Pressure-Induced Phase Transition in Weyl Semimetallic WTe2.

Tungsten ditelluride (WTe2 ) is a semimetal with orthorhombic Td phase that possesses some unique properties such as Weyl semimetal states, pressure-induced superconductivity, and giant magnetoresistance. Here, the high-pressure properties of WTe2 single crystals are investigated by Raman microspectroscopy and ab initio calculations. WTe2 shows strong plane-parallel/plane-vertical vibrational anisotropy, stemming from its intrinsic Raman tensor. Under pressure, the Raman peaks at ≈120 cm-1 exhibit redshift, indicating structural instability of the orthorhombic Td phase. WTe2 undergoes a phase transition to a monoclinic T' phase at 8 GPa, where the Weyl states vanish in the new T' phase due to the presence of inversion symmetry. Such Td to T' phase transition provides a feasible method to achieve Weyl state switching in a single material without doping. The new T' phase also coincides with the appearance of superconductivity reported in the literature.

Bandgap-opened bilayer graphene approached by asymmetrical intercalation of trilayer graphene.

A novel graphene structure formed by asymmetrical intercalation of FeCl3 molecules into a trilayer graphene is reported. The trilayer graphene is divided into a single layer and a bilayer graphene by the inserted FeCl3 layer. Theoretical calculation shows that such graphene bilayers with broken inversion symmetry present a prominent opened bandgap of ∼0.13 eV.

Low temperature edge dynamics of AB-stacked bilayer graphene: naturally favored closed zigzag edges.

Closed edges bilayer graphene (CEBG) is a recent discovered novel form of graphene structures, whose regulated edge states may critically change the overall electronic behaviors. If stacked properly with the AB style, the bilayer graphene with closed zigzag edges may even present amazing electronic properties of bandgap opening and charge separation. Experimentally, the CEBG has been confirmed recently with HRTEM observations after extremely high temperature annealing (2000 °C). From the application point of view, the low temperature closing of the graphene edges would be much more feasible for large-scale graphene-based electronic devices fabrication. Here, we demonstrate that the zigzag edges of AB-stacked bilayer graphene will form curved close structure naturally at low annealing temperature (< 500 °C) based on Raman observation and first principles analysis. Such findings may illuminate a simple and easy way to engineer graphene electronics.