No Arabic abstract
Adsorbed molecular films provide two-dimensional systems that show various emergent phenomena that are not observed in bulk counterparts. We have measured the elasticity of thin neon films adsorbed on porous glass down to 1 K by the torsional oscillator technique. The shear modulus of a neon film anomalously increases at low temperatures with excess dissipation. This behavior indicates a crossover from a soft (fluidlike) state at high temperatures to a stiff (solidlike) state at low temperatures. The temperature dependence of the anomaly is qualitatively similar to that of the elastic anomaly of helium films found in our recent study. The dissipation peak temperature, however, becomes constant at about 5 K, contrary to the case of helium, in which it decreases to 0 K at a critical coverage of a quantum phase transition between a gapped localized phase and a mobile (superfluid) phase. It is concluded that neon films behave as a classical system that does not show a quantum phase transition or superfluidity, although the films may be strongly supercooled to temperatures much lower than the bulk triple point, 24.6 K. Our results suggest that the elastic anomaly is a universal phenomenon of atomic or molecular films adsorbed on disordered substrates.
We study the dewetting of liquid films capped by a thin elastomeric layer. When the tension in the elastomer is isotropic, circular holes grow at a rate which decreases with increasing tension. The morphology of holes and rim stability can be controlled by changing the boundary conditions and tension in the capping film. When the capping film is prepared with a biaxial tension, holes form with a non-circular shape elongated along the high tension axis. With suitable choice of elastic boundary conditions, samples can even be designed such that square holes appear.
We present the results of transverse-field muon-spin rotation measurements on an epitaxially grown 40 nm-thick film of MnSi on Si(111) in the region of the field-temperature phase diagram where a skyrmion phase has been observed in the bulk. We identify changes in the quasistatic magnetic field distribution sampled by the muon, along with evidence for magnetic transitions around $Tapprox 40$ K and 30 K. Our results suggest that the cone phase is not the only magnetic texture realized in film samples for out-of-plane fields.
We present a comprehensive study of the crystal structure of the thin-film, ferromagnetic topological insulator (Bi, Sb)$_{2-x}$V$_x$Te$_3$. The dissipationless quantum anomalous Hall edge states it manifests are of particular interest for spintronics, as a natural spin filter or pure spin source, and as qubits for topological quantum computing. For ranges typically used in experiments, we investigate the effect of doping, substrate choice and film thickness on the (Bi, Sb)$_2$Te$_3$ unit cell using high-resolution X-ray diffractometry. Scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements provide local structural and interfacial information. We find that the unit cell is unaffected in-plane by vanadium doping changes, and remains unchanged over a thickness range of 4--10 quintuple layers (1 QL $approx$ 1 nm). The in-plane lattice parameter ($a$) also remains the same in films grown on different substrate materials. However, out-of-plane the $c$-axis is reduced in films grown on less closely lattice-matched substrates, and increases with the doping level.
We measured the temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization (Ms) of a (La1-xPrx)1-yCayMnO3 (x ~ 0.60, y ~ 0.33) film as a function of applied bending stress. Stress producing a compressive strain of -0.01% along the magnetic easy axis increased the Curie temperature by ~6 K and the metal-insulator-transition by ~4 K. Regardless of whether or not stress is applied to the film, magnetic ordering occurs at temperatures significantly higher than the metal-insulator-transition temperature. The magnetization of the sample at the temperature of the metal-insulator-transition is approximately the site percolation threshold for a two-dimensional spin lattice.
Realizing quantum materials in few atomic layer morphologies is a key to both observing and controlling a wide variety of exotic quantum phenomena. This includes topological electronic materials, where the tunability and dimensionality of few layer materials have enabled the detection of $Z_2$, Chern, and Majorana phases. Here, we report the development of a platform for thin film correlated, topological states in the magnetic rare-earth monopnictide ($RX$) system GdBi synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy. This material is known from bulk single crystal studies to be semimetallic antiferromagnets with Neel temperature $T_N =$ 28 K and is the magnetic analog of the non-$f$-electron containing system LaBi proposed to have topological surface states. Our transport and magnetization studies of thin films grown epitaxially on BaF$_2$ reveal that semimetallicity is lifted below approximately 8 crystallographic unit cells while magnetic order is maintained down to our minimum thickness of 5 crystallographic unit cells. First-principles calculations show that the non-trivial topology is preserved down to the monolayer limit, where quantum confinement and the lattice symmetry give rise to a $C=2$ Chern insulator phase. We further demonstrate the stabilization of these films against atmospheric degradation using a combination of air-free buffer and capping procedures. These results together identify thin film $RX$ materials as potential platforms for engineering topological electronic bands in correlated magnetic materials.