Shenghua Liu

Efficient thermal conductance in organometallic perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 films

Perovskite-based optoelectronic devices have shown great promise for solar conversion and other optoelectronic applications, but their long-term performance instability is regarded as a major obstacle to their widespread deployment. Previous works have shown that the ultralow thermal conductivity and inefficient heat spreading might put an intrinsic limit on the lifetime of perovskite devices. Here, we report the observation of a remarkably efficient thermal conductance, with a conductivity of 11.2u2009±u20090.8u2009W m−1 K−1 at room temperature, in densely packed perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 films, via noncontact time-domain thermal reflectance measurements. The temperature-dependent experiments suggest the important roles of organic cations and structural phase transitions, which are further confirmed by temperature-dependent Raman spectra. The thermal conductivity at room temperature observed here is over one order of magnitude larger than that in the early report, suggesting that perovskite device performance will not b...

Coherent optical phonon oscillation and possible electronic softening in WTe2 crystals.

A rapidly-growing interest in WTe2 has been triggered by the giant magnetoresistance effect discovered in this unique system. While many efforts have been made towards uncovering the electron- and spin-relevant mechanisms, the role of lattice vibration remains poorly understood. Here, we study the coherent vibrational dynamics in WTe2 crystals by using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. The oscillation signal in time domain in WTe2 has been ascribed as due to the coherent dynamics of the lowest energy A1 optical phonons with polarization- and wavelength-dependent measurements. With increasing temperature, the phonon energy decreases due to anharmonic decay of the optical phonons into acoustic phonons. Moreover, a significant drop (15%) of the phonon energy with increasing pump power is observed which is possibly caused by the lattice anharmonicity induced by electronic excitation and phonon-phonon interaction.

Coherent acoustic phonons in YBa2Cu3O7/La1/3Ca2/3MnO3 superlattices

We investigate photo-induced coherent acoustic phonons in complex oxide superlattices consisting of high-Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x and ferromagnetic manganite La1/3Ca2/3MnO3 epitaxial layers with broadband pump-probe spectroscopy. Two oscillatory components have been observed in time-resolved differential reflectivity spectra. Based on the analysis, the slow oscillation mode with a frequency sensitive to the probe wavelength is ascribed to the stimulated Brillouin scattering due to the photon reflection by propagating train of coherent phonons. The fast oscillation mode with a probe-wavelength-insensitive frequency is attributed to the Bragg oscillations caused by specular phonon reflections at oxide interfaces or the electron-coupling induced modulation due to free carrier absorption in the metallic superlattices. Our findings suggest that oxide superlattice is an ideal system to tailor the coherent behaviors of acoustic phonons and to manipulate the thermal and acoustic properties.

Polar phase transitions in heteroepitaxial stabilized La0.5Y0.5AlO3 thin films

We report on the fabrication of epitaxial La0.5Y0.5AlO3 ultrathin films on (001) LaAlO3 substrates. Structural characterizations by scanning transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction confirm the high quality of the film with a - b + c - AlO6 octahedral tilt pattern. Unlike either of the nonpolar parent compound, LaAlO3 and YAlO3, second harmonic generation measurements on the thin films suggest a nonpolar-polar phase transition at T c near 500u2009K, and a polar-polar phase transition at T a near 160u2009K. By fitting the angular dependence of the second harmonic intensities, we further propose that the two polar structures can be assigned to the Pmc2 1 and Pmn2 1 space group, while the high temperature nonpolar structure belongs to the Pbnm space group.