We have grown epitaxial thin films of spinel NiCo2O4 on single crystalline MgAl2O4 (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Magnetization measurement revealed hysteresis loops consistent with the reported ferrimagnetic order. The electrical transport exhibits a metallic behavior with the lowest resistivity of 0.8 mΩ cm and a metal insulator transition around the Néel temperature. The systematic variation in the properties of the films grown at different growth temperatures indicates a close relationship between the magnetic order and electrical transport.

Superconductivity is among the most fascinating and well-studied quantum states of matter. Despite over 100 years of research, a detailed understanding of how features of the normal-state electronic structure determine superconducting properties has remained elusive. For instance, the ability to deterministically enhance the superconducting transition temperature by design, rather than by serendipity, has been a long sought-after goal in condensed matter physics and materials science, but achieving this objective may require new tools, techniques and approaches. Here, we report the transmutation of a normal metal into a superconductor through the application of epitaxial strain. We demonstrate that synthesizing RuO2 thin films on (110)-oriented TiO2 substrates enhances the density of states near the Fermi level, which stabilizes superconductivity under strain, and suggests that a promising strategy to create new transition-metal superconductors is to apply judiciously chosen anisotropic strains that redistribute carriers within the low-energy manifold of d orbitals.

We present the thickness dependent structural, magnetic, and transport properties of transparent conducting spinel NiCo2O4 thin films on MgAl2O4 (001) substrates. The structural examination of the films reveals that the epitaxial stain is independent of the films' thickness. Electric and magnetic measurements show that the films are metallic with p-type conduction and ferrimagnetic down to 2 unit cells with an enhanced coercive field in the films thinner than 30 unit cells. The low-temperature resistivity data indicate that the observed resistivity minimum results from the disorder-induced quantum interference effects. Our results demonstrate that NiCo2O4 may provide an alternative magnetic conducting medium for spintronics devices.

Electron gases at the surfaces of (001), (110), and (111) oriented SrTiO 3 (STO) have been created using Ar + -irradiation with fully metallic behavior and low-temperature-mobility as large as 5500 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , 1300 cm 2 V -1 s -1 and 8600 cm 2 V -1 s -1 for (001)-, (110)-, and (111)surfaces, respectively. The in-plane anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) have been studied for the samples with the current along different crystal axis directions to subtract the Lorentz Force effect. The AMR shows features which coincide with the fixed orientations to the crystalline axes, with 4-fold, 2-fold and nearly-6-fold symmetries for (001)-, (110) and (111)surfaces, respectively, independent of the current directions. These features are possibly caused by the polarization of spin orbit texture of the 2D Fermi surfaces. In addition, a 6-fold to 2-fold symmetry breaking for (111)-surfaces is observed. Our results demonstrate the effect of symmetry of two-dimensional electronic structure on the transport behaviors for the electron gases at STO surfaces.

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We report the growth of superconducting Sr2RuO4 thin films by molecular-beam epitaxy on (110) NdGaO3 substrates with transition temperatures of up to 1.8 K. We calculate and experimentally validate a thermodynamic growth window for the adsorption-controlled growth of superconducting Sr2RuO4 epitaxial thin films. The growth window for achieving superconducting Sr2RuO4 thin films is narrow in growth temperature, oxidant pressure, and ruthenium-to-strontium flux ratio.

The morphology of hollow, double-shelled submicrometer particles is generated through a rapid aerosol-based process. The inner shell is an essentially hydrophobic carbon layer of nanoscale dimension (20 nm), and the outer shell is a hydrophilic silica layer of approximately 40 nm, with the shell thickness being a function of the particle size. The particles are synthesized by exploiting concepts of salt bridging to lock in a surfactant (CTAB) and carbon precursors together with iron species in the interior of a droplet. This deliberate negation of surfactant templating allows a silica shell to form extremely rapidly, sealing in the organic species in the particle interior. Subsequent pyrolysis results in a buildup of internal pressure, forcing carbonaceous species against the silica wall to form an inner shell of carbon. The incorporation of magnetic iron oxide into the shells opens up applications in external stimuli-responsive nanomaterials.

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