The topological soliton in Peierls semimetal Sb.

Sb is a three-dimensional Peierls insulator. The Peierls instability gives rise to doubling of the translational period along the [111] direction and alternating van der Waals and covalent bonding between (111) atomic planes. At the (111) surface of Sb, the Peierls condition is violated, which in theory can give rise to properties differing from the bulk. The atomic and electronic structure of the (111) surface of Sb have been simulated by density functional theory calculations. We have considered the two possible (111) surfaces, containing van der Waals dangling bonds or containing covalent dangling bonds. In the models, the surfaces are infinite and the structure is defect free. Structural optimization of the model containing covalent dangling bonds results in strong deformation, which is well described by a topological soliton within the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model centered about 25 Å below the surface. The electronic states associated with the soliton see an increase in the density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level by around an order of magnitude at the soliton center. Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) measurements reveal two distinct surface regions, indicating that there are different surface regions cleaving van der Waals and covalent bonds. The DFT is in good agreement with the STM/STS experiments.

VOx Phase Mixture of Reduced Single Crystalline V2O5: VO2 Resistive Switching.

The strongly correlated electron material, vanadium dioxide (VO2), has seen considerable attention and research application in metal-oxide electronics due to its metal-to-insulator transition close to room temperature. Vacuum annealing a V2O5(010) single crystal results in Wadsley phases (VnO2n+1, n > 1) and VO2. The resistance changes by a factor of 20 at 342 K, corresponding to the metal-to-insulator phase transition of VO2. Macroscopic voltage-current measurements with a probe separation on the millimetre scale result in Joule heating-induced resistive switching at extremely low voltages of under a volt. This can reduce the hysteresis and facilitate low temperature operation of VO2 devices, of potential benefit for switching speed and device stability. This is correlated to the low resistance of the system at temperatures below the transition. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements reveal a complex structural relationship between V2O5, VO2 and V6O13 crystallites. Percolation paths incorporating both VO2 and metallic V6O13 are revealed, which can reduce the resistance below the transition and result in exceptionally low voltage resistive switching.

Surface Modification and Subsequent Fermi Density Enhancement of Bi(111).

Defects introduced to the surface of Bi(111) break the translational symmetry and modify the surface states locally. We present a theoretical and experimental study of the 2D defects on the surface of Bi(111) and the states that they induce. Bi crystals cleaved in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) at low temperature (110 K) and the resulting ion-etched surface are investigated by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) as well as spectroscopy (STS) techniques in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. STS measurements of cleaved Bi(111) reveal that a commonly observed bilayer step edge has a lower density of states (DOS) around the Fermi level as compared to the atomic-flat terrace. Following ion bombardment, the Bi(111) surface reveals anomalous behavior at both 110 and 300 K: Surface periodicity is observed by LEED, and a significant increase in the number of bilayer step edges and energetically unfavorable monolayer steps is observed by STM. It is suggested that the newly exposed monolayer steps and the type A bilayer step edges result in an increase to the surface Fermi density as evidenced by UPS measurements and the Kohn-Sham DOS. These states appear to be thermodynamically stable under UHV conditions.

Deformation and fracture of crystalline tungsten and fabrication of composite STM probes.

Fracturing microscale constrictions in metallic wires, such as tungsten, platinum, or platinum-iridium, is a common fabrication method used to produce atomically sharp tips for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), field-emission microscopy and field ion microscopy. Typically, a commercial polycrystalline drawn wire is locally thinned and then fractured by means of a dislocation slip inside the constriction. We examine a special case where a dislocation-free microscale constriction is created and fractured in a single crystal tungsten rod with a long side parallel to the [100] direction. In the absence of dislocations, vacancies become the main defects in the constriction which breaks under the tensile stress of approximately 10 GPa, which is close to the theoretical fracture strength for an ideal monocrystalline tungsten. We propose that the vacancies are removed early in the tensile test by means of deformation annealing, creating a defect-free tungsten constriction which cleaves along the W(100) plane. This approach enables fabrication of new composite STM probes which demonstrate excellent stability, atomic resolution and magnetic contrast that cannot be attained using conventional methods.

Tube-wave propagation in a fluid-filled borehole generated by a single point force applied to the surrounding formation.

Propagation of tube waves in an infinite fluid-filled borehole, generated by a single-force point source placed in the elastic surrounding formation, is analyzed in the long-wave approximation. Integral representations of the precise solution are obtained both for fast and slow formations. An asymptotic analysis of tube-wave propagation in the fluid-filled borehole is performed on the basis of these two integral representations. The complete asymptotic wave field in the borehole fluid for a fast formation consists of P and SV phases and the lowest eigenmode of the Stoneley wave (tube wave). For a slow formation the conical Stoneley wave (Mach wave) is generated. It appears only behind the critical angle defined by the ratio of the S wave velocity in the formation to the low-frequency Stoneley wave velocity and decays weakly with an offset. Asymptotic wave forms are in good agreement with wave forms obtained by straightforward calculations.