No Arabic abstract
Derivative structural polytypes coexisting with the rhombohedral A7 structure of elemental bismuth (Bi) have been discovered at ambient condition, based on microstructure analyses of pure Bi samples treated under high pressure and high temperature conditions. Three structures with atomic positions close to those of the A7 structure have been identified through first-principles calculations, showing these polytypes energetically comparable to the A7 structure under ambient condition. Simulated diffraction data are in excellent agreement with the experimental observations. We argue that previously reported variations in physical properties (e.g., density, melting point, electrical conductivity, and magnetism) in bismuth could be due to the formation of these polytypes. The coexistence of metastable derivative structural polytypes may be a widely occurring phenomenon in other elemental materials
The double-resonance (DR) Raman process is a signature of all sp2 carbon material and provide fundamental information of the electronic structure and phonon dispersion in graphene, carbon nanotubes and different graphite-type materials. We have performed in this work the study of different DR Raman bands of rhombohedral graphite using five different excitation laser energies and obtained the dispersion of the different DR features by changing the laser energy. Results are compared with those of Bernal graphite and shows that rhombohedral graphite exhibit a richer DR Raman spectrum. For example, the 2D band of rhombohedral graphite is broader and composed by several maxima that exhibit different dispersive behavior. The occurrence of more DR conditions in rhombohedral graphite is ascribed to the fact that the volume of its Brillouin zone (BZ) is twice the volume of the Bernal BZ, allowing thus more channels for the resonance condition. The spectra of the intervalley TO-LA band of rhombohedral graphite, around 2450 cm-1, is also broader and richer in features compared to that of Bernal graphite. Results and analysis of the spectral region 1700-1850 cm-1, where different intravalley processes involving acoustic and optical phonons occurs, are also presented.
Magnetic and dielectric properties of the hexagonal triangular lattice antiferromagnet 2H-AgFeO2 have been studied by neutron diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, pyroelectric current, and dielectric constant measurements. The ferroelectric polarization, P ~ 5 {mu}C/m2, has been found to appear below 11 K due to a polar nature of the magnetic ground state of the system. In the temperature range of 11 K < T < 18 K, an incommensurate spin density wave (ICM1) with the nonpolar magnetic point group mmm1 and the k1 = (0,q1_b,0; q1_b = 0.390-0.405)propagation vector takes place. Below 14 K, a proper screw ordering (ICM2) and k2 = (0,q2_b,0; q2_b = 0.385-0.396) appears as a minor phase which coexists with ICM1 and the ground state down to the lowestmeasured temperature 5.5 K. No ferroelectric polarization associated with the ICM2 phase was observed in agreement with its nonpolar point group 2221. Finally, a spiral order with cycloid and proper screw components (ICM3), and k3 = (q3_a,q3_b,0; q3_a = 0.0467, q3_b = 0.349) emerges below 11 K as the ground state of the system. Based on the deduced magnetic point group 21, we conclude that the ferroelectric polarization in ICM3 is parallel to the c axis and is caused by the inverse Dzyloshinskii-Moriya effect with p1 ~ rij x (Si x Sj ). Unlike the rhombohedral 3R-AgFeO2 polytype, the additional contribution to the macroscopic polarization p2 ~ Si x Sj is not allowed in the present case due to the symmetry constraints imposed by the hexagonal lattice of 2H-AgFeO2.
Multi-layer graphene with rhombohedral stacking is a promising carbon phase possibly displaying correlated states like magnetism or superconductivity due to the occurrence of a flat surface band at the Fermi level. Recently, flakes of thickness up to 17 layers were tentatively attributed ABC sequences although the Raman fingerprint of rhombohedral multilayer graphene is currently unknown and the 2D resonant Raman spectrum of Bernal graphite not understood. We provide a first principles description of the 2D Raman peak in three and four layers graphene (all stackings) as well as in Bernal, rhombohedral and an alternation of Bernal and rhombohedral graphite. We give practical prescriptions to identify long range sequences of ABC multi-layer graphene. Our work is a prerequisite to experimental non-destructive identification and synthesis of rhombohedral graphite.
The total energy differences between various SiC polytypes (3C, 6H, 4H, 2H, 15R and 9R) were calculated using the full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital method using the Perdew-Wang-(91) generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation functional in the density functional method. Numerical convergence versus k-point sampling and basis set completeness are demonstrated to be better than 1 meV/atom. The parameters of several generalized anisotropic next-nearest-neighbor Ising models are extracted and their significance and consequences for epitaxial growth are discussed.
The mathematical field of topology has become a framework to describe the low-energy electronic structure of crystalline solids. A typical feature of a bulk insulating three-dimensional topological crystal are conducting two-dimensional surface states. This constitutes the topological bulk-boundary correspondence. Here, we establish that the electronic structure of bismuth, an element consistently described as bulk topologically trivial, is in fact topological and follows a generalized bulk-boundary correspondence of higher-order: not the surfaces of the crystal, but its hinges host topologically protected conducting modes. These hinge modes are protected against localization by time-reversal symmetry locally, and globally by the three-fold rotational symmetry and inversion symmetry of the bismuth crystal. We support our claim theoretically and experimentally. Our theoretical analysis is based on symmetry arguments, topological indices, first-principle calculations, and the recently introduced framework of topological quantum chemistry. We provide supporting evidence from two complementary experimental techniques. With scanning-tunneling spectroscopy, we probe the unique signatures of the rotational symmetry of the one-dimensional states located at step edges of the crystal surface. With Josephson interferometry, we demonstrate their universal topological contribution to the electronic transport. Our work establishes bismuth as a higher-order topological insulator.