Browsing by Author "Jeng, Horng-Tay"

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Electrochemically active novel amorphous carbon (a-C)/Cu3P peapod nanowires by low-temperature chemical vapor phosphorization reaction as high efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction
(2019-09-20)
Manikandan, Arumugam
;
Sriram, Pavithra
;
Hsu, Kun-Chieh
;
Wang, Yi-Chung
;
Chen, Chia-Wei
Toward finding low-cost electrocatalysts with high catalytic properties to replace noble metals as high efficient electrocatalysts in electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of total water splitting plays a vital role to approach the green and sustainable energy supply. Here, we demonstrate the direct growth of novel copper phosphide coated with amorphous carbon, namely heterostructured a-C/Cu3P peapod nanowires from chemically synthesized copper nanowires (Cu NWs) followed by a chemical vapor phosphorization reaction (CVPR) process at a low temperature of 400 degrees C. The heterostructured a-C/Cu3P peapod nanowires exhibit a superior electrocatalytic activity by a lower overpotential of 287 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) with a low Tafel slope of 72 mV dec(-1) and excellent stability over 1000 cycles. The superior electrocatalytic performance can be explained by the superior contact of the electrolyte with active sites on the heterostructured a-C/Cu3P due to the high surface area of peapod nanowire structure covered by defective edges of graphene with the encapsulated amorphous carbon layer, which can tremendously enhance electrical conductivity at the surface. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Electronic structure of pyrochlore Cd(2)Re(2)O(7)
(2009-05-13)
Huang, Shih-Wen
;
Jeng, Horng-Tay
;
Lin, J-Y
;
Chang, W. J.
;
Chen, J. M.
Detailed band structure calculations have been performed for Cd(2)Re(2)O(7) in high-, middle- and low-temperature (T) phases. The calculations are based on the observed lattice structures from x-ray diffraction measurements. The spin-orbit interaction is incorporated self-consistently in both the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and the GGA plus Hubbard U (GGA + U) approaches. It is found that the on-site U has negligible effects on the Re 5d band structures; therefore both the GGA and GGA + U Re 5d band energies agree well with the observed O K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectrum, whereas the Cd 4d band energy observed from photoemission spectroscopy can only be correctly reproduced by GGA + U calculations, indicating the relatively itinerant Re 5d and localized Cd 4d electrons. On the other hand, the spin-orbit coupling gives rise to nontrivial spin and orbital magnetic moments for the middle-T phase. Most unexpectedly, we found that the low-T phase exhibits quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surfaces. The calculated carrier numbers for the three phases are, at least qualitatively, consistent with the measured Hall coefficient.
Electronic structure of pyrochlore Cd2Re2O7
(2009-05-13)
Huang, Shih-Wen
;
Jeng, Horng-Tay
;
Lin, J-Y
;
Chang, W. J.
;
Chen, J. M.
Detailed band structure calculations have been performed for Cd2Re2O7 in high-, middle- and low-temperature (T) phases. The calculations are based on the observed lattice structures from x-ray diffraction measurements. The spin-orbit interaction is incorporated self-consistently in both the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and the GGA plus Hubbard U (GGA + U) approaches. It is found that the on-site U has negligible effects on the Re 5d band structures; therefore both the GGA and GGA + U Re 5d band energies agree well with the observed O K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectrum, whereas the Cd 4d band energy observed from photoemission spectroscopy can only be correctly reproduced by GGA + U calculations, indicating the relatively itinerant Re 5d and localized Cd 4d electrons. On the other hand, the spin-orbit coupling gives rise to nontrivial spin and orbital magnetic moments for the middle-T phase. Most unexpectedly, we found that the low-T phase exhibits quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surfaces. The calculated carrier numbers for the three phases are, at least qualitatively, consistent with the measured Hall coefficient.
Evidence of indirect gap in monolayer WSe2
(2017-10-13)
Hsu, Wei-Ting
;
Lu, Li-Syuan
;
Wang, Dean
;
Huang, Jing-Kai
;
Li, Ming-Yang
Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS2 and WSe2, have been known as direct gap semiconductors and emerged as new optically active materials for novel device applications. Here we reexamine their direct gap properties by investigating the strain effects on the photoluminescence of monolayer MoS2 and WSe2. Instead of applying stress, we investigate the strain effects by imaging the direct exciton populations in monolayer WSe2-MoS2 and MoSe2-WSe2 lateral heterojunctions with inherent strain inhomogeneity. We find that unstrained monolayer WSe2 is actually an indirect gap material, as manifested in the observed photoluminescence intensity-energy correlation, from which the difference between the direct and indirect optical gaps can be extracted by analyzing the exciton thermal populations. Our findings combined with the estimated exciton binding energy further indicate that monolayer WSe2 exhibits an indirect quasiparticle gap, which has to be reconsidered in further studies for its fundamental properties and device applications.
Negative circular polarization emissions from WSe2/MoSe2 commensurate heterobilayers
(2018-04-10)
Hsu, Wei-Ting
;
Lu, Li-Syuan
;
Wu, Po-Hsun
;
Lee, Ming-Hao
;
Chen, Peng-Jen
Van der Waals heterobilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with spin-valley coupling of carriers in different layers have emerged as a new platform for exploring spin/valleytronic applications. The interlayer coupling was predicted to exhibit subtle changes with the interlayer atomic registry. Manually stacked heterobilayers, however, are incommensurate with the inevitable interlayer twist and/or lattice mismatch, where the properties associated with atomic registry are difficult to access by optical means. Here, we unveil the distinct polarization properties of valley-specific interlayer excitons using epitaxially grown, commensurate WSe2/MoSe2 heterobilayers with well-defined (AA and AB) atomic registry. We observe circularly polarized photoluminescence from interlayer excitons, but with a helicity opposite to the optical excitation. The negative circular polarization arises from the quantum interference imposed by interlayer atomic registry, giving rise to distinct polarization selection rules for interlayer excitons. Using selective excitation schemes, we demonstrate the optical addressability for interlayer excitons with different valley configurations and polarization helicities.
Prominent role of oxygen in the multiferroicity of DyMnO3 and TbMnO3: A resonant soft x-ray scattering spectroscopy study
(2016-07-21)
Huang, S. W.
;
Lee, J. M.
;
Jeng, Horng-Tay
;
Shao, YuCheng
;
Wray, L. Andrew
Oxygen is known to play an important role in the multiferroicity of rare earth manganites; however, how this role changes with rare earth elements is still not fully understood. To address this question, we have used resonant soft x-ray scattering spectroscopy to study the F-type (0, tau, 0) diffraction peak from the antiferromagnetic order in DyMnO3 and TbMnO3. We focus on the measurements at O K edge of these two manganites, supplemented by the results at Mn L-2 and Dy M-5 edge of DyMnO3. We show that the electronic states of different elements are coupled more strongly in DyMnO3 than in TbMnO3, presumably due to the stronger lattice distortion and the tendency to develop E-type antiferromagnetism in the ferroelectric state that promote the orbital hybridization. We also show that the anomaly in the correlation length of (0, tau, 0) peak in DyMnO3 signifies the exchange interaction between Mn and rare earth spins. Our findings reveal the prominent role of oxygen orbitals in the multiferroicity of rare earth manganites and the distinct energetics between them.
Selective interlayer ferromagnetic coupling between the Cu spins in YBa2Cu3O7-x grown on top of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3
(2015-11-17)
Huang, S. W.
;
Wray, L. Andrew
;
Jeng, Horng-Tay
;
Tra, V. T.
;
Lee, J. M.
Studies to date on ferromagnet/d-wave superconductor heterostructures focus mainly on the effects at or near the interfaces while the response of bulk properties to heterostructuring is overlooked. Here we use resonant soft x-ray scattering spectroscopy to reveal a novel c-axis ferromagnetic coupling between the in-plane Cu spins in YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) superconductor when it is grown on top of ferromagnetic La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) manganite layer. This coupling, present in both normal and superconducting states of YBCO, is sensitive to the interfacial termination such that it is only observed in bilayers with MnO2 but not with La0.7Ca0.3O interfacial termination. Such contrasting behaviors, we propose, are due to distinct energetic of CuO chain and CuO2 plane at the La0.7Ca0.3O and MnO2 terminated interfaces respectively, therefore influencing the transfer of spin-polarized electrons from manganite to cuprate differently. Our findings suggest that the superconducting/ferromagnetic bilayers with proper interfacial engineering can be good candidates for searching the theorized Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in cuprates and studying the competing quantum orders in highly correlated electron systems.
Tunable disorder and localization in the rare-earth nickelates
(2019-05-02)
Wang, Changan
;
Chang, Ching-Hao
;
Huang, Angus
;
Wang, Pei-Chun
;
Wu, Ping-Chun
We demonstrate that transport in metallic rare-earth nickelates can be engineered by directly tuning the electronic mean free path. Using irradiation as a tool to induce disorder, we drive this system from a metallic phase into an Anderson insulator. This proceeds via an intermediate regime which shows a thermal crossover from insulating to metallic behavior. We argue that this phase falls within the paradigm of weak localization in three dimensions. We develop a theoretical model for the temperature dependence of resistivity which shows good agreement with our data. The three-dimensional weak localization picture is supported by magnetoconductivity, which scales as similar to B-2 up to several tesla. Interestingly, our data indicate that this phase lies in the Mott-Ioffe-Regel regime with the mean free path approaching the lattice constant. Upon further increasing disorder, the charge carriers are localized, leading to insulating behavior at all temperatures. Our results show that irradiation provides a "clean" tuning knob for the mean free path, without altering other system parameters. This suggests promising directions for studies of Anderson localization.