We present a detailed study of the magnetic-field and temperature-dependent polarization of the near-band-gap photoluminescence in Gd-doped GaN layers. Our study reveals an extraordinarily strong influence of Gd doping on the electronic states in the GaN matrix. We observe that the spin splitting of the valence band reverses its sign for Gd concentrations as low as 1.6 x 10^{16} cm^{-3}. This remarkable result can be understood only in terms of a long range induction of magnetic moments in the surrounding GaN matrix by the Gd ions.
We investigated the effect of the tensile strain on the spin splitting at the n-type interface in LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ in terms of the spin-orbit coupling coefficient $alpha$ and spin texture in the momentum space using first-principles calculations.
We found that the $alpha$ could be controlled by the tensile strain and be enhanced up to 5 times for the tensile strain of 7%, and the effect of the tensile strain leads to a persistent spin helix, which has a long spin lifetime. These results support that the strain effect on LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ is important for various applications such as spinFET and spin-to-charge conversion.
The linewidths of the electronic bands originating from the electron-phonon coupling in graphene are analyzed based on model tight-binding calculations and experimental angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data. Our calculations confirm
the prediction that the high-energy optical phonons provide the most essential contribution to the phonon-induced linewidth of the two upper occupied $sigma$ bands near the $bar{Gamma}$-point. For larger binding energies of these bands, as well as for the $pi$ band, we find evidence for a substantial lifetime broadening from interband scattering $pi rightarrow sigma$ and $sigma rightarrow pi$, respectively, driven by the out-of-plane ZA acoustic phonons. The essential features of the calculated $sigma$ band linewidths are in agreement with recent published ARPES data [F. Mazzola et al., Phys.~Rev.~B. 95, 075430 (2017)] and of the $pi$ band linewidth with ARPES data presented here.
Structural defects in 2D materials offer an effective way to engineer new material functionalities beyond conventional doping in semiconductors. Specifically, deep in-gap defect states of chalcogen vacancies have been associated with intriguing pheno
mena in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Here, we report the direct experimental correlation of the atomic and electronic structure of a sulfur vacancy in monolayer WS2 by a combination of CO-tip noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Sulfur vacancies, which are absent in as-grown samples, were deliberately created by annealing in vacuum. Two energetically narrow unoccupied defect states of the vacancy provide a unique fingerprint of this defect. Direct imaging of the defect orbitals by STM and state-of-the-art GW calculations reveal that the large splitting of 252 meV between these defect states is induced by spin-orbit coupling. The controllable incorporation and potential decoration of chalcogen vacancies provide a new route to tailor the optical, catalytic and magnetic properties of TMDs.
The density functional theory with generalized gradient approximation has been used to investigate the electronic structure of gadolinium pyrochlore A2Zr2O7 (A=Gd, Nd) ceramic synthesized in polycrystalline form by solid state reaction. Structural ch
aracterization of the compound was done through X-ray diffraction (XRD) followed by Rietveld analysis of the XRD pattern. The Zr-K edge X-ray absorption (XAFS) spectra of A2Zr2O7 (A=Gd, Nd) were analysed together with those Zr-foil, which was used as reference compounds. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) for A2Zr2O7 (A=Gd, Nd) has been employed to obtain quantitative structural information on the Zr-local environment. The band gap is estimated using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The crystal structure is face centered cubic, space group being Fd-3m (No. 227). The total energies in this work were calculated using the generalized gradient approximation to DFT plus on-site repulsion (U) method.
Various types of magnetism can appear in emerging quantum materials such as van der Waals layered ones. Here, we report the successful doping of manganese atoms into a post-transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor: SnSe$_2$. We synthesized a sin
gle crystal Sn$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$Se$_{2}$ with $textit{x}$ = 0.04 by the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method and characterized it by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The magnetic properties indicated a competition between coexisting ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions, from the temperature dependence of the magnetization, together with magnetic hysteresis loops. This means that magnetic clusters having ferromagnetic interaction within a cluster form and the short-range antiferromagnetic interaction works between the clusters; a spin-glass state appears below ~ 60 K. Furthermore, we confirmed by $textit{ab initio}$ calculations that the ferromagnetic interaction comes from the 3$textit{d}$ electrons of the manganese dopant. Our results offer a new material platform to understand and utilize the magnetism in the van der Waals layered materials.