arXiv subjects

Yuping Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Yuping Sun.

50 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Polar Rectification Effect in Electro-Fatigued SrTiO3 Based Junctions

Rectifying semiconductor junctions are crucial to electronic devices. They convert alternating current into direct one by allowing unidirectional charge flows. In analogy to the current-flow rectification for itinerary electrons, here, a polar rectification that based on the localized oxygen vacancies (OVs) in a Ti/fatigued-SrTiO3 (fSTO) Schottky junction is first demonstrated. The fSTO with OVs is produced by an electro-degradation process. The different movability of localized OVs and itinerary electrons in the fSTO yield a unidirectional electric polarization at the interface of the junction under the coaction of external and built-in electric fields. Moreover, the fSTO displays a pre-ferroelectric state located between paraelectric and ferroelectric phases. The pre-ferroelectric state has three sub-states and can be easily driven into a ferroelectric state by external electric field. These observations open up opportunities for potential polar devices and may underpin many useful polar-triggered electronic phenomena.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Generation and detection of coherent longitudinal acoustic waves in ultrathin 1T'-MoTe2

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted substantial attention owing to their versatile functionalities and compatibility with current nanofabrication technologies. Thus, noninvasive means to determine the mechanical properties of nanometer (nm) thick specimens are of increasing importance. Here, we report on the detection of coherent longitudinal acoustic phonon modes generated by impulsive femtosecond (fs) optical excitation. Broadband fs-transient absorption experiments in 1T'-MoTe2 flakes as a function of thickness (7 nm - 30 nm) yield a longitudinal sound speed of 2990 m/s. In addition, temperature dependent measurements unveil a linear decrease of the normalized Young's modulus with a slope of -0.002 per K and no noticeable change caused by the Td - 1T' structural phase transition or variations in film thickness.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Atomic scale electronic structure of the ferromagnetic semiconductor Cr2Ge2Te6

Cr2Ge2Te6 is an intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductor with van der Waals type layered structure, thus represents a promising material for novel electronic and spintronic devices. Here we combine scanning tunneling microscopy and first-principles calculations to investigate the electronic structure of Cr2Ge2Te6. Tunneling spectroscopy reveals a surprising large energy level shift and change of energy gap size across the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic phase transition, as well as a peculiar double-peak electronic state on the Cr-site defect. These features can be quantitatively explained by density functional theory calculations, which uncover a close relationship between the electronic structure and magnetic order. These findings shed important new lights on the microscopic electronic structure and origin of magnetic order in Cr2Ge2Te6.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Pseudogap and weak multifractality in disordered Mott charge-density-wave insulator

The competition, coexistence and cooperation of various orders in low-dimensional materials like spin, charge, topological orders and charge-density-wave has been one of the most intriguing issues in condensed matter physics. In particular, layered transition metal dichalcogenides provide an ideal platform for studying such an interplay with a notable case of 1${T}$-TaS$_{2}$ featuring Mott-insulating ground state, charge-density-wave, spin frustration and emerging superconductivity together. We investigated local electronic states of Se-substituted 1${T}$-TaS$_{2}$ by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), where superconductivity emerges from the unique Mott-CDW state. Spatially resolved STS measurements reveal that an apparent V-shape pseudogap forms at the Fermi Level (E$_{F}$), with the origin of the electronic states splitting and transformation from the Mott states, and the CDW gaps are largely preserved. The formation of the pseudogap has little correlation to the variation of local Se concentration, but appears to be a global characteristics. Furthermore, the correlation length of local density of states (LDOS) diverges at the Fermi energy and decays rapidly at high energies. The spatial correlation shows a power-law decay close to the Fermi energy. Our statistics analysis of the LDOS indicates that our system exhibits weak multifractal behavior of the wave functions. These findings strongly support a correlated metallic state induced by disorder in our system, which provides an new insight into the novel mechanism of emerging superconductivity in the two-dimensional correlated electronic systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Origin of magnetoresistance suppression in thin $γ$-MoTe$_2$

We use both classical magnetotransport and quantum oscillation measurements to study the thickness evolution of the extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) material and type-II Weyl semimetal candidate, $γ$-MoTe$_2$, protected from oxidation. We find that the magnetoresistance is systematically suppressed with reduced thickness. This occurs concomitantly with both a decrease in carrier mobility and increase in electron-hole imbalance. We model the two effects separately and conclude that the XMR effect is more sensitive to the former.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Multiple structure and symmetry types in narrow temperature and magnetic field ranges in two-dimensional Cr2Ge2Te6 crystal

Multiple structure and symmetry types and their transformations are discovered in quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) Cr2Ge2Te6 crystal in surprisingly very narrow temperature range of 2 K and magnetic field range of 0.07 T using a homebuilt magnetic force microscope (MFM). A series of basic domain patterns are extracted from the MFM images. Some of them seem unique to 2-D materials as they are not observed in 3-D materials, such as self-fitting disks, and fine ladder structure within Y-connected walls. Based on these findings, a phase map is drawn for the magnetic phase structures. The symmetry of the patterns are discussed. The results are not only important in developing new theories but also highly desirable in applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Visualization of electronic topology in ZrSiSe by scanning tunneling microscopy

As emerging topological nodal-line semimetals, the family of ZrSiX (X = O, S, Se, Te) has attracted broad interests in condensed matter physics due to their future applications in spintonics. Here, we apply a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study the structural symmetry and electronic topology of ZrSiSe. The glide mirror symmetry is verified by quantifying the lattice structure of the ZrSe bilayer based on bias selective topographies. The quasiparticle interference analysis is used to identify the band structure of ZrSiSe. The nodal line is experimentally determined at $\sim$ 250 meV above the Fermi level. An extra surface state Dirac point at $\sim$ 400 meV below the Fermi level is also determined. Our STM measurement provides a direct experimental evidence of the nodal-line state in the family of ZrSiX.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Dimensionality-driven orthorhombic MoTe2 at room temperature

We use a combination of Raman spectroscopy and transport measurements to study thin flakes of the type-II Weyl semimetal candidate MoTe2 protected from oxidation. In contrast to bulk crystals, which undergo a phase transition from monoclinic to the inversion symmetry breaking, orthorhombic phase below ~250 K, we find that in moderately thin samples below ~12 nm, a single orthorhombic phase exists up to and beyond room temperature. This could be due to the effect of c-axis confinement, which lowers the energy of an out-of-plane hole band and stabilizes the orthorhombic structure. Our results suggest that Weyl nodes, predicated upon inversion symmetry breaking, may be observed in thin MoTe2 at room temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Distinct surface and bulk charge density waves in ultrathin 1T-TaS2

We employ low-frequency Raman spectroscopy to study the nearly commensurate (NC) to commensurate (C) charge density wave (CDW) transition in 1T-TaS2 ultrathin flakes protected from oxidation. We identify new modes originating from C phase CDW phonons that are distinct from those seen in bulk 1T-TaS2. We attribute these to CDW modes from the surface layers. By monitoring individual modes with temperature, we find that surfaces undergo a separate, low-hysteresis NC-C phase transition that is decoupled from the transition in the bulk layers. This indicates the activation of a secondary phase nucleation process in the limit of weak interlayer interaction, which can be understood from energy considerations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Atomic Lattice Disorder in Charge Density Wave Phases of Exfoliated Dichalcogenides (1T-TaS2)

Charge density waves (CDW) and their concomitant periodic lattice distortions (PLD) govern the electronic properties in many layered transition-metal dichalcogenides. In particular, 1T-TaS2 undergoes a metal-to-insulator phase transition as the PLD becomes commensurate with the crystal lattice. Here we directly image PLDs of the nearly-commensurate (NC) and commensurate (C) phases in thin exfoliated 1T-TaS2 using atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy at room and cryogenic temperature. At low temperatures, we observe commensurate PLD superstructures, suggesting ordering of the CDWs both in- and out-of-plane. In addition, we discover stacking transitions in the atomic lattice that occur via one bond length shifts. Interestingly, the NC PLDs exist inside both the stacking domains and their boundaries. Transitions in stacking order are expected to create fractional shifts in the CDW between layers and may be another route to manipulate electronic phases in layered dichalcogenides.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Superconductivity and Charge Density Wave in ZrTe$_{3-x}$Se$_{x}$

Charge density wave (CDW), the periodic modulation of the electronic charge density, will open a gap on the Fermi surface that commonly leads to decreased or vanishing conductivity. On the other hand superconductivity, a commonly believed competing order, features a Fermi surface gap that results in infinite conductivity. Here we report that superconductivity emerges upon Se doping in CDW conductor ZrTe$_{3}$ when the long range CDW order is gradually suppressed. Superconducting critical temperature $T_c(x)$ in ZrTe$_{3-x}$Se$_x$ (${0\leq}x\leq0.1$) increases up to 4 K plateau for $0.04$$\leq$$x$$\leq$$0.07$. Further increase in Se content results in diminishing $T_{c}$ and filametary superconductivity. The CDW modes from Raman spectra are observed in $x$ = 0.04 and 0.1 crystals, where signature of ZrTe$_{3}$ CDW order in resistivity vanishes. The electronic-scattering for high $T_{c}$ crystals is dominated by local CDW fluctuations at high temperures, the resistivity is linear up to highest measured $T=300K$ and contributes to substantial in-plane anisotropy.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Giant negative thermal expansion covering room temperature in nanocrystalline GaNxMn3

Materials with negative thermal expansion (NTE), which contract upon heating, are of great interest both technically and fundamentally. Here, we report giant NTE covering room temperature in mechanically milled antiperovksite GaNxMn3 compounds. The micrograin GaNxMn3 exhibits a large volume contraction at the antiferromagnetic (AFM) to paramagnetic (PM) (AFM-PM) transition within a temperature window (ΔT) of only a few kelvins. The grain size reduces to ~ 30 nm after slight milling, while ΔT is broadened to 50K. The corresponding coefficient of linear thermal expansion (α) reaches ~ -70 ppm/K, which is almost two times larger than those obtained in chemically doped antiperovskite compounds. Further reducing grain size to ~ 10 nm, ΔT exceeds 100 K and α remains as large as -30 ppm/K (-21 ppm/K) for x = 1.0 (x = 0.9). Excess atomic displacements together with the reduced structural coherence, revealed by high-energy X-ray pair distribution functions, are suggested to delay the AFM-PM transition. By controlling the grain size via mechanically alloying or grinding, giant NTE may also be achievable in other materials with large lattice contraction due to electronic or magnetic phase transitions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Microscopic evidence for strong periodic lattice distortion in 2D charge-density wave systems

In the quasi-2D electron systems of the layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) there is still a controversy about the nature of the transitions to charge-density wave (CDW) phases, i.e. whether they are described by a Peierls-type mechanism or by a lattice-driven model. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on the canonical TMD-CDW systems, we have imaged the electronic modulation and the lattice distortion separately in 2H-TaS$_2$, TaSe$_2$, and NbSe$_2$. Across the three materials, we found dominant lattice contributions instead of the electronic modulation expected from Peierls transitions, in contrast to the CDW states that show the hallmark of contrast inversion between filled and empty states. Our results imply that the periodic lattice distortion (PLD) plays a vital role in the formation of CDW phases in the TMDs and illustrate the importance of taking into account the more complicated lattice degree of freedom when studying correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

New Superconductivity in Layered 1T-TaS2-xSex Single Crystals Fabricated by Chemical Vapor Transport

Layered transition-metal dichalcogenides 1T-TaS2-xSex (0<=x<=2) single crystals have been successfully fabricated by using a chemical vapor transport technique in which Ta locates in octahedral coordination with S and Se atoms. This is the first superconducting example by the substitution of S site, which violates an initial rule based on the fact that superconductivity merely emerges in 1T-TaS2 by applying the high pressure or substitution of Ta site. We demonstrate the appearance of a series of electronic states in 1T-TaS2-xSex with Se content. Namely, the Mott phase melts into a nearly commensurate charge-density-wave (NCCDW) phase, superconductivity in a wide x range develops within the NCCDW state, and finally commensurate charge-density-wave (CCDW) phase reproduces for heavy Se content. The present results reveal that superconductivity is only characterized by robust Ta 5d band, demonstrating the universal nature in 1T-TaS2 systems that superconductivity and NCCDW phase coexist in the real space.

cond-mat.supr-con↗