Monitoring the effect of asymmetrical vertical strain on Janus single layers of MoSSe via vibrational spectrum.

Using first principles calculations, we study the structural and phononic properties of the recently synthesized Janus type single layers of molybdenum dichalcogenides. The Janus MoSSe single layer possesses 2H crystal structure with two different chalcogenide sides that lead to out-of-plane anisotropy. By virtue of the asymmetric structure of the ultra-thin Janus type crystal, we induced the out-of-plane anisotropy to show the distinctive vertical pressure effect on the vibrational properties of the Janus material. It is proposed that for the corresponding Raman active optical mode of the Janus structure, the phase modulation and the magnitude ratio of the strained atom and its first neighbor atom adjust the distinctive change in the eigen-frequencies and Raman activity. Moreover, a strong variation in the Raman activity of the Janus structure is obtained under bivertical and univertical strains. Not only eigen-frequency shifts but also Raman activities of the optical modes of the Janus structure exhibit distinguishable features. This study reveals that the vertical anisotropic feature of the Janus structure under Raman measurement allows us to distinguish which side of the Janus crystal interacts with the externals (substrate, functional adlayers, or dopants).

Monolayer AsTe2 : Stable Robust Metal in 2D, 1D and 0D.

The structural, phononic, and electronic properties of the monolayer structures of AsTe2 are characterized by performing density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Total energy optimization and phonon calculations reveal that single layers of the 2H-AsTe2 and 1T-AsTe2 phases form dynamically stable crystal structures. Electronic structure analysis also shows that both 2H and 1T phases have nonmagnetic metallic character. It is also predicted that the metallic nature of the ultra-thin both 2H-AsTe2 and 1T-AsTe2 structures remain unchanged even under high biaxial strain values. For further examination of the dimensionality effect in the robust metallicity in 2D AsTe2 phases, electronic characteristics of 1D nanoribbons and 0D quantum dots are also investigated. It is found that independent from the dimension and crystallographic orientations 0D and 1D structures of 2H- and 1T-AsTe2 structures have metallic behavior. It is found that single layers of AsTe2 are quite promising materials for nanodevice applications owing to the robust metallic character.

Bilayers of Janus WSSe: monitoring the stacking type via the vibrational spectrum.

Motivated by the recent successful synthesis of Janus type single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides, we investigate the stability, vibrational and electronic properties of the Janus single layer structure of WSSe and its bilayers by means of density functional theory. The structural and vibrational analysis show that the Janus single layer of WSSe forms a dynamically stable structure in the 2H phase. Owing to its non-centrosymmetric structure, the Janus WSSe single layer has two in-plane (E) and two out-of-plane (A) Raman active phonon modes. The eigen-frequencies of the prominent Raman active modes are calculated to be 277 (A) and 322 (E) cm-1. Similar to single layer WS2 and WSe2, Janus WSSe is a direct band gap semiconductor that has two electronically different faces. In addition, the possible bilayer stacking orders of the Janus WSSe single layers are investigated. It is found that there are 3 stacking types of bilayer Janus WSSe and each stacking type has distinctive Raman characteristics in its vibrational spectrum. Our results show that thanks to the vibrational characteristics, which stem from the distinctive interlayer interactions at different sides, the stability and stacking types of the bilayer of WSSe Janus structure can be monitored.

Hydrogenation-driven phase transition in single-layer TiSe2.

First-principles calculations based on density-functional theory are used to investigate the effects of hydrogenation on the structural, vibrational, thermal and electronic properties of the charge density wave (CDW) phase of single-layer TiSe2. It is found that hydrogenation of single-layer TiSe2 is possible through adsorption of a H atom on each Se site. Our total energy and phonon calculations reveal that a structural phase transition occurs from the CDW phase to the T d phase upon full hydrogenation. Fully hydrogenated TiSe2 presents a direct gap semiconducting behavior with a band gap of 119 meV. Full hydrogenation also leads to a significant decrease in the heat capacity of single-layer TiSe2.

Stability, electronic and phononic properties of ß and 1T structures of SiTe x (x = 1, 2) and their vertical heterostructures.

By performing first-principles calculations, we predict a novel, stable single layer phase of silicon ditelluride, 1T-[Formula: see text], and its possible vertical heterostructures with single layer ß-SiTe. Structural optimization and phonon calculations reveal that 1T-[Formula: see text] structure has a dynamically stable ground state. Further analysis of the vibrational spectrum at the [Formula: see text] point shows that single layer 1T-[Formula: see text] has characteristic phonon modes at 80, 149, 191 and 294 [Formula: see text]. Electronic-band structure demonstrates that 1T-[Formula: see text] phase exhibits a nonmagnetic metallic ground state with a negligible intrinsic spin-orbit splitting. Moreover, it is shown that similar structural parameters of 1T-[Formula: see text] and existing ß-SiTe phases allows construction of 1T-ß heterostructures with a negligible lattice mismatch. In this regard, it is found that two energetically favorable stacking orders, namely AA and [Formula: see text]B, have distinctive shear and layer breathing phonon modes. It is important to note that the combination of semiconducting ß-SiTe and metallic 1T-[Formula: see text] building blocks forms ultra-thin Schottky barriers that can be used in nanoscale optoelectronic device technologies.

A comparison of two types of dendritic cell as adjuvants for the induction of melanoma-specific T-cell responses in humans following intranodal injection.

Dendritic cells (DCs) elicit potent anti-tumoral T-cell responses in vitro and in vivo. However, different types of DC have yet to be compared for their capacity to induce anti-tumor responses in vivo at different developmental stages. Herein, we correlated the efficiencies of different types of monocyte-derived DC as vaccines on the resulting anti-tumor immune responses in vivo. Immature and mature DCs were separately pulsed with a peptide derived from tyrosinase, MelanA/MART-1 or MAGE-1 and a recall antigen. Both DC populations were injected every 2 weeks in different lymph nodes of the same patient. Immune responses were monitored before, during and after vaccination. Mature DCs induced increased recall antigen-specific CD4(+) T-cell responses in 7/8 patients, while immature DCs did so in only 3/8. Expansion of peptide-specific IFN-gamma-producing CD8(+) T cells was observed in 5/7 patients vaccinated with mature DCs but in only 1/7 using immature DCs. However, these functional data did not correlate with the tetramer staining. Herein, immature DCs also showed expansion of peptide-specific T cells. In 2/4 patients vaccinated with mature DCs, we observed induction of peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells, as monitored by chromium-release assays, whereas immature DCs failed to induce peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells in the same patients. Instead, FCS-cultured immature DCs induced FCS-specific IgE responses in 1 patient. Our data demonstrate that this novel vaccination protocol is an efficient approach to compare different immunization strategies within the same patient. Thus, our data define FCS-free cultured mature DCs as superior inducers of T-cell responses in melanoma patients.

Induction of tumor peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells under serum-free conditions by mature human dendritic cells.

Tumor vaccination strategies using antigen-pulsed dendritic cells (DC) are currently under development. We established an in vitro system using cultured DC from HLA-typed volunteers for the induction of tumor peptide-specific CD8+ T cells. The strength and specificity of the resulting CTL responses were investigated. For stimulation of syngeneic CD8+ T cells two well-defined DC populations were generated: CD1a+ immature DC cultured in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4 and mature CD83+ DC generated by additional stimulation with a cytokine cocktail. Stimulations were performed under serum-free conditions and in the absence of exogenous cytokines. Analysis of T cell responses showed that mature DC, but not immature DC, were able to induce the expansion of syngeneic tumor peptide-specific CD8+ T cells. Priming of CD8+ T cells with peptide-pulsed mature DC rapidly increased the frequency of antigen-specific T cells (ELISPOT technique). T cells induced by mature DC showed strong antigen-specific cytotoxicity in 51Cr-release assays whereas no antigen-specific cytotoxicity was detectable in CTL generated by immature DC. These data show that terminally differentiated mature DC are necessary for the induction of tumor antigen-specific CTL responses.