Specific Isotope-Responsive Breathing Transition in Flexible Metal-Organic Frameworks.

An isotope-selective responsive system based on molecular recognition in porous materials has potential for the storage and purification of isotopic mixtures but is considered unachievable because of the almost identical physicochemical properties of the isotopes. Herein, a unique isotope-responsive breathing transition of the flexible metal-organic framework (MOF), MIL-53(Al), which can selectively recognize and respond to only D2 molecules through a secondary breathing transition, is reported. This novel phenomenon is examined using in situ neutron diffraction experiments under the same conditions for H2 and D2 sorption experiments. This work can guide the development of a novel isotope-selective recognition system and provide opportunities to fabricate flexible MOF systems for energy-efficient purification of the isotopic mixture.

Erratum: Lattice Dynamics Coupled to Charge and Spin Degrees of Freedom in the Molecular Dimer-Mott Insulator κ-(BEDT-TTF)_{2}Cu[N(CN)_{2}]Cl [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 027601 (2019)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.027601.

Lattice Dynamics Coupled to Charge and Spin Degrees of Freedom in the Molecular Dimer-Mott Insulator κ-(BEDT-TTF)_{2}Cu[N(CN)_{2}]Cl.

Inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the molecular dimer-Mott insulator κ-(BEDT-TTF)_{2}Cu[N(CN)_{2}]Cl reveal a phonon anomaly in a wide temperature range. Starting from T_{ins}∼50-60 K where the charge gap opens, the low-lying optical phonon modes become overdamped upon cooling towards the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature T_{N}=27 K, where also a ferroelectric ordering at T_{FE}≈T_{N} occurs. Conversely, the phonon damping becomes small again when spins and charges are ordered below T_{N}, while no change of the lattice symmetry is observed across T_{N} in neutron diffraction measurements. We assign the phonon anomalies to structural fluctuations coupled to charge and spin degrees of freedom in the BEDT-TTF molecules.

Elucidation of Diffusivity of Hydrogen Isotopes in Flexible MOFs by Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering.

Kinetic-quantum-sieving-assisted H2 :D2 separation in flexible porous materials is more effective than the currently used energy-intensive cryogenic distillation and girdle-sulfide processes for isotope separation. It is believed that material flexibility results in a pore-breathing phenomenon under the influence of external stimuli, which helps in adjusting the pore size and gives rise to the optimum quantum-sieving phenomenon at each stage of gas separation. However, only a few studies have investigated kinetic-quantum-sieving-assisted isotope separation using flexible porous materials. In addition, no reports are available on the microscopic observation of isotopic molecular transportation during the separation process under dynamic transition. Here, the experimental observation of a significantly faster diffusion of deuterium than hydrogen in a flexible pore structure, even at high temperatures, through quasi-elastic neutron scattering, is reported. Unlike rigid structures, the extracted diffusion dynamics of hydrogen isotopes within flexible frameworks show that the diffusion difference between the isotopes increases with an increase in temperature. Owing to this unique inverse trend, a new strategy is suggested for achieving higher operating temperatures for efficient isotope separation utilizing a flexible metal-organic framework system.

Polarized neutron scattering studies of magnetic excitations in iron-selenide superconductor Li0.8Fe0.2ODFeSe (Tc=41 K).

We report polarized neutron scattering measurements of the low energy spin fluctuations of the iron-selenide superconductor Li0.8Fe0.2ODFeSe below and above its superconducting transition temperatureTc= 41 K. Our experiments confirmed that the resonance mode near 21 meV is magnetic. Moreover, the spin excitations are essentially isotropic in spin space at 5 ⩽E⩽ 29 meV in the superconducting and normal states. Our results suggest that the resonance mode in iron-based superconductors becomes isotropic when the influence of spin-orbit coupling and magnetic/nematic order is minimized, similar to those observed in cuprate superconductors.

Topological magnon insulators in two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnets CrSiTe3 and CrGeTe3: Toward intrinsic gap-tunability.

The bosonic analogs of topological insulators have been proposed in numerous theoretical works, but their experimental realization is still very rare, especially for spin systems. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb van der Waals ferromagnets have emerged as a new platform for topological spin excitations. Here, via a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering study and theoretical analysis of the spin-wave excitations, we report the realization of topological magnon insulators in CrXTe3 (X = Si, Ge) compounds. The nontrivial nature and intrinsic tunability of the gap opening at the magnon band-crossing Dirac points are confirmed, while the emergence of the corresponding in-gap topological edge states is demonstrated theoretically. The realization of topological magnon insulators with intrinsic gap-unability in this class of remarkable 2D materials will undoubtedly lead to new and fascinating technological applications in the domain of magnonics and topological spintronics.