Chiral Dirac-like fermion in spin-orbit-free antiferromagnetic semimetals.

Dirac semimetal is a phase of matter whose elementary excitation is described by the relativistic Dirac equation. In the limit of zero mass, its parity-time symmetry enforces the Dirac fermion in the momentum space, which is composed of two Weyl fermions with opposite chirality, to be non-chiral. Inspired by the flavor symmetry in particle physics, we theoretically propose a massless Dirac-like equation yet linking two Weyl fields with the identical chirality by assuming SU ( 2 ) isospin symmetry, independent of the space-time rotation exchanging the two fields. Dramatically, such symmetry is hidden in certain solid-state spin-1/2 systems with negligible spin-orbit coupling, where the spin degree of freedom is decoupled with the lattice. Therefore, the existence of the corresponding quasiparticle, dubbed as flavor Weyl fermion, cannot be explained by the conventional (magnetic) space group framework. The 4-fold degenerate flavor Weyl fermion manifests linear dispersion and a Chern number of ± 2, leading to a robust network of topologically protected Fermi arcs throughout the Brillouin zone. For material realization, we show that the transition-metal chalcogenide CoNb3S6 with experimentally confirmed collinear antiferromagnetic order is ideal for flavor Weyl semimetal under the approximation of vanishing spin-orbit coupling. Our work reveals a counterpart of the flavor symmetry in magnetic electronic systems, leading to further possibilities of emergent phenomena in quantum materials.

Magnetic phase diagram of CrPS4 and its exchange interaction in contact with NiFe.

The magnetic phase diagram of the two-dimensional van der Waals magnet CrPS4 and the exchange bias effect of CrPS4 in contact with NiFe film have been investigated. Based on the magnetic measurements, we figure out the relatively low spin-flop field and spin-flip field for CrPS4, both of the spin transition phenomena are strongly affected by the temperature. The perpendicular exchange bias effect is studied in CrPS4 single-crystal flake covered with 5 nm NiFe. Meanwhile, the variation of the cooling field has a great influence on the exchange bias field and coercivity, which is mainly attributed to the competition between the Zeeman energy and the exchange coupling at the interface as well as the formation of the multi-domain state.

Nuclear factor-κB p65 regulates glutaminase 1 expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Glutaminase (GLS), the key enzyme that catalyzes glutamine catabolism, facilitates the production of energy, building blocks, and factors resisting stresses. Two isoforms of GLS have been identified: GLS1 and GLS2. Elevated GLS1 contributes to tumorigenesis and tumor progression. This study investigates the molecular mechanism by which GLS1 is regulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Online databases were investigated to search for factors that co-overexpress with GLS1. siRNA knockdown or chemical compounds were utilized to manipulate the activation or inactivation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 signaling. Both the mRNA and protein levels of GLS1 were detected. The biological and clinical importance of p65-GLS1 in HCC was also demonstrated. RESULTS: NF-κB p65 regulates GLS1 expression in HCC cells. Knockdown or suppression of GLS1 compromises HCC cell proliferation. Elevated GLS1 expression correlates with neoplasm histological grade, and the dysregulation of p65-GLS1 is associated with poor prognosis in human HCC patients. CONCLUSION: GLS1 can be developed as a diagnostic and therapeutic target for human HCC.

Valley Pseudospin with a Widely Tunable Bandgap in Doped Honeycomb BN Monolayer.

Valleytronics is a promising paradigm to explore the emergent degree of freedom for charge carriers on the energy band edges. Using ab initio calculations, we reveal that the honeycomb boron nitride (h-BN) monolayer shows a pair of inequivalent valleys in the vicinities of the vertices of hexagonal Brillouin zone even without the protection of the C3 symmetry. The inequivalent valleys give rise to a 2-fold degree of freedom named the valley pseudospin. The valley pseudospin with a tunable bandgap from deep ultraviolet to far-infrared spectra can be obtained by doping h-BN monolayer with carbon atoms. For a low-concentration carbon periodically doped h-BN monolayer, the subbands with constant valley Hall conductance are predicted due to the interaction between the artificial superlattice and valleys. In addition, the valley pseudospin can be manipulated by visible light for high-concentration carbon doped h-BN monolayer. In agreement with our calculations, the circularly polarized photoluminescence spectra of the B0.92NC2.44 sample show a maximum valley-contrasting circular polarization of 40% and 70% at room temperature and 77 K, respectively. Our work demonstrates a class of valleytronic materials with a controllable bandgap.

Stability and its mechanism in Ag/CoOx/Ag interface-type resistive switching device.

Stability is an important issue for the application of resistive switching (RS) devices. In this work, the endurance and retention properties of Ag/CoOx/Ag interface-type RS device were investigated. This device exhibits rectifying I-V curve, multilevel storage states and retention decay behavior, which are all related to the Schottky barrier at the interface. The device can switch for thousands of cycles without endurance failure and shows narrow resistance distributions with relatively low fluctuation. However, both the high and low resistance states spontaneously decay to an intermediate resistance state during the retention test. This retention decay phenomenon is due to the short lifetime τ (τ = 0.5 s) of the metastable pinning effect caused by the interface states. The data analysis indicated that the pinning effect is dependent on the depth and density of the interface state energy levels, which determine the retention stability and the switching ratio, respectively. This suggests that an appropriate interface structure can improve the stability of the interface-type RS device.

Synergetic crystallization in a Nd2Fe14B/α-Fe nanocomposite under electron beam exposure conditions.

Nd2Fe14B/α-Fe nanocomposite magnets are prepared through electron beam exposure with a greatly reduced annealing time of 0.1 s. This is by far the most effective approach due to the effect of an extremely high heating rate featuring a rapid thermal process. The impact that the rapid thermal process has on crystallization is expounded by the introduction of the Landau model and Langevin dynamical simulations. The change of crystallization sequence from the α-Fe phase preceding the Nd2Fe14B phase under conventional annealing conditions, to synergetic crystallization under electron beam conditions is investigated. Synergetic crystallization results in more intense interaction between the α-Fe phase and the Nd2Fe14B phase in order to refine the microstructure as the fraction of Fe increases within our addition range. Improved uniformity, and shifts in the microstructure and distribution of the α-Fe phase contribute to the improvement of the magnetic properties. Compared with conventional furnace annealing ones, the magnetic properties of samples under electron beam exposure conditions are improved. For the Nd10Fe83.3B6.2Nb0.2Ga0.3 alloy, coercivity is enhanced from 4.56 kOe to 6.73 kOe, remanence ratio increases from 0.75 to 0.79, and a superior squareness of the hysteresis loop is achieved.