Novel transport properties of the α-T3 lattice with uniform electric and magnetic fields.

We report a theoretical study of electronic transport properties of α-T3 lattice nanoribbons in the presence of uniform electric and magnetic fields. Landau levels with an unexcepted fashion are obtained in the system, and unique flat bands are observed due to the crossed electric and magnetic fields. We found that the nondispersive flat band of α-T3 lattice is distorted and split to many dispersive energy levels when electric and magnetic fields are applied. A double constriction structure of α-T3 lattice is considered to investigate the quantum transport in the flat band, and novel quantum transport properties are obtained, which shows great differences from conventional Dirac electrons. Our results show that the flat bands of α-T3 lattice can also contribute to the quantum transport properties and play an important role in the development of novel Dirac electron device.

High-Performance Transparent Ultraviolet Photodetectors Based on InGaZnO Superlattice Nanowire Arrays.

Due to the efficient photocarrier separation and collection coming from their distinctive band structures, superlattice nanowires (NWs) have great potential as active materials for high-performance optoelectronic devices. In this work, InGaZnO NWs with superlattice structure and controllable stoichiometry are obtained by ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition. Along the NW axial direction, perfect alternately stacking of InGaO(ZnO)4+ blocks and InO2- layers is observed to form a periodic layered structure. Strikingly, when configured into individual NW photodetectors, the Ga concentration is found to significantly influence the amount of oxygen vacancies and oxygen molecules adsorbed on the NW surface, which dictate the photoconducting properties of the NW channels. Based on the optimized Ga concentration (i.e., In1.8Ga1.8Zn2.4O7), the individual NW device exhibits an excellent responsivity of 1.95 × 105 A/W and external quantum efficiency of as high as 9.28 × 107% together with a rise time of 0.93 s and a decay time of 0.2 s for the ultraviolet (UV) photodetection. Besides, the obtained NWs can be fabricated into large-scale parallel arrays on glass substrates as well to achieve fully transparent UV photodetectors, where the performance is on the same level or even better than many transparent photodetectors with high performance. All the results discussed above demonstrate the great potential of InGaZnO superlattice NWs for next-generation advanced optoelectronic devices.

Two-Dimensional Cobalt Phosphate Hydroxide Nanosheets: A New Type of High-Performance Electrocatalysts with Intrinsic CoO6 Lattice Distortion for Water Oxidation.

Despite the recent advances in electrochemical water splitting, developing cost-effective and highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) still remains a substantial challenge. Herein, two-dimensional cobalt phosphate hydroxides (Co5(PO4)2(OH)4) nanosheets, a unique stacking-disordered phosphate-based inorganic material, are successfully prepared via a facile and scalable method for the first time to serve as a superior and robust electrocatalyst for water oxidation. On the basis of the detailed characterization (e.g., X-ray absorption near-edge structure and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), the obtained nanosheets consist of special zigzag CoO6 octahedral chains along with intrinsic lattice distortion and excellent hydrophilicity, in which these factors contribute to the highly efficient performance of prepared electrocatalysts for OER. Specifically, Co5(PO4)2(OH)4 deposited on glassy carbon electrode (loading amount ≈0.553 mg cm-2) can exhibit an unprecedented overpotential of 254 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm-2 with a small Tafel slope of 57 mV dec-1 in alkaline electrolytes, which outperforms the ones of CO3(PO4)2 (370 mV) and Co(OH)2 (360 mV) as well as other advanced catalysts. Evidently, this work has opened a new pathway to the rational design of promising metal phosphate hydroxides toward the efficient electrochemical energy conversion.

First-Principles Prediction of the Charge Mobility in Black Phosphorus Semiconductor Nanoribbons.

We have investigated the electronic structure and carrier mobility of monolayer black phosphorus nanoribbons (BPNRs) using density functional theory combined with Boltzmann transport method with relaxation time approximation. It is shown that the calculated ultrahigh electron mobility can even reach the order of 10(3) to 10(7) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) at room temperature. Owing to the electron mobility being higher than the hole mobility, armchair and diagonal BPNRs behave like n-type semiconductors. Comparing with the bare BPNRs, the difference between the hole and electronic mobilities can be enhanced in ribbons with the edges terminated by H atoms. Moreover, because the hole mobility is about two orders of magnitude larger than the electron mobility, zigzag BPNRs with H termination behave like p-type semiconductors. Our results indicate that BPNRs can be considered as a new kind of nanomaterial for applications in optoelectronics, nanoelectronic devices owing to the intrinsic band gap and ultrahigh charge mobility.

Rational design of inverted nanopencil arrays for cost-effective, broadband, and omnidirectional light harvesting.

Due to the unique optical properties, three-dimensional arrays of silicon nanostructures have attracted increasing attention as the efficient photon harvesters for various technological applications. In this work, instead of dry etching, we have utilized our newly developed wet anisotropic etching to fabricate silicon nanostructured arrays with different well-controlled geometrical morphologies, ranging from nanopillars, nanorods, and inverted nanopencils to nanocones, followed by systematic investigations of their photon-capturing properties combining experiments and simulations. It is revealed that optical properties of these nanoarrays are predominantly dictated by their geometrical factors including the structural pitch, material filling ratio, and aspect ratio. Surprisingly, along with the proper geometrical design, the inverted nanopencil arrays can couple incident photons into optical modes in the pencil base efficiently in order to achieve excellent broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting performances even with the substrate thickness down to 10 µm, which are comparable to the costly and technically difficult to achieve nanocone counterparts. Notably, the fabricated nanopencils with both 800 and 380 nm base diameters can suppress the optical reflection well below 5% over a broad wavelength of 400-1000 nm and a wide angle of incidence between 0 and 60°. All these findings not only offer additional insight into the light-trapping mechanism in these complex 3D nanophotonic structures but also provide efficient broadband and omnidirectional photon harvesters for next-generation cost-effective ultrathin nanostructured photovoltaics.

Application of surface plasmon resonance sensing to studying elastohydrodynamic lubricant films.

We present a new technique based on the spectral characteristics associated with the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect for studying lubricants in elastohydrodynamic (EHD) dimples. The pressure inside the EHD dimple causes a localized change of the refractive index (RI) of the entrapped lubricant. This also results in a shift in the spectral SPR absorption dip. By monitoring the color changes within the SPR image, one can obtain a direct measurement of the RI of the entrapped lubricant, from which the pressure distribution within the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) dimple can be deduced by means of a predetermined relation of pressure and RI of the tested lubricant. Dimples formed with the lubricants PB 2400 and H 1900 were studied in our experiments. Because SPR is sensitive only to the RI variation within a thin region (approximately one wavelength) close to the sensor's surface, the new technique does not require any measurement of the absolute film thickness of the lubricant. This is much simpler than the existing two-beam interferometric technique for measuring the RI of lubricants in EHD dimples, which requires simultaneous measurements of optical film thickness by use of two beams of different angles of incidence. In light of this advantage we anticipate that the new technique can be applied to pressure field mapping in highly loaded rolling and sliding EHL contacts.