The super τ-charm facility (STCF) is an electron−positron collider proposed by the Chinese particle physics community. It is designed to operate in a center-of-mass energy range from 2 to 7 GeV with a peak luminosity of 0.5 × 1035 cm−2·s−1 or higher. The STCF will produce a data sample about a factor of 100 larger than that of the present τ-charm factory — the BEPCII, providing a unique platform for exploring the asymmetry of matter-antimatter (charge-parity violation), in-depth studies of the internal structure of hadrons and the nature of non-perturbative strong interactions, as well as searching for exotic hadrons and physics beyond the Standard Model. The STCF project in China is under development with an extensive R&D program. This document presents the physics opportunities at the STCF, describes conceptual designs of the STCF detector system, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics case studies.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit exceptionally strong nonlinear optical responses, benefiting from their reduced dimensionality, relaxed phase-matching requirements, and enhanced light-matter interaction. With additional degrees of freedom in the modulation of the physical properties by stacking 2D layers together, nonlinear optics of 2D heterostructures becomes increasingly fascinating. In this perspective, we provide a brief overview of recent advances in the field of nonlinear optics of 2D heterostructures, with a particular focus on their remarkable capabilities in characterization and modulation. Given the recent advances and the emergence of novel heterostructures, combined with innovative tuning knobs and advanced nonlinear optical techniques, we anticipate deeper insights into the underlying mechanisms and more associated applications in this rapidly evolving field.
The curved surface has emerged as new research platform for understanding and manipulating novel electromagnetic behaviors in complex media. In this paper, we explore the anisotropic polaritons on the spherical surface based on Maxwell’s fish-eye metric through stereographic projection. Additionally, this phenomenon can be extended to spindle surface by conformal mapping. Our calculations and simulations demonstrate the elliptic and hyperbolic polaritons, excited by an electric dipole on the sphere, will self-focus or focus on the poles on the sphere affected by anisotropic permittivity. Furthermore, we reveal the optical singularity nature of the curved hyperbolic polaritons from the perspective of transformation optics by obtaining the equivalent optical refractive index profiles and the particle potential energy. Based on natural anisotropic materials and metamaterials, the curved polaritons have potential applications in curved surface focusing and chaos regulation. This work not only bridges the transformation optics and anisotropic polaritons at curved surface, but also provides a new route to surface optical field manipulation.
Creation of stable intrinsically anisotropic self-bound states with embedded vorticity is a challenging issue. Previously, no such states in Bose−Einstein condensates (BECs) or other physical settings were known. Dipolar BEC suggests a unique possibility to predict stable two dimensional anisotropic vortex quantum droplets (2D-AVQDs). We demonstrate that they can be created with the vortex axis oriented perpendicular to the polarization of dipoles. The stability area and characteristics of the 2D-AVQDs in the parameter space are revealed by means of analytical and numerical methods. Further, the rotation of the polarizing magnetic field is considered, and the largest angular velocities, up to which spinning 2D-AVQDs can follow the rotation in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions, are found. Collisions between moving 2D-AVQDs are studied too, demonstrating formation of bound states with a vortex−antivortex−vortex structure. A stability domain for such stationary bound states is identified. Unstable dipolar states, that can be readily implemented by means of phase imprinting, quickly transform into robust 2D-AVQDs, which suggests a straightforward possibility for the creation of these states in the experiment.
Neuromorphic computing aims to achieve artificial intelligence by mimicking the mechanisms of biological neurons and synapses that make up the human brain. However, the possibility of using one reconfigurable memristor as both artificial neuron and synapse still requires intensive research in detail. In this work, Ag/SrTiO3(STO)/Pt memristor with low operating voltage is manufactured and reconfigurable as both neuron and synapse for neuromorphic computing chip. By modulating the compliance current, two types of resistance switching, volatile and nonvolatile, can be obtained in amorphous STO thin film. This is attributed to the manipulation of the Ag conductive filament. Furthermore, through regulating electrical pulses and designing bionic circuits, the neuronal functions of leaky integrate and fire, as well as synaptic biomimicry with spike-timing-dependent plasticity and paired-pulse facilitation neural regulation, are successfully realized. This study shows that the reconfigurable devices based on STO thin film are promising for the application of neuromorphic computing systems.
Vortex wave and plane wave, as two most fundamental forms of wave propagation, are widely applied in various research fields. However, there is currently a lack of basic mechanism to enable arbitrary conversion between them. In this paper, we propose a new paradigm of extremely anisotropic acoustic metasurface (AM) to achieve the efficient conversion from 2D vortex waves with arbitrary orbital angular momentum (OAM) to plane waves. The underlying physics of this conversion process is ensured by the symmetry shift of AM medium parameters and the directional compensation of phase. Moreover, this novel phenomenon is further verified by analytical calculations, numerical demonstrations, and acoustic experiments, and the deflection angle and direction of the converted plane waves are qualitatively and quantitatively confirmed by a simple formula. Our work provides new possibilities for arbitrary manipulation of acoustic vortex, and holds potential applications in acoustic communication and OAM-based devices.
Valleytronic materials can provide new degrees of freedom to future electronic devices. In this work, the concepts of the ferrovalley metal (FVM) and valley gapless semiconductor (VGS) are proposed, which can be achieved in valleytronic bilayer systems by electric field engineering. In valleytronic bilayer systems, the interaction between out-of-plane ferroelectricity and A-type antiferromagnetism can induce layer-polarized anomalous valley Hall (LP-AVH) effect. The K and −K valleys of FVM are both metallic, and electron and hole carriers simultaneously exist. In the extreme case, the FVM can become VGS by analogizing spin gapless semiconductor (SGS). Moreover, it is proposed that the valley splitting enhancement and valley polarization reversal can be achieved by electric field engineering in valleytronic bilayer systems. Taking the bilayer
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit promising application prospects in the domains of electronic devices, optoelectronic devices and spintronic devices due to their distinctive energy band structures and spin−orbit coupling properties. Cr-based chalcogenides with narrow or even zero bandgap, covering from semiconductors to metallic materials, have considerable potential for wide-band photodetection and two-dimensional magnetism. Currently, the preparation of 2D CrXn (X = S, Se, Te) nanosheets primarily relies on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and molecule beam epitaxy (MBE), which enable the production of high-quality large-area materials. This review article focuses on recent progress of 2D Cr-based chalcogenides, including unique crystal structure of the CrXn system, phase-controlled synthesis, and heterojunction construction. Furthermore, a detailed introduction of room-temperature ferromagnetism and electrical/optoelectronic properties of 2D CrXn is presented. Ultimately, this paper summarizes the challenges associated with utilizing 2D Cr-based chalcogenides in preparation strategies, optoelectronics devices, and spintronic devices while providing further insights.
In this big data era, the explosive growth of information puts ultra-high demands on the data storage/computing, such as high computing power, low energy consumption, and excellent stability. However, facing this challenge, the traditional von Neumann architecture-based computing system is out of its depth owing to the separated memory and data processing unit architecture. One of the most effective ways to solve this challenge is building brain inspired computing system with in-memory computing and parallel processing ability based on neuromorphic devices. Therefore, there is a research trend toward the memristors, that can be applied to build neuromorphic computing systems due to their large switching ratio, high storage density, low power consumption, and high stability. Two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric materials, as novel types of functional materials, show great potential in the preparations of memristors because of the atomic scale thickness, high carrier mobility, mechanical flexibility, and thermal stability. 2D ferroelectric materials can realize resistive switching (RS) because of the presence of natural dipoles whose direction can be flipped with the change of the applied electric field thus producing different polarizations, therefore, making them powerful candidates for future data storage and computing. In this review article, we introduce the physical mechanisms, characterizations, and synthetic methods of 2D ferroelectric materials, and then summarize the applications of 2D ferroelectric materials in memristors for memory and synaptic devices. At last, we deliberate the advantages and future challenges of 2D ferroelectric materials in the application of memristors devices.
Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures have shown great potential in advanced photovoltaics due to their restrained carrier recombination, prolonged exciton lifetime and improved light absorption. Herein, a 2D polarized heterostructure is constructed between Janus MoSSe and MoTe2 monolayers and is systematically investigated via first-principles calculations. Electronically, the valence band and conduction band of the MoSSe−MoTe2 (MoSeS−MoTe2) are contributed by MoTe2 and MoSSe layers, respectively, and its bandgap is 0.71 (0.03) eV. A built-in electric field pointing from MoTe2 to MoSSe layers appears at the interface of heterostructures due to the interlayer carrier redistribution. Notably, the band alignment and built-in electric field make it a direct z-scheme heterostructure, benefiting the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Besides, the electronic structure and interlayer carrier reconstruction can be readily controlled by reversing the electric polarization of the MoSSe layer. Furthermore, the light absorption of the MoSSe/MoTe2 heterostructure is also improved in comparison with the separated monolayers. Consequently, in this work, a new z-scheme polarized heterostructure with polarization-controllable optoelectronic properties is designed for highly efficient optoelectronics.
Many-body localization (MBL) of a disordered interacting boson system in one dimension is studied numerically at the filling faction one-half. The von Neumann entanglement entropy
In the last decade, chiral symmetry in atomic nuclei has attracted significant attention and become one of the hot topics in current nuclear physics frontiers. This paper provides a review of experimental studies for nuclear chirality in China. In particular, the experimental setups, chiral mass regions, lifetime measurements, and simultaneous breaking of chirality and other symmetries are discussed in detail. These studies found a new chiral mass region (A ≈ 80), extended the boundaries of the A ≈ 100 and 130 chiral mass regions, and tested the chiral geometry of 130Cs, 106Ag, 80Br and 76Br by lifetime measurements. In addition, simultaneous breaking of chirality and other symmetries have been studied in 74As, 76Br, 78Br, 80Br, 81Kr and 131Ba.
If we approximate light quarks as massless and apply the Schwinger confinement mechanism to light quarks, we will reach the conclusion that a light quark
We study the local quantum Fisher information (LQFI) in the mixed-spin Heisenberg XXZ chain. Both the maximal and minimal LQFI are studied and the former is essential to determine the accuracy of the quantum parameter estimation, the latter can be well used to characterize the discord-type quantum correlations. We investigate the effects of the temperature and the anisotropy parameter on the maximal LQFI and thus on the accuracy of the parameter estimation. Then we make use of the minimal LQFI to study the discord-type correlations of different site pairs. Different dimensions of the subsystems cause different values of the minimal LQFI which reflects the asymmetry of the discord-type correlation. In addition, the site pairs at different positions of the spin chains have different minimal LQFI, which reveals the influence of the surrounding spins on the bipartite quantum correlation. Our results show that the LQFI obtained through a simple calculation process provides a convenient way to investigate the discord-type correlation in high-dimensional systems.
The generalized time-dependent generator coordinate method (TD-GCM) is extended to include pairing correlations. The correlated GCM nuclear wave function is expressed in terms of time-dependent generator states and weight functions. The particle−hole channel of the effective interaction is determined by a Hamiltonian derived from an energy density functional, while pairing is treated dynamically in the standard BCS approximation with time-dependent pairing tensor and single-particle occupation probabilities. With the inclusion of pairing correlations, various time-dependent phenomena in open-shell nuclei can be described more realistically. The model is applied to the description of saddle-to-scission dynamics of induced fission. The generalized TD-GCM charge yields and total kinetic energy distribution for the fission of 240Pu, are compared to those obtained using the standard time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) approach, and with available data.
In this big data era, the use of large dataset in conjunction with machine learning (ML) has been increasingly popular in both industry and academia. In recent times, the field of materials science is also undergoing a big data revolution, with large database and repositories appearing everywhere. Traditionally, materials science is a trial-and-error field, in both the computational and experimental departments. With the advent of machine learning-based techniques, there has been a paradigm shift: materials can now be screened quickly using ML models and even generated based on materials with similar properties; ML has also quietly infiltrated many sub-disciplinary under materials science. However, ML remains relatively new to the field and is expanding its wing quickly. There are a plethora of readily-available big data architectures and abundance of ML models and software; The call to integrate all these elements in a comprehensive research procedure is becoming an important direction of material science research. In this review, we attempt to provide an introduction and reference of ML to materials scientists, covering as much as possible the commonly used methods and applications, and discussing the future possibilities.
The combination of multi-component Bose−Einstein condensates (BECs) and phase imprinting techniques provides an ideal platform for exploring nonlinear dynamics and investigating the quantum transport properties of superfluids. In this paper, we study abundant density structures and corresponding dynamics of phase-separated binary Bose−Einstein condensates with phase-imprinted single vortex or vortex dipole. By adjusting the ratio between the interspecies and intraspecies interactions, and the locations of the phase singularities, the typical density profiles such as ball-shell structures, crescent-gibbous structures, Matryoshka-like structures, sector-sector structures and sandwich-type structures appear, and the phase diagrams are obtained. The dynamics of these structures exhibit diverse properties, including the penetration of vortex dipoles, emergence of half-vortex dipoles, co-rotation of sectors, and oscillation between sectors. The pinning effects induced by a potential defect are also discussed, which is useful for controlling and manipulating individual quantum states.
Exciton physics in atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) holds paramount importance for fundamental physics research and prospective applications. However, the experimental exploration of exciton physics, including excitonic coherence dynamics, exciton many-body interactions, and their optical properties, faces challenges stemming from factors such as spatial heterogeneity and intricate many-body effects. In this perspective, we elaborate upon how optical two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy (2DCS) emerges as an effective tool to tackle the challenges, and outline potential directions for gaining deeper insights into exciton physics in forthcoming experiments with the advancements in 2DCS techniques and new materials.
The direct observation of gravitational waves (GWs) opens a new window for exploring new physics from quanta to cosmos and provides a new tool for probing the evolution of universe. GWs detection in space covers a broad spectrum ranging over more than four orders of magnitude and enables us to study rich physical and astronomical phenomena. Taiji is a proposed space-based gravitational wave (GW) detection mission that will be launched in the 2030s. Taiji will be exposed to numerous overlapping and persistent GW signals buried in the foreground and background, posing various data analysis challenges. In order to empower potential scientific discoveries, the Mock Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) data challenge and the LISA data challenge (LDC) were developed. While LDC provides a baseline framework, the first LDC needs to be updated with more realistic simulations and adjusted detector responses for Taiji’s constellation. In this paper, we review the scientific objectives and the roadmap for Taiji, as well as the technical difficulties in data analysis and the data generation strategy, and present the associated data challenges. In contrast to LDC, we utilize second-order Keplerian orbit and second-generation time delay interferometry techniques. Additionally, we employ a new model for the extreme-mass-ratio inspiral waveform and stochastic GW background spectrum, which enables us to test general relativity and measure the non-Gaussianity of curvature perturbations. Furthermore, we present a comprehensive showcase of parameter estimation using a toy dataset. This showcase not only demonstrates the scientific potential of the Taiji data challenge (TDC) but also serves to validate the effectiveness of the pipeline. As the first data challenge for Taiji, we aim to build an open ground for data analysis related to Taiji sources and sciences. More details can be found on the official website (taiji-tdc.ictp-ap.org).
In the framework of the factorization approach we calculate the branching fractions of 100 two-body nonleptonic decay channels in total, including 44 channels of the charm meson decays and 56 channels of the bottom meson decays. For charm meson decays, we test and confirm the previous observation that taking the limit for the number of colors
Plasmonic resonators are widely used for the manipulation of light on subwavelength scales through the near-field electromagnetic wave produced by the collective oscillation of free electrons within metallic systems, well known as the surface plasmon (SP). The non-radiative decay of the surface plasmon can excite a plasmonic hot electron. This review article systematically describes the excitation progress and basic properities of SPs and plasmonic hot electrons according to recent publications. The extraction mechanism of plasmonic hot electrons via Schottky conjunction to an adjacent semiconductor is also illustrated. Also, a calculation model of hot electron density is given, where the efficiency of hot-electron excitation, transport and extraction is discussed. We believe that plasmonic hot electrons have a huge potential in the future development of optoelectronic systems and devices.
Photodetectors based on two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have attracted many research interests owing to their excellent optoelectronic characteristics and application potential for highly integrated applications. However, the unique morphology of 2D materials also restricts the further improvement of the device performance, as the carrier transport is very susceptible to intrinsic and extrinsic environment of the materials. Here, we report the highest responsivity (172 A/W) achieved so far for a PbI2-based photodetector at room temperature, which is an order of magnitude higher than previously reported. Thermal scanning probe lithography (t-SPL) was used to pattern electrodes to realize the ultrashort channel (~60 nm) in the devices. The shortening of the channel length greatly reduces the probability of the photo-generated carriers being scattered during the transport process, which increases the photocurrent density and thus the responsivity. Our work shows that the combination of emerging processing technologies and 2D materials is an effective route to shrink device size and improve device performance.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been considered to hold promise for transistor ultrascaling, thanks to their atomically thin body immune to short-channel effects. The lower channel size limit of 2D transistors is yet to be revealed, as this size is below the spatial resolution of most lithographic techniques. In recent years, chemical approaches such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and metalorganic CVD (MOCVD) have been established to grow atomically precise nanostructures and heterostructures, thus allowing for synthetic construction of ultrascaled transistors. In this review, we summarize recent developments on the precise synthesis and defect engineering of electronic nanostructures/heterostructures aiming for transistor applications. We demonstrate with rich examples that ultrascaled 2D transistors are achievable by finely tuning the “growth-as-fabrication” process and could host a plethora of new device physics. Finally, by plotting the scaling trend of 2D transistors, we conclude that synthetic electronics possess superior scaling capability and could facilitate the development of post-Moore nanoelectronics.
We concentrate on the skin effects and topological properties in the multilayer non-Hermitian Su−Schrieffer−Heeger (SSH) structure, by taking into account the nonreciprocal couplings between the different sublattices in the unit cells. Following the detailed demonstration of the theoretical method, we find that in this system, the skin effects and topological phase transitions induced by nonreciprocal couplings display the apparent parity effect, following the increase of the layer number of this SSH structure. On the one hand, the skin effect is determined by the parity of the layer number of this SSH system, as well as the parity of the band index of the bulk states. On the other hand, for the topological edge modes, such an interesting parity effect can also be observed clearly. Next, when the parameter disorders are taken into account, the zero-energy edge modes in the odd-layer structures tend to be more robust, whereas the other edge modes are easy to be destroyed. In view of these results, it can be ascertained that the findings in this work promote to understand the influences of nonreciprocal couplings on the skin effects and topological properties in the multilayer SSH lattices.
A simple semi-analytical collective model that takes into account the limitations of the variation interval of the collective variable is suggested to describe the chiral dynamics in triaxial odd−odd nuclei with a fixed particle−hole configuration. The collective Hamiltonian is constructed with the potential energy obtained using the postulated ansatz for the wave function symmetric with respect to chiral transformation. By diagonalizing the collective Hamiltonian the wave functions of the lowest states are obtained and the evolution of the energy splitting of the chiral doublets in transition from chiral vibration to chiral rotation regime is demonstrated.
Optimization problems are prevalent in various fields, and the gradient-based gradient descent algorithm is a widely adopted optimization method. However, in classical computing, computing the numerical gradient for a function with
Recently universal dynamic scaling is observed in several systems, which exhibit a spatiotemporal self-similar scaling behavior, analogous to the spatial scaling near phase transition. The latter one arises from the emergent continuous scaling symmetry. Motivated by this, we investigate the possible relation between the scaling dynamics and the continuous scaling symmetry in this paper. We derive a theorem that the scaling invariance of the quenched Hamiltonian and the initial density matrix can lead to the universal dynamic scaling. It is further demonstrated both in a two-body system analytically and in a many-body system numerically. For the latter one, we calculate the dynamics of quantum gases quenched from the zero interaction to a finite interaction via the non-equilibrium high-temperature virial expansion. A dynamic scaling of the momentum distribution appears in certain momentum-time windows at unitarity as well as in the weak interacting limit. Remarkably, this universal scaling dynamics persists approximately with smaller scaling exponents even if the scaling symmetry is fairly broken. Our findings may offer a new perspective to interpret the related experiments. We also study the Contact dynamics in the BEC−BCS crossover. Surprisingly, the half-way time displays a maximum near unitarity while some damping oscillations occur on the BEC side due to the dimer state, which can be used to detect possible two-body bound states in experiments.
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is regarded as the future superstar for analytical chemistry and widely applied in various fields. Improving the quality of LIBS signal is fundamental to achieving accurate quantification and large-scale commercialization of LIBS. To propose control methods that improve LIBS signal quality, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the influence of key parameters, such as ambient gas pressure, temperature, and sample temperature on LIBS signals. To date, extensive research has been carried out. However, different researchers often yield significantly different experimental results for LIBS, preventing the formation of consistent conclusions. This greatly prevents the understanding of influencing laws of key parameters and the improvement of LIBS quantitative performance. Taking ambient gas pressure as an example, this paper compares the effects of ambient gas pressure under different optimization conditions, reveals the influence of spatiotemporal window caused by inherent characteristics of LIBS signal sources, i.e., intense temporal changes and spatial non-uniformity of laser-induced plasmas, on the impact patterns of key parameters. From the perspective of plasma spatiotemporal evolution, the paper elucidates the influence patterns of ambient gas pressure on LIBS signals, clarifying seemingly contradictory research results in the literature.
Currently, magnetic storage devices are encountering the problem of achieving lightweight and high integration in mobile computing devices during the information age. As a result, there is a growing urgency for two-dimensional half-metallic materials with a high Curie temperature (TC). This study presents a theoretical investigation of the fundamental electromagnetic properties of the monolayer hexagonal lattice of Mn2X3 (X = S, Se, Te). Additionally, the potential application of Mn2X3 as magneto-resistive components is explored. All three of them fall into the category of ferromagnetic half-metals. In particular, the Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the TC of Mn2S3 reachs 381 K, noticeably greater than room temperature. These findings present notable advantages for the application of Mn2S3 in spintronic devices. Hence, a prominent spin filtering effect is apparent when employing non-equilibrium Green’s function simulations to examine the transport parameters. The resulting current magnitude is approximately 2 × 104 nA, while the peak gigantic magnetoresistance exhibits a substantial value of 8.36 × 1016 %. It is noteworthy that the device demonstrates a substantial spin Seebeck effect when the temperature differential between the electrodes is modified. In brief, Mn2X3 exhibits outstanding features as a high TC half-metal, exhibiting exceptional capabilities in electrical and thermal drives spin transport. Therefore, it holds great potential for usage in spintronics applications.
In recent years, cat-state encoding and high-dimensional entanglement have attracted much attention. However, previous works are limited to generation of entangled states of cat-state qubits (two-dimensional entanglement with cat-state encoding), while how to prepare entangled states of cat-state qutrits or qudits (high-dimensional entanglement with cat-state encoding) has not been investigated. We here propose to generate a maximally-entangled state of multiple cat-state qutrits (three-dimensional entanglement by cat-state encoding) in circuit QED. The entangled state is prepared with multiple microwave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux ququart (a four-level quantum system). This proposal operates essentially by the cavity-qutrit dispersive interaction. The circuit hardware resource is minimized because only a coupler ququart is employed. The higher intermediate level of the ququart is occupied only for a short time, thereby decoherence from this level is greatly suppressed during the state preparation. Remarkably, the state preparation time does not depend on the number of the qutrits, thus it does not increase with the number of the qutrits. As an example, our numerical simulations demonstrate that, with the present circuit QED technology, the high-fidelity preparation is feasible for a maximally-entangled state of two cat-state qutrits. Furthermore, we numerically analyze the effect of the inter-cavity crosstalk on the scalability of this proposal. This proposal is universal and can be extended to accomplish the same task with multiple microwave or optical cavities coupled to a natural or artificial four-level atom.