There are many electronic and magnetic properties exhibited by complex oxides. Electronic phase separation (EPs) is one of those, the presence of which can be linked to exotic behaviours, such as colossal magnetoresistance, metal-insulator transition and high-temperature superconductivity. A variety of new and unusual electronic phases at the interfaces between complex oxides, in particular between two non-magnetic insulators LaAlo 3 and srTio 3 , have stimulated the oxide community. However, no EPs has been observed in this system despite a theoretical prediction. Here, we report an EPs state at the LaAlo 3 /srTio 3 interface, where the interface charges are separated into regions of a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas, a ferromagnetic phase, which persists above room temperature, and a (superconductor like) diamagnetic/paramagnetic phase below 60 K. The EPs is due to the selective occupancy (in the form of 2D-nanoscopic metallic droplets) of interface sub-bands of the nearly degenerate Ti orbital in the srTio 3 . The observation of this EPs demonstrates the electronic and magnetic phenomena that can emerge at the interface between complex oxides mediated by the Ti orbital.

Exchange bias (EB) is usually observed in systems with an interface between different magnetic phases after field cooling. Here we report an unusual phenomenon in which a large EB can be observed in Ni-Mn-In bulk alloys after zero-field cooling from an unmagnetized state. We propose that this is related to the newly formed interface between different magnetic phases during the initial magnetization process. The magnetic unidirectional anisotropy, which is the origin of the EB effect, can be created isothermally below the blocking temperature.

We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that cation vacancy can be the origin of ferromagnetism in intrinsic dilute magnetic semiconductors. The vacancies can be controlled to tune the ferromagnetism. Using Li-doped ZnO as an example, we found that while Li itself is nonmagnetic, it generates holes in ZnO, and its presence reduces the formation energy of Zn vacancy, and thereby stabilizes the zinc vacancy. Room temperature ferromagnetism with p type conduction was observed in pulsed laser deposited ZnO:Li films with certain doping concentration and oxygen partial pressure.

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Large-scale synthesis of monodisperse ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles as well as understanding the correlations between chemical composition and MR signal enhancement is critical for developing next-generation, ultrasensitive T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nanoprobes. Herein, taking ultrasmall MnFeO nanoparticles (UMFNPs) as a model system, we report a general dynamic simultaneous thermal decomposition (DSTD) strategy for controllable synthesis of monodisperse ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles with sizes smaller than 4 nm. The comparison study revealed that the DSTD using the iron-eruciate paired with a metal-oleate precursor enabled a nucleation-doping process, which is crucial for particle size and distribution control of ultrasmall metal ferrite nanoparticles. The principle of DSTD synthesis has been further confirmed by synthesizing NiFeO and CoFeO nanoparticles with well-controlled sizes of ∼3 nm. More significantly, the success in DSTD synthesis allows us to tune both MR and biochemical properties of magnetic iron oxide nanoprobes by adjusting their chemical composition. Beneficial from the Mn dopant, the synthesized UMFNPs exhibited the highest r relaxivity (up to 8.43 mM s) among the ferrite nanoparticles with similar sizes reported so far and demonstrated a multifunctional T MR nanoprobe for in vivo high-resolution blood pool and liver-specific MRI simultaneously. Our study provides a general strategy to synthesize ultrasmall multicomponent magnetic nanoparticles, which offers possibilities for the chemical design of a highly sensitive ultrasmall magnetic nanoparticle based T MRI probe for various clinical diagnosis applications.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted extensive interest due to their excellent electrical, thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. Graphene has been one of the most explored 2D materials. However, its zero band gap has limited its applications in electronic devices. Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC), another kind of 2D material, has a nonzero direct band gap (same charge carrier momentum in valence and conduction band) at monolayer state, promising for the efficient switching devices (e.g., field-effect transistors). This review mainly focuses on the recent advances in charge carrier mobility and the challenges to achieve high mobility in the electronic devices based on 2D-TMDC materials and also includes an introduction of 2D materials along with the synthesis techniques. Finally, this review describes the possible methodology and future prospective to enhance the charge carrier mobility for electronic devices.

We report the correlated d0 ferromagnetism and photoluminescence in undoped single-crystalline ZnO nanowires synthesized by using a vapor transport method. We systematically tune the oxygen deficiency in the ZnO nanowires from 4% to 20% by adjusting the growth conditions, i.e., selecting different catalyst (Au or Ag) and varying the growth temperature. Our study suggests that oxygen vacancies induce characteristic photoluminescence and significantly boost the room-temperature ferromagnetism. Such undoped ZnO nanowires with tunable magnetic and optical properties are promising to find applications in multifunctional spintronic and photonic nanodevices.

In the present study, quantum dot (QD) capped magnetite nanorings (NRs) with a high luminescence and magnetic vortex core have been successfully developed as a new class of magnetic-fluorescent nanoprobe. Through electrostatic interaction, cationic polyethylenimine (PEI) capped QD have been firmly graft into negatively charged magnetite NRs modified with citric acid on the surface. The obtained biocompatible multicolor QD capped magnetite NRs exhibit a much stronger magnetic resonance (MR) T2* effect where the r2* relaxivity and r2*/r1 ratio are 4 times and 110 times respectively larger than those of a commercial superparamagnetic iron oxide. The multiphoton fluorescence imaging and cell uptake of QD capped magnetite NRs are also demonstrated using MGH bladder cancer cells. In particular, these QD capped magnetite NRs can escape from endosomes and be released into the cytoplasm. The obtained results from these exploratory experiments suggest that the cell-penetrating QD capped magnetite NRs could be an excellent dual-modality nanoprobe for intracellular imaging and therapeutic applications. This work has shown great potential of the magnetic vortex core based multifunctional nanoparticle as a high performance nanoprobe for biomedical applications.