Moderate Fields, Maximum Potential: Achieving High Records with Temperature‑Stable Energy Storage in Lead‑Free BNT‑Based Ceramics

The increasing awareness of environmental concerns has prompted a surge in the exploration of leadfree,high-power ceramic capacitors.Ongoing efforts to develop leadfree dielectric ceramics with exceptional energystorage performance(ESP)have predominantly relied on multicomponent composite strategies,often accomplished under ultrahigh electric fields.However,this approach poses challenges in insulation and system downsizing due to the necessary working voltage under such conditions.Despite extensive study,bulk ceramics of(Bi_(0.5)Na_(0.5))TiO_(3)(BNT),a prominent lead-free dielectric ceramic family,have seldom achieved a recoverable energy-storage(ES)density(Wrec)exceeding 7 J cm^(−3).This study introduces a novel approach to attain ceramic capacitors with high ESP under moderate electric fields by regulating permittivity based on a linear dielectric model,enhancing insulation quality,and engineering domain structures through chemical formula optimization.The incorporation of SrTiO_(3)(ST)into the BNT matrix is revealed to reduce the dielectric constant,while the addition of Bi(Mg_(2/3)Nb_(1/3))O_(3)(BMN)aids in maintaining polarization.Additionally,the study elucidates the methodology to achieve high ESP at moderate electric fields ranging from 300 to 500 kV cm^(−1).In our optimized composition,0.5(Bi_(0.5)Na_(0.4)K_(0.1))TiO_(3)–0.5(2/3ST-1/3BMN)(B-0.5SB)ceramics,we achieved a Wrec of 7.19 J cm^(−3) with an efficiency of 93.8%at 460 kV cm^(−1).Impressively,the B-0.5SB ceramics exhibit remarkable thermal stability between 30 and 140℃ under 365 kV cm^(−1),maintaining a Wrec exceeding 5 J cm^(−3).This study not only establishes the B-0.5SB ceramics as promising candidates for ES materials but also demonstrates the feasibility of optimizing ESP by modifying the dielectric constant under specific electric field conditions.Simultaneously,it provides valuable insights for the future design of ceramic capacitors with high ESP under constraints of limited electric field.

Targeted regeneration and upcycling of spent graphite by defect‐driven tin nucleation

The recycling of spent batteries has become increasingly important owing to their wide applications,abundant raw material supply,and sustainable development.Compared with the degraded cathode,spent anode graphite often has a relatively intact structure with few defects after long cycling.Yet,most spent graphite is simply burned or discarded due to its limited value and inferior performance on using conventional recycling methods that are complex,have low efficiency,and fail in performance restoration.Herein,we propose a fast,efficient,and“intelligent”strategy to regenerate and upcycle spent graphite based on defect‐driven targeted remediation.Using Sn as a nanoscale healant,we used rapid heating(~50 ms)to enable dynamic Sn droplets to automatically nucleate around the surface defects on the graphite upon cooling owing to strong binding to the defects(~5.84 eV/atom),thus simultaneously achieving Sn dispersion and graphite remediation.As a result,the regenerated graphite showed enhanced capacity and cycle stability(458.9 mAh g^(−1) at 0.2 A g^(−1) after 100 cycles),superior to those of commercial graphite.Benefiting from the self‐adaption of Sn dispersion,spent graphite with different degrees of defects can be regenerated to similar structures and performance.EverBatt analysis indicates that targeted regeneration and upcycling have significantly lower energy consumption(~99%reduction)and near‐zero CO_(2) emission,and yield much higher profit than hydrometallurgy,which opens a new avenue for direct upcycling of spend graphite in an efficient,green,and profitable manner for sustainable battery manufacture.

Twisted Integration of Complex Oxide Magnetoelectric Heterostructures via Water‑Etching and Transfer Process

Manipulating strain mode and degree that can be applied to epitaxial complex oxide thin films have been a cornerstone of strain engineering.In recent years,lift-off and transfer technology of the epitaxial oxide thin films have been developed that enabled the integration of heterostructures without the limitation of material types and crystal orientations.Moreover,twisted integration would provide a more interesting strategy in artificial magnetoelectric heterostructures.A specific twist angle between the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic oxide layers corresponds to the distinct strain regulation modes in the magnetoelectric coupling process,which could provide some insight in to the physical phenomena.In this work,the La_(0.67)Sr_(0.33)MnO_(3)(001)/0.7Pb(Mg_(1/3)Nb_(2/3))O_(3)-0.3PbTiO_(3)(011)(LSMO/PMN-PT)heterostructures with 45.and 0.twist angles were assembled via water-etching and transfer process.The transferred LSMO films exhibit a fourfold magnetic anisotropy with easy axis along LSMO<110>.A coexistence of uniaxial and fourfold magnetic anisotropy with LSMO[110]easy axis is observed for the 45°Sample by applying a 7.2 kV cm^(−1)electrical field,significantly different from a uniaxial anisotropy with LSMO[100]easy axis for the 0°Sample.The fitting of the ferromagnetic resonance field reveals that the strain coupling generated by the 45°twist angle causes different lattice distortion of LSMO,thereby enhancing both the fourfold and uniaxial anisotropy.This work confirms the twisting degrees of freedom for magnetoelectric coupling and opens opportunities for fabricating artificial magnetoelectric heterostructures.

Physical mechanism of secondary-electron emission in Si wafers

CMOS-compatible RF/microwave devices,such as filters and amplifiers,have been widely used in wireless communication systems.However,secondary-electron emission phenomena often occur in RF/microwave devices based on silicon(Si)wafers,especially in the high-frequency range.In this paper,we have studied the major factors that influence the secondary-electron yield(SEY)in commercial Si wafers with different doping concentrations.We show that the SEY is suppressed as the doping concentration increases,corresponding to a relatively short effective escape depthλ.Meanwhile,the reduced narrow band gap is beneficial in suppressing the SEY,in which the absence of a shallow energy band below the conduction band will easily capture electrons,as revealed by first-principles calculations.Thus,the new physical mechanism combined with the effective escape depth and band gap can provide useful guidance for the design of integrated RF/microwave devices based on Si wafers.

Planar Metamaterial Absorber Based on Lumped Elements

We present the design of a planar metamaterial absorber based on lumped elements, which shows a wide-band polarization-insensitive and wide-angle strong absorption. This absorber consists of metal electric resonators, the dielectric substrate, the metal film and lumped elements. The simulated absorbances under two different loss conditions indicate that high absorbance in the absorption band is mainly due to lumped resistances. The simulated absorbances under three different load conditions indicate that the local resonance circuit （lumped resistance and capacitance） could boost up the resonance of the whole RLC circuit. The simulated voltage in lumped elements indicates that the transformation efficiency from electromagnetic energy to electric energy in the absorption band is high, and electric energy is subsequently consumed by lumped resistances. This absorber may have potential applications in many military fields.

Multiband terahertz metamaterial absorber

This paper reports the design of a multiband metamaterial （MM） absorber in the terahertz region. Theoretical and simulated results show that the absorber has four distinct and strong absorption points at 1.69, 2.76, 3.41 and 5.06 THz, which are consistent with ＇fingerprints＇ of some explosive materials. The retrieved material parameters show that the impedance of MM could be tuned to match approximately the impedance of the free space to minimise the reflectance at absorption frequencies and large power loss exists at absorption frequencies. The distribution of the power loss indicates that the absorber is an excellent electromagnetic wave collector： the wave is first trapped and reinforced in certain specific locations and then consumed. This multiband absorber has applications in the detection of explosives and materials characterisation.

Decoupling technique of patch antenna arrays with shared substrate by suppressing near-field magnetic coupling using magnetic metamaterials

In this paper,we propose the decoupling technique of patch antenna array by suppressing near-field magnetic coupling（NFMC） using magnetic metamaterials.To this end,a highly-integrated magnetic metamaterials,the substrate-integrated split-ring resonator（SI-SRR）,is firstly proposed to achieve negative permeability at the antenna operating frequency.By integrating SI-SRR in between two closely spaced antennas,magnetic fields are blocked in the shared substrate due to negative permeability of SI-SRR,reducing NFMC between the two antennas.To verify the technique,a prototype was fabricated and measured.The measured results demonstrated that the isolation can be enhanced by more than 17 dB even when the gap between the two patch antennas is only about 0.067 A.Due to high integration,this technique provides an effective alternative to high-isolation antenna array.

The simplified material parameter equation for elliptical cylinder cloaks

We simplify the material parameter equation for elliptical cylinder cloaks under transverse-electric and transverse- magnetic models, respectively, and confirm these simplified equations by numerical simulations. As a result, the number of the component parameters is reduced from three to two, which simplifies the design of meta-materials and thus opens up the possibility of achieving elliptical cylinder cloaks in an easy way.

A metamaterial absorber with direction-selective and polarisation-insensitive properties

This paper reports the design of a metamaterial absorber with direction-selective and polarisation-insensitive property. Both theoretical and simulated results reveal that the absorber has a distinct absorption point with direction selectivity at 7.48 GHz, which is related to the resonance of the metamaterial and is not influenced by the polarisation. The retrieved impedance indicates that the impedance of the absorber can be tuned to approximatively match the impedance of the free space on one side and not to match the impedance of the free space on the other side. This design can result in the minimal reflectance, the minimal transmission and the highest absorbance at the absorption frequency. The distribution of the power loss indicates that the absorber is an excellent electromagnetic wave collector： the wave is first trapped and reinforced in certain specific locations, and then mostly consumed. The distribution of the surface current is consistent with the design, the retrieved impedance and the distribution of the power loss. This absorber may have applications in many scientific and technological areas.

A planar left-handed metamaterial based on electric resonators

A planar left-handed metamaterial（LHM） composed of electric resonator pairs is presented in this paper. Theoretical analysis, an equivalent circuit model and simulated results of a wedge sample show that this material exhibits a negative refraction pass-band around 9.6GHz under normal-incidence and is insensitive to a change in incidence angle. Furthermore, as the angle between the arm of the electric resonators and the strip connecting the arms increases, the frequency range of the pass-band shifts downwards. Consequently, this LHM guarantees a relatively stable torlerence of errors when it is practically fabricated. Moreover, it is a candidate for designing multi-band LHM through combining the resonator pairs with different angles.

Material parameter equation for rotating elliptical spherical cloaks

By using the coordinate transformation method, we have deduced the material parameter equation for rotating elliptical spherical cloaks and carried out simulation as well. The results indicate that the rotating elliptical spherical cloaking shell, which is made of meta-materials whose permittivity and permeability are governed by the equation deduced in this paper, can achieve perfect invisibility by excluding electromagnetic fields from the internal region without disturbing any external field.

The design of metamaterial cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium

By using coordinate transformation method, this paper obtains an useful equation of designing meta-material cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium. This equation is the generalization of what was introduced early by Pendry et al （2006 Science 312 1780） and can be more widely used. As an example of its applications, this paper deduces the material parameter equation for cylinder cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium, and then offers the numerical simulation. The results show that such a cylinder cloak has perfect cloaking performance and therefore verifies the method proposed in this paper.

Atomic-level quantitative analysis of electronic functional materials by aberration-corrected STEM

The stable sub-angstrom resolution of the aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope(ACSTEM)makes it an advanced and practical characterization technique for all materials.Owing to the prosperous advancement in computational technology,specialized software and programs have emerged as potent facilitators across the entirety of electron microscopy characterization process.Utilizing advanced image processing algorithms promotes the rectification of image distortions,concurrently elevating the overall image quality to superior standards.Extracting high-resolution,pixel-level discrete information and converting it into atomic-scale,followed by performing statistical calculations on the physical matters of interest through quantitative analysis,represent an effective strategy to maximize the value of electron microscope images.The efficacious utilization of quantitative analysis of electron microscope images has become a progressively prominent consideration for materials scientists and electron microscopy researchers.This article offers a concise overview of the pivotal procedures in quantitative analysis and summarizes the computational methodologies involved from three perspectives:contrast,lattice and strain,as well as atomic displacements and polarization.It further elaborates on practical applications of these methods in electronic functional materials,notably in piezoelectrics/ferroelectrics and thermoelectrics.It emphasizes the indispensable role of quantitative analysis in fundamental theoretical research,elucidating the structure–property correlations in high-performance systems,and guiding synthesis strategies.

All-dielectric left-handed metamaterial based on dielectric resonator:design,simulation and experiment

Dipoles with Lorentz-type resonant electromagnetic responses can realise negative effective parameters in their negative resonant region. The electric dipole and magnetic dipole can realise, respectively, negative permittivity and negative permeability, so both the field distribution forms of electric and magnetic dipoles are fundamentals in designing left-handed metamaterial. Based on this principle, this paper studies the field distribution in high-permittivity dielectric materials. The field distributions at different resonant modes are analysed based on the dielectric resonator theory. The origination and influence factors of the electric and magnetic dipoles are confirmed. Numerical simulations indicate that by combining dielectric cubes with different sizes, the electric resonance frequency and magnetic resonance frequency can be superposed. Finally, experiments are carried out to verify the feasibility of all-dielectric left-handed metamaterial composed by this means.

A Method of Analyzing Transmission Losses in Left-Handed Metamaterials

A method of analyzing transmission loss in left-handed metamaterials （LHMs） is proposed. As a demonstration of this method, transmission loss of LHMs composed of split-ring resonators （SRR） and conducting wires is studied. By means of retrieving and analyzing the effective constitutive parameters, different transmission losses as well as their origins are studied. The results show that the left-handed bandwidth is narrowed because of high loss caused by the non-zero high imaginary parts of the effective permeability and permittivity. In the effective left-handed band, the radiation loss is very low and can be neglected, and the transmission losses are the sum of the substrate loss and the ohmic loss. Moreover, when the dielectric loss tangent of the substrate is greater than 0.003, the substrate loss is higher than the ohmic loss.

Experimental Verification of Left-Handed Metamaterials Composed of Coplanar Electric and Magnetic Resonators

We verified experimentally left-handed metamaterials （LHM） composed of coplanar electric and magnetic resonators. A typical LHM sample composed of coplanar resonator unit cells was fabricated, investigated and tested. The experimental results show that the tested sample has a left-handed band of width 1.4 GHz in the X band. The experimental results agree quite well with the simulation ones. Moreover, both the simulation and experimental results show that the LHM under study can automatically achieve good impedance-matching in the left-handed band.

Long-term and short-term plasticity independently mimicked in highly reliable Ru-doped Ge_(2)Sb_(2)Te_(5)electronic synapses

In order to fulfill the complex cognitive behaviors in neuromorphic systems with reduced peripheral circuits,the reliable electronic synapses mimicked by single device that achieves diverse long-term and short-term plasticity are essential.Phase change random access memory(PCRAM)is of great potential for artificial synapses,which faces,however,difficulty to realize short-term plasticity due to the long-lasting resistance drift.This work reports the ruthenium-doped Ge_(2)Sb_(2)Te_(5)(RuGST)based PCRAM,demonstrating a series of synaptic behaviors of short-term potentiation,pair-pulse facilitation,longterm depression,and short-term plasticity in the same single device.The optimized RuGST electronic synapse with the high transformation temperature of hexagonal phase>380C,the outstanding endurance>108 cycles,the low resistance drift factor of 0.092,as well as the extremely high linearity with correlation coefficients of 0.999 and 0.976 in parts of potentiation and depression.Further investigations also go insight to mechanisms of Ru doping according to thorough microstructure characterization,revealing that Ru dopant is able to enter GST lattices thus changing and stabilizing atomic arrangement of GST.This leads to the short-term plasticity realized by RuGST PCRAM.Eventually,the proposed RuGST electronic synapses performs a high accuracy of94.1%in a task of image recognition of CIFAR-100 database using ResNet 101.This work promotes the development of PCRAM platforms for large-scale neuromorphic systems.

Microstructure evolution from silicon core to surface in electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon

Large-size electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon is an important material in the semiconductor industry with broad application prospects.However,electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon has extremely high requirements for production technology and currently faces challenges such as carbon impurity breakdown,microstructure and composition nonuniformity and a lack of methods for preparing large-size mirror-like polycrystalline silicon samples.This paper innovatively uses physical methods such as wire cutting,mechanical grinding and ion thinning polishing to prepare large-size polycrystalline silicon samples that are clean,smooth,free from wear and have clear crystal defects.The material was characterized at both macroscopic and microscopic levels using metallographic microscopy,scanning electron microscopy(SEM)with backscattered electron diffraction(EBSD)techniques and scanning transmission electron microscopy(STEM).The crystal structure changes from single crystal silicon core to the surface of the bulk in the large-size polycrystalline silicon samples were revealed,providing a technical basis for optimizing and improving production processes.

Microstructure of electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon core-matrix interface

This paper focuses on the problems encountered in the production process of electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon.It points out that the characterization of electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon is mainly concentrated at the macroscopic scale,with relatively less research at the mesoscopic and microscopic scales.Therefore,we utilize the method of physical polishing to obtain polysilicon characterization samples and then the paper utilizes metallographic microscopy,scanning electron microscopy-electron backscatter diffraction technology,and aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy technology to observe and characterize the interface region between silicon core and matrix in the deposition process of electronic-grade polycrystalline silicon,providing a full-scale characterization of the interface morphology,grain structure,and orientation distribution from macro to micro.Finally,the paper illustrates the current uncertainties regarding polycrystalline silicon.

Formation of BiOI/g-C_3N_4 nanosheet composites with high visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

Constructing binary heterojunctions is an important strategy to improve the photocatalytic performance of graphitic carbon nitride(g‐C3N4).In this paper,a novel g‐C3N4 nanosheet‐based composite was constructed via in situ growth of bismuth oxyiodide(BiOI)nanoplates on the surface of g‐C3N4 nanosheets.The crystal phase,microstructure,optical absorption and textural properties of the synthesized photocatalysts were analyzed by X‐ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),ultraviolet‐visible(UV‐vis)diffuse reflectance spectroscopy(DRS),and nitrogen adsorption‐desorption isotherm measurements.The BiOI/g‐C3N4 nanosheet composite showed high activity and recyclability for the photodegradation of the target pollutant rhodamine B(RhB).The conversion of RhB(20 mg L?1)by the photocatalyst was nearly 100%after 50 min under visible‐light irradiation.The high photoactivity of the BiOI/g‐C3N4 nanosheet composite can be attributed to the enhanced visible‐light absorption of the g‐C3N4 nanosheets sensitized by BiOI nanoplates as well as the high charge separation efficiency obtained by the establishment of an internal electric field between the n‐type g‐C3N4 and p‐type BiOI.Based on the characterization and experimental results,a double‐transfer mechanism of the photoinduced electrons in the BiOI/g‐C3N4 nanosheet composite was proposed to explain its activity.This work represents a new strategy to understand and realize the design and synthesis of g‐C3N4 nanosheet‐based heterojunctions that display highly efficient charge separation and transfer.