed network are often strongly interwound by a huge number of directed cycles, which leads to complex information-processing dynamics in the network and makes it highly challenging to infer the intrinsic direction of information flow. In this theoretical paper, based on the principle of minimum-feedback, we explore the node hierarchy of directed networks and distinguish feedforward and feedback arcs. Nearly optimal node hierarchy solutions, which minimize the number of feedback arcs from lower-level nodes to higher-level nodes, are constructed by belief-propagation and simulated-annealing methods. For real-world networks, we quantify the extent of feedback scarcity by comparison with the ensemble of direction-randomized networks and identify the most important feedback arcs. Our methods are also useful for visualizing directed networks.

The composite quasi solid state electrolytes (CQSE) is firstly synthesized with quasi solid state electrolytes (QSE) and lithium-ion-conducting material Li_1.4Al_0.4Ti_1.6(PO₄)₃ (LATP), and the QSE consists of[LiG4][TFSI] with fumed silica nanoparticles. Compared with LATP, CQSE greatly improves the interface conductance of solid electrolytes. In addition,it has lower liquid volume relative to QSE. Although the liquid volume fraction of CQSE drops to 60%, its conductivity can also reach 1.39×10^-4 s/cm at 20℃. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) is conducted on each composite electrolyte. The results show the possibility that CQSE has superior electrochemical stability up to 5.0 V versus Li/Li⁺¹. TG curves also show that composite electrolytes have higher thermal stability. In addition, the performance of Li/QSE/LiMn₂O₄ cells and Li/CQSE/LiMn₂O₄ is evaluated and shows good electrochemical characteristics at 60℃.

Angle-resolved polarized Raman (ARPR) spectroscopy can be utilized to assign the Raman modes based on crystal symmetry and Raman selection rules and also to characterize the crystallographic orientation of anisotropic materials. However, polarized Raman measurements can be implemented by several different configurations and thus lead to different results. In this work, we systematically analyze three typical polarization configurations:1) to change the polarization of the incident laser, 2) to rotate the sample, and 3) to set a half-wave plate in the common optical path of incident laser and scattered Raman signal to simultaneously vary their polarization directions. We provide a general approach of polarization analysis on the Raman intensity under the three polarization configurations and demonstrate that the latter two cases are equivalent to each other. Because the basal plane of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) exhibits isotropic feature and its edge plane is highly anisotropic, HOPG can be treated as a modelling system to study ARPR spectroscopy of two-dimensional materials on their basal and edge planes. Therefore, we verify the ARPR behaviors of HOPG on its basal and edge planes at three different polarization configurations. The orientation direction of HOPG edge plane can be accurately determined by the angle-resolved polarization-dependent G mode intensity without rotating sample, which shows potential application for orientation determination of other anisotropic and vertically standing two-dimensional materials and other materials.

Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we studied the transition from tunneling regime to local point contact on the iron-based superconductor Ba_0.6K_0.4Fe₂As₂. By gradually reducing the junction resistance, a series of spectra were obtained with the characteristics evolving from single-particle tunneling into Andreev reflection. The spectra can be well fitted to the modified Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) model and exhibit significant changes of both spectral broadening and orbital selection due to the formation of point contact. The spatial resolution of the point contact was estimated to be several nanometers, providing a unique way to study the inhomogeneity of unconventional superconductors on such a scale.

We report the success in introducing Mn into (Li_1-xFe_x)OHFe_1-ySe superconducting crystals by applying two different hydrothermal routes, ion exchange (1-step) and ion release/introduction (2-step). The micro-region x-ray diffraction and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analyses indicate that Mn has been doped into the lattice, and its content in the 1-step fabricated sample is higher than that in the 2-step one. Magnetic susceptibility and electric transport properties reveal that Mn doping influences little on the superconducting transition, regardless of 1-step or 2-step routes. By contrast, the characteristic temperature T^*, at which the negative Hall coefficient reaches its minimum, is significantly reduced by Mn doping. This implies that the hole carriers contribution is obviously modified, and hence the hole band might have no direct relationship with the superconductivity in (Li_1-xFe_x)OHFe_1-ySe superconductors. Our present hydrothermal methods of ion exchange and ion release/introduction provide an efficient way for elements substitution/doping into (Li_1-xFe_x)OHFe_1-ySe superconductors, which will promote the in-depth investigations on the role of multiple electron and hole bands and their interplay with the high-temperature superconductivity in the FeSe-based superconductors.

A bow shock is formed in the interaction of a high-speed laser-driven plasma cloud with a cylinder obstacle. Its temporal and spatial structures are observed by shadowgraphy and interferometry. The width of the shock transition region is ～ 50 μm, comparable to the ion-ion collision mean free path, which indicates that collision is dominated in the shock probably. The Mach-number of the ablating plasma cloud is ～ 15 at first, and decreases with time resulting in a changing shock structure. A two-dimension hydrodynamics code, USim, is used to simulate the interaction process. The simulated shocks can well reproduce the observed.

In order to study the basic superconductivity properties of Pr₂Pt₃Ge₅, we synthesized the single crystalline samples by the Pt-Ge self-flux method. R₂Pt₃Ge₅ (R = La, Ce) were also grown for a systematic study. Zero-resistivity was observed in both the La- and Pr-based samples below the reported superconducting transition temperatures. However, magnetic susceptibility measurements showed low superconductivity volume fractions in both La₂Pt₃Ge₅ and Pr₂Pt₃Ge₅ (less than 2%). Ce₂Pt₃Ge₅ did not show any signature of superconductivity. From the specific heat measurements, we did not observe a superconducting transition peak in Pr₂Pt₃Ge₅, suggesting that it is not a bulk superconductor. The magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements revealed two antiferromagnetic (AFM) orders in Pr₂Pt₃Ge₅ at T_N1 = 4.2 K and T_N2=3.5 K, as well as a single AFM transition at T_N = 3.8 K in Ce₂Pt₃Ge₅.

Two-dimensional (2D) organic nanomaterials are fascinating because of their unique properties and pentential applications in future optoelectronic devices. Polyaniline (PANI) has attracted much attention for its high conductivity, good environmental stability and unusual doping chemistry. We report on liquid-phase exfoliation of layered PANI films grown by electrochemical polymerization. Atomic force microscopy images demonstrate that few- or even mono-layer PANI nanosheets can be fabricated. The PANI nanosheets can be transferred onto a variety of surfaces, providing a promising route to their incorporation into a variety of devices for further studies and various applications.

In this paper, granular segregation in a two-compartment cell in zero gravity is studied numerically by DEM simulation. In the simulation using a virtual window method we find a non-monotonic flux, a function which governs the segregation. A parameter is used to quantify the segregation. The effect of three parameters: the total number of particles N, the excitation strength Γ, and the position of the window coupling the two compartments, on the segregation and the waiting time τ are investigated. It is found that the segregation observed in zero gravity exists and does not depend on the excitation strength Γ. The waiting time τ, however, depends strongly on Γ: the higher the Γ, the lower the waiting time τ. The simulation results are important in guiding the SJ-10 satellite microgravity experiments.

We experimentally demonstrated a diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond (fs) laser with a self-frequency doubling Yb:YCa₄O(BO₃)₃ crystal. Sub-40 fs laser pulses were directly generated from the oscillator without extracavity compression. The central wavelength was tunable from 1039 nm to 1049 nm with a typical bandwidth of 35 nm and an average output power of 53 mW. For the first time, a self-frequency doubled second harmonic green laser with tunable range from 519 nm to 525 nm was observed.

We demonstrate the direct loading of cold atoms into a microchip 2-mm Z-trap, where the evaporative cooling can be performed efficiently, from a macroscopic quadrupole magnetic trap with a high loading efficiency. The macroscopic quadrupole magnetic trap potential is designed to be moveable by controlling the currents of the two pairs of anti-Helmholtz coils. The cold atoms are initially prepared in a standard six-beam magneto-optical trap and loaded into the macroscopic quadrupole magnetic trap, and then transported to the atom chip surface by moving the macroscopic trap potential. By means of a three-dimensional absorption imaging system, we are able to optimize the position alignment of the atom cloud in the macroscopic trap and the microchip Z-shaped wire. Consequently, with a proper magnetic transfer scheme, we load the cold atoms into the microchip Z-trap directly and efficiently. The loading efficiency is measured to be about 50%. This approach can be used to generate appropriate ultracold atoms sources, for example, for a magnetically guided atom interferometer based on atom chip.

The application of transparent conducting indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film as full front electrode replacing the conventional bus-bar metal electrode in III-V compound GaInP solar cell was proposed. A high-quality, non-rectifying contact between ITO and 10 nm N⁺-GaAs contact layer was formed, which is benefiting from a high carrier concentration of the terrilium-doped N⁺-GaAs layer, up to 2×10¹⁹ cm^-3. A good device performance of the GaInP solar cell with the ITO electrode was observed. This result indicates a great potential of transparent conducting films in the future fabrication of larger area flexible III-V solar cell.

Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is an important branch of quantum cryptography. It can transmit secret information directly without establishing a key first, unlike quantum key distribution which requires this precursory event. Here we propose a QSDC scheme by applying the frequency coding technique to the two-step QSDC protocol, which enables the two-step QSDC protocol to work in a noisy environment. We have numerically simulated the performance of the protocol in a noisy channel, and the results show that the scheme is indeed robust against channel noise and loss. We also give an estimate of the channel noise upper bound.

An experimental realization of a ballistic superconductor proximitized semiconductor nanowire device is a necessary step towards engineering topological quantum electronics. Here, we report on ballistic transport in InSb nanowires grown by molecular-beam epitaxy contacted by superconductor electrodes. At an elevated temperature, clear conductance plateaus are observed at zero magnetic field and in agreement with calculations based on the Landauer formula. At lower temperature, we have observed characteristic Fabry-Pérot patterns which confirm the ballistic nature of charge transport. Furthermore, the magnetoconductance measurements in the ballistic regime reveal a periodic variation related to the Fabry-Pérot oscillations. The result can be reasonably explained by taking into account the impact of magnetic field on the phase of ballistic electron's wave function, which is further verified by our simulation. Our results pave the way for better understanding of the quantum interference effects on the transport properties of InSb nanowires in the ballistic regime as well as developing of novel device for topological quantum computations.

The stability and reliability of an ion source and its beam availability are extremely significant for any accelerator, especially for those high current long term CW operation ones like ADS. Although the first high quality 306-hours continuous wave (CW) operating curve at 50 mA@35 keV has been successfully obtained with a standard compact 2.45 GHz ECR ion source at Peking University (PKU), but the uncertainties that caused beam trips before are unacceptable during an accelerator real operation and should be eliminated. Meanwhile, no permission will be given when the beam power is upgraded from 50 mA@35 keV to 50 mA@50 keV. To improve the PKU CW proton source quality, several upgrades were done recently. After those improvements, a new long term CW proton beam experiment at 50 mA@50 keV was carried out in June 2016. The total running time is 300.5 hours, including near 6 hours ion source preparation and 294 hours non-disturb continuous operation. Within the continuous 13 days operation, no beam-off happened, no spark was observed, no beam drop appeared, no interrupting action was needed, and only a few beam fluctuations caused by the air conditional failure occurred. Beam availability and reliability within the 294 hours is 100%. The root-mean-square (RMS) emittance of this 50 mA@50 keV CW proton beam is about 0.186 π.mm.mrad. A careful inspection of the ion source was done after this long term operation and no obvious damage was found. The restart experimental results obtained after the ion source inspection prove the high repeatability of PKU PMECRIS. In addition, a 130-mA H⁺ beam was obtained at 50 kV with duty factor of 10% (100 Hz/1 ms) with this source. Details will be presented in this paper.

In this work, we have presented a freestanding and flexible CNT-based film with sheet resistance of 60 Ω/□ and transmittance of 82% treated by nitric acid and chloroauric acid in sequence. Based on modified CNT film as a transparent electrode, we have demonstrated an ultrathin, flexible organic solar cell (OSC) fabricated on 2.5-μm PET substrate. The efficiency of OSC, combined with a composite film of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as an active layer and with a thin layer of methanol soluble biuret inserted between the photoactive layer and the cathode, can be up to 2.74% which is approximate to that of the reference solar cell fabricated with ITO-coated glass (2.93%). Incorporating the as-fabricated ITO-free OSC with pre-stretched elastomer, 50% compressive deformation can apply to the solar cells. The results show that the as-prepared CNT-based hybrid film with outstanding electrical and optical properties could serve as a promising transparent electrode for low cost, flexible and stretchable OSCs, which will broaden the applications of OSC and generate more solar power than it now does.

Strong energy sharing is shown by numerically investigating coupled multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with a harmonic trap to simulate the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam model (FPU). For two-component BECs, the energy exchanging between each part, from regular, quantum beating to complete energy sharing, is explored by simulating their Husimi distributions, the time evolution of energies and the statistical entropy. Meanwhile, in the three-component case, a more complex energy sharing behavior is reported and a strong energy sharing is found.

In order to calculate the electronic structure of correlated materials, we propose implementation of the LDA+Gutzwiller method with Newton's method. The self-consistence process, efficiency and convergence of calculation are improved dramatically by using Newton's method with golden section search and other improvement approaches. We compare the calculated results by applying the previous linear mix method and Newton's method. We have applied our code to study the electronic structure of several typical strong correlated materials, including SrVO₃, LaCoO₃, and La₂O₃Fe₂Se₂. Our results fit quite well with the previous studies.