arXiv subjects

Zhifeng Ren

Publications and source records attributed to Zhifeng Ren.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Investigation on the reported superconductivity in intercalated black phosphorus

Superconductivity intrinsic to the intercalated black phosphorus (BP) with a transition temperature Tc of 3.8 K, independent of the intercalant, whether an alkali or an alkaline earth element, has been reported recently by R. Zhang et al. (2017). However, the reported Tc and the field effect on the superconducting (SC) transition both bear great similarities to those for the pure Sn, which is commonly used for BP synthesis under the vapor transport method. We have therefore decided to determine whether a minute amount of Sn is present in the starting high purity BP crystals and whether it is the culprit for the small SC signal detected. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results confirmed the existence of Sn in the starting high purity BP crystals purchased from the same company as in R. Zhang et al. (2017). We have reproduced the SC transition at 3.8 K in Li- and Na-intercalated BP crystals that contain minute amounts of Sn when prepared by the vapor transport method but not in BP crystals that are free of Sn when prepared by the high-pressure method. We have therefore concluded that the SC transition reported by R. Zhang et al. (2017) is associated with the Sn but not intrinsic to the intercalated BP crystals.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

The Effect of Shallow vs. Deep Level Doping on the Performance of Thermoelectric Materials

It is well known that the efficiency of a good thermoelectric material should be optimized with respect to doping concentration. However, much less attention has been paid to the optimization of the dopant's energy level. Thermoelectric materials doped with shallow levels may experience a dramatic reduction in their figures of merit at high temperatures due to the excitation of minority carriers that reduces the Seebeck coefficient and increases bipolar heat conduction. Doping with deep level impurities can delay the excitation of minority carriers as it requires a higher temperature to ionize all dopants. We find through modeling that, depending on the material type and temperature range of operation, different impurity levels (shallow or deep) will be desired to optimize the efficiency of a thermoelectric material. For different materials, we further clarify where the most preferable position of the impurity level within the band gap falls. Our research provides insights in choosing the most appropriate dopants for a thermoelectric material in order to maximize the device efficiency.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Generation and Detection of Surface Plasmon Polaritons by Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Chip-level Electronic-Photonic Integrated Circuits

The monolithic integration of electronics and photonics has attracted enormous attention due to its potential applications. However, the realization of such hybrid circuits has remained a challenge because it requires optical communication at nanometer scales. A major challenge to this integration is the identification of a suitable material. After discussing the material aspect of the challenge, we identified atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) as a perfect material platform to implement the circuit. The selection of TMDs is based on their very distinct property: monolayer TMDs are able to emit and absorb light at the same wavelength determined by direct exciton transitions. To prove the concept, we fabricated simple devices consisting of silver nanowires as plasmonic waveguides and monolayer TMDs as active optoelectronic media. Using photoexcitation, direct optical imaging and spectral analysis, we demonstrated generation and detection of surface plasmon polaritons by monolayer TMDs. Regarded as novel materials for electronics and photonics, transition metal dichalcogenides are expected to find new applications in next generation integrated circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Multiferroic materials and magnetoelectric physics: symmetry, entanglement, excitation, and topology

Multiferroics are those materials with more than one ferroic order, and magnetoelectricity refers to the mutual coupling between magnetism and electricity. The discipline of multiferroicity has never been so highly active as that in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and it has become one of the hottest disciplines of condensed matter physics and materials science. A series of milestones and steady progress in the past decade have enabled our understanding of multiferroic physics substantially comprehensive and profound, which is further pushing forward the research frontier of this exciting area. The availability of more multiferroic materials and improved magnetoelectric performance are approaching to make the applications within reach. While seminal review articles covering the major progress before 2010 are available, an updated review addressing the new achievements since that time becomes imperative. In this review, following a concise outline of the basic knowledge of multiferroicity and magnetoelectricity, we summarize the important research activities on multiferroics, especially magnetoelectricity and related physics in the last six years. We consider not only single-phase multiferroics but also multiferroic heterostructures. We address the physical mechanisms regarding magnetoelectric coupling so that the backbone of this divergent discipline can be highlighted. A series of issues on lattice symmetry, magnetic ordering, ferroelectricity generation, electromagnon excitations, multiferroic domain structure and domain wall dynamics, and interfacial coupling in multiferroic heterostructures, will be revisited in an updated framework of physics. In addition, several emergent phenomena and related physics, including magnetic skyrmions and generic topological structures associated with magnetoelectricity will be discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Optimizing thermoelectric performances of low-temperature SnSe compounds by electronic structure design

Recently SnSe compound was reported to have a peak thermoelectric figure-5 of-merit (ZT) of 2.62 at 923 K, but the ZT values at temperatures below 750 K are relatively low. In this work, the electronic structures of SnSe are calculated using the density functional theory, and the electro- and thermo-transport properties upon varying chemical potential (or carrier density) are evaluated by the semi-classic Boltzmann transport theory, showing that the calculated ZT values along the a10 and c-axes below 675 K are in agreement with reported values, but that along the b-axis can be as high as 2.57 by optimizing the carrier concentration to ~3.6*1019 cm-3. It is revealed that a mixed ionic-covalent bonding and heavy-light band overlapping near the valence band are the reasons for the higher thermoelectric performance

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Anomalous CDW ground state in Cu$_2$Se: a wave-like fluctuation of $\it{dc}$ I-V curve near 50 K

A charge density wave (CDW) ground state is observed in polycrystalline Cu$_2$Se below 125 K, which corresponds to an energy gap of 40.9 meV and an electron-phonon coupling constant of 0.6. Due to the polycrystalline structure, the Peierls transition process has been expanded to a wide temperature range from 90 to 160 K. The Hall carrier concentration shows a continuous decrease from 2.1$\times$10$^{20}$ to 1.6$\times$10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ in the temperature range from 160 K to 80 K, while almost unchanged above 160 K and below 90 K. After entering the CDW ground state, a wave-like fluctuation was observed in the I-V curve near 50 K, which exhibits as a periodic negative differential resistivity in an applied electric field due to the current. We also investigated the doping effect of Zn, Ni, and Te on the CDW ground state. Both Zn and Ni doped Cu$_2$Se show a CDW character with increased energy gap and electron-phonon coupling constant, but no notable Peierls transition was observed in Te doped Cu$_2$Se. Similar wave-like I-V curve was also seen in Cu$_{1.98}$Zn$_{0.02}$Se near 40 K. The regular fluctuation in $\it{dc}$ I-V curve was not magnetic field sensitive, but temperature and sample size sensitive.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocomposite Heavy Fermion CeCu6

Samples of heavy fermion compound CeCu6 were prepared by hot-press technique. Temperature-dependent (5-300 K) thermoelectric transport properties of the samples were measured. The dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT) was optimized by varying the hot-pressing temperature. Our measurements of thermal conductivity show that the lowest hot pressing temperature (450 C) produces the lowest thermal conductivity. Electrical resistivity increases significantly while the Seebeck coefficient decreases with decrease in the hot pressing temperature. As the hot-pressing temperature decreases, electronic contribution to the total thermal conductivity decreased more rapidly than the lattice contribution did. As a result, for lower hot-pressing temperature the gain in thermal conductivity reduction was offset by the loss in power factor. Our ZT calculations show a broad peak with a maximum value of 0.024 at 60 K for the sample hot pressed at 800 C. The pronounced low-temperature ZT peak emphasizes the importance of this heavy fermion system as a potential p-type thermoelectric for solid state cooling applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Topological Effect of Surface Plasmon Excitation in Gapped Isotropic Topological Insulator Nanowires

We present a theoretical investigation of the surface plasmon (SP) at the interface between topologically non-trivial cylindrical core and topological-trivial surrounding material, from the axion electrodynamics and modified constitutive relations. We find that the topological effect always leads to a red-shift of SP energy, while the energy red-shift decreases monotonically as core diameter decreases. A qualitative picture based on classical perturbation theory is given to explain these phenomena, from which we also infer that in order to enhance the shift, the difference between the inverse of dielectric constants of two materials shall be increased. We also find that the surrounding magnetic environment suppresses the topological effect. All these features can be well described by a simple ansatz surface wave, which is in good agreement with full electromagnetic eigenmodes. In addition, bulk plasmon energy at ω_{P}=17.5\pm0.2eV for semiconducting Bi2Se3 nanoparticle is observed from high-resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectrum Image measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Inelastic neutron scattering study of phonon density of states in nanostructured Si1xGex thermoelectrics

Inelastic neutron scattering measurements are utilized to explore relative changes in the generalized phonon density of states of nanocrystalline Si1xGex thermoelectric materials prepared via ball milling and hot-pressing techniques. Dynamic signatures of Ge clustering can be inferred from the data by referencing the resulting spectra to a density functional theoretical model assuming homogeneous alloying via the virtual-crystal approximation. Comparisons are also presented between as-milled Si nanopowder and bulk, polycrystalline Si where a preferential low-energy enhancement and lifetime broadening of the phonon density of states appear in the nanopowder. Negligible differences are however observed between the phonon spectra of bulk Si and hot pressed, nanostructured Si samples suggesting that changes to the single phonon dynamics above 4 meV play only a secondary role in the modified heat conduction of this compound.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Phonon Drag Effect in Nanocomposite FeSb2

We study the temperature dependence of thermoelectric transport properties of four FeSb2 nanocomposite samples with different grain sizes. The comparison of the single crystals and nanocomposites of varying grain size indicates the presence of substantial phonon drag effects in this system contributing to a large Seebeck coefficient at low temperature. As the grain size decreases, the increased phonon scattering at the grain boundaries leads to a suppression of the phonon-drag effect, resulting in a much smaller peak value of the Seebeck coefficient in the nanostructured bulk materials. As a consequence, the ZT values are not improved significantly even though the thermal conductivity is drastically reduced.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Transport Properties of Ni, Co, Fe, Mn Doped Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 for Thermoelectric Device Applications

Bi2Te3 based thermoelectric devices typically use a nickel layer as a diffusion barrier to block the diffusion of solder or copper atoms from the electrode into the thermoelectric material. Previous studies have shown degradation in the efficiency of these thermoelectric devices may be due to the diffusion of the barrier layer into the thermoelectric material. In this work Ni, Co, Fe, and Mn are intentionally doped into Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 in order to understand their effects on the thermoelectric material. Thermoelectric transport properties including the Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity, carrier concentration, and carrier mobility of Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 doped with 2 atomic percent M (M=Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) as Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3M0.02, are studied in a temperature range of 5-525 K.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Anharmonic Phonons and Magnons in BiFeO3

The phonon density of states (DOS) and magnetic excitation spectrum of polycrystalline BiFeO$_3$ were measured for temperatures $200 \leq T \leq 750\,$K, using inelastic neutron scattering (INS). Our results indicate that the magnetic spectrum of BiFeO$_3$ closely resembles that of similar Fe perovskites, such as LaFeO$_3$, despite the cycloid modulation in BiFeO$_3$. We do not find any evidence for a spin gap. A strong $T$-dependence of the phonon DOS was found, with a marked broadening of the whole spectrum, providing evidence of strong anharmonicity. This anharmonicity is corroborated by large-amplitude motions of Bi and O ions observed with neutron diffraction. These results highlight the importance of spin-phonon coupling in this material.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗