compounds were synthesized by solid-state reaction. The samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction measurements and found to have the ZrCuSiAs crystal structure. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements were performed on all of the samples and specific heat measurements were made on those with Ln = La, Ce, and Yb. All of these compounds exhibit superconductivity in the range 1.9 K -5.4 K, which has not previously been reported for the compounds based on Ce, Pr, and Yb. The YbO 0.5 F 0.5 BiS 2 compounds was also found to exhibit magnetic order at ~2.7 K that apparently coexists with superconductivity below 5.4 K.

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nanometallic optical antennas are rapidly gaining popularity in applications that require exquisite control over light concentration and emission processes. The search is on for highperformance antennas that offer facile integration on chips. Here we demonstrate a new, easily fabricated optical antenna design that achieves an unprecedented level of control over fluorescent emission by combining concepts from plasmonics, radiative decay engineering and optical beaming. The antenna consists of a nanoscale plasmonic cavity filled with quantum dots coupled to a miniature grating structure that can be engineered to produce one or more highly collimated beams. Electromagnetic simulations and confocal microscopy were used to visualize the beaming process. The metals defining the plasmonic cavity can be utilized to electrically control the emission intensity and wavelength. These findings facilitate the realization of a new class of active optical antennas for use in new optical sources and a wide range of nanoscale optical spectroscopy applications.

Electrical resistivity measurements as a function of temperature between 1 K and 300 K were performed at various pressures up to 3 GPa on the superconducting layered compounds LnO0.5F0.5BiS2 (Ln = La, Ce). At atmospheric pressure, LaO0.5F0.5BiS2 and CeO0.5F0.5BiS2 have superconducting critical temperatures, Tc, of 3.3 K and 2.3 K, respectively. For both compounds, the superconducting critical temperature Tc initially increases, reaches a maximum value of 10.1 K for LaO0.5F0.5BiS2 and 6.7 K for CeO0.5F0.5BiS2, and then gradually decreases with increasing pressure. Both samples also exhibit transient behavior in the region between the lower Tc phase near atmospheric pressure and the higher Tc phase. This region is characterized by a broadening of the superconducting transition, in which Tc and the transition width ∆Tc are reversible with increasing and decreasing pressure. There is also an appreciable pressure-induced and hysteretic suppression of semiconducting behavior up to the pressure at which the maximum value of Tc is found. At pressures above the value at which the maximum in Tc occurs, there is a gradual decrease of Tc and further suppression of the semiconducting behavior with pressure, both of which are reversible.