Control of structure and spin texture in the van der Waals layered magnet CrSBr

Controlling magnetism at nanometer length scales is essential for realizing high-performance spintronic, magneto-electric and topological devices and creating on-demand spin Hamiltonians probing fundamental concepts in physics. Van der Waals (vdW)-bonded layered magnets offer exceptional opportunities for such spin texture engineering. Here, we demonstrate nanoscale structural control in the layered magnet CrSBr with the potential to create spin patterns without the environmental sensitivity that has hindered such manipulations in other vdW magnets. We drive a local phase transformation using an electron beam that moves atoms and exchanges bond directions, effectively creating regions that have vertical vdW layers embedded within the initial horizontally vdW bonded exfoliated flakes. We calculate that the newly formed two-dimensional structure is ferromagnetically ordered in-plane with an energy gap in the visible spectrum, and weak antiferromagnetism between the planes, suggesting possibilities for creating spin textures and quantum magnetic phases.

Site-selectively generated photon emitters in monolayer MoS2 via local helium ion irradiation

Quantum light sources in solid-state systems are of major interest as a basic ingredient for integrated quantum photonic technologies. The ability to tailor quantum emitters via site-selective defect engineering is essential for realizing scalable architectures. However, a major difficulty is that defects need to be controllably positioned within the material. Here, we overcome this challenge by controllably irradiating monolayer MoS2 using a sub-nm focused helium ion beam to deterministically create defects. Subsequent encapsulation of the ion exposed MoS2 flake with high-quality hBN reveals spectrally narrow emission lines that produce photons in the visible spectral range. Based on ab-initio calculations we interpret these emission lines as stemming from the recombination of highly localized electron-hole complexes at defect states generated by the local helium ion exposure. Our approach to deterministically write optically active defect states in a single transition metal dichalcogenide layer provides a platform for realizing exotic many-body systems, including coupled single-photon sources and interacting exciton lattices that may allow the exploration of Hubbard physics.

Prospects and Limitations of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Laser Gain Materials

Nanolasers operate with a minimal amount of active material and low losses. In this regime, single layers of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are being investigated as next generation gain materials due to their high quantum efficiency. We provide results from microscopic gain calculations of highly excited TMD monolayers and specify requirements to achieve lasing with four commonly used TMD semiconductors. Our approach includes band-structure renormalizations due to excited carriers that trigger a direct-to-indirect band gap transition. As a consequence, we predict a rollover for the gain that limits the excitation regime where laser operation is possible. A parametrization of the peak gain is provided that is used in combination with a rate-equation theory to discuss consequences for experimentally accessible laser characteristics.

Two-Dimensional Heterojunctions from Nonlocal Manipulations of the Interactions

We propose to create lateral heterojunctions in two-dimensional materials based on nonlocal manipulations of the Coulomb interaction using structured dielectric environments. By means of ab initio calculations for MoS2 as well as generic semiconductor models, we show that the Coulomb interaction-induced self-energy corrections in real space are sufficiently nonlocal to be manipulated externally, but still local enough to induce spatially sharp interfaces within a single homogeneous monolayer to form heterojunctions. We find a type-II heterojunction band scheme promoted by a laterally structured dielectric environment, which exhibits a sharp band gap crossover within less than 5 unit cells.

A comparison between experiment and theory on few-quantum-dot nanolasing in a photonic-crystal cavity

We present an experimental and theoretical study on the gain mechanism in a photonic-crystal-cavity nanolaser with embedded quantum dots. From time-resolved measurements at low excitation power we find that four excitons are coupled to the cavity. At high excitation power we observe a smooth low-threshold transition from spontaneous emission to lasing. Before lasing emission sets in, however, the excitons are observed to saturate, and the gain required for lasing originates rather from multi-excitonic transitions, which give rise to a broad emission background. We compare the experiment to a model of quantum-dot microcavity lasers and find that the number of excitons that must be included to fit the data largely exceeds the measured number, which shows that transitions involving the wetting layer can provide a surprisingly large contribution to the gain.

[Manufacturing and stability of copper-histidine solution for treatment of Menkes' Kinky Hair Syndrome]

Menkes' Kinky Hair Syndrom is a rare, X-linked recessive multisystemic lethal disorder of copper metabolism. Male infants who are affected usually die at the age of 2-3 years. If the disease is diagnosed early, patients profit from subcutaneously administered copper salts. We describe the preparation and stability of a copper-histidin solution. This solution has some advantages in terms of stability over the solutions described in earlier publications. This is a great advantage for the patients and their parents, because an ambulatory care or a home care of this patients is possible now.