Yakui Weng

High-Performance Photothermal Conversion of Narrow-Bandgap Ti2O3 Nanoparticles

Ti2 O3 nanoparticles with high performance of photothermal conversion are demonstrated for the first time. Benefiting from the nanosize and narrow-bandgap features, the Ti2 O3 nanoparticles possess strong light absorption and nearly 100% internal solar-thermal conversion efficiency. Furthermore, Ti2 O3 -nanoparticle-based thin film shows potential use in seawater desalination and purification.

Magnetization switching in the BiFe0.9Mn0.1O3 thin films modulated by resistive switching process

Polycrystalline BiFe0.9Mn0.1O3 thin films have been prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si wafers by a sol-gel process. The film exhibits typical resistive switching (RS) effect. Moreover, accompanied with the RS process, remarkable magnetization switching (MS) behaviors happen, i.e., at low resistance state the film shows high saturation magnetization, while showing low saturation magnetization at high resistance state. We revealed that such a MS effect mainly originates from the conversion of Fe ion valence state between Fe2+ and Fe3+ during the RS process, which was confirmed by the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The further first-principle calculations showed that the doping of Mn into the BiFeO3 could induce an impurity energy level which makes it facile to achieve the conversion of Fe ion valence state. Based on the conductive filament model, a possible mechanism of tuning the MS effect by RS process is proposed, which is closely related to the conversion of Fe ion valence state along with the fo...

Magnetic orders of LaTiO3 under epitaxial strain: A first-principles study

Perovskite LaTiO3 bulk is a typical Mott-insulator with G-type antiferromagnetic order. In this work, the biaxial strain effects on the ground magnetic order of LaTiO3 films grown on various substrates have been studied. For the compressive strain, LaTiO3 films grown on LaAlO3, LaGaO3, and SrTiO3 substrates undergo a phase transition from the original G-type antiferromagnet to A-type antiferromagnet. The underlying physical mechanisms are the lattice distortions tunned by strain. While for the tensile strain, the BaTiO3 and LaScO3 substrates have been tested, which show a tendency to transit the LaTiO3 to the C-type antiferromagnet. Furthermore, our calculations find that the magnetic transitions under epitaxial strain do not change the insulating fact of LaTiO3.

Magnetism and electronic structure of (001)- and (111)-oriented LaTiO3 bilayers sandwiched in LaScO3 barriers

In this study, the magnetism and electronic structure of LaTiO3 bilayers along both the (001) and (111) orientations are calculated using the density functional theory. The band insulator LaScO3 is chosen as the barrier layer and substrate to obtain the isolating LaTiO3 bilayer. For both the (001)- and (111)-oriented cases, LaTiO3 demonstrates the G-type antiferromagnetism as the ground state, similar to the bulk material. However, the electronic structure is significantly changed. The occupied bands of Ti are much narrower in the (111) case, giving a nearly flat band. As a result, the exchange coupling between nearest-neighbor Ti ions is reformed in these superlattices, which will affect the Neel temperature significantly.

Strain driven sequential magnetic transitions in strained GdTiO3 on compressive substrates: a first-principles study.

The compressive strain effect on the magnetic ground state and electronic structure of strained GdTiO3 has been studied using the first-principles method. Unlike the cases of congeneric YTiO3 and LaTiO3, both of which become the A-type antiferromagnetism on the (0 0 1) LaAlO3 substrate despite their contrastive magnetism, the ground state of strained GdTiO3 on the LaAlO3 substrate changes from the original ferromagnetism to a G-type antiferromagnetim, instead of the A-type one although Gd(3+) is between Y(3+) and La(3+). It is only when the in-plane compressive strain is large enough, e.g. on the (0 0 1) YAlO3 substrate, that the ground state finally becomes the A-type. The band structure calculation shows that the compressive strained GdTiO3 remains insulating, although the band gap changes a little in the strained GdTiO3.

Appearance and disappearance of ferromagnetism in ultrathin LaMnO3 on SrTiO3 substrate: A viewpoint from first principles

The intrinsic magnetic state (ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic) of ultra-thin LaMnO

Possible ferrimagnetism and ferroelectricity of half-substituted rare-earth titanate: A first-principles study on Y0.5La0.5TiO3

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Topological magnetic phase in LaMnO

films on the mostly used SrTiO

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(111) bilayer

substrate is a long-existing question under debate. Either strain effect or non-stoichiometry was argued to be responsible for the experimental ferromagnetism. In a recent experiment [Science \textbf{349}, 716 (2015)], one more mechanism, namely the self-doping due to polar discontinuity, was argued to be the driving force of ferromagnetism beyond the critical thickness. Here systematic first-principles calculations have been performed to check these mechanisms in ultra-thin LaMnO