A survey of 659 papers mostly published since 1987 was conducted to compile a checklist of mycorrhizal occurrence among 3,617 species (263 families) of land plants. A plant phylogeny was then used to ...map the mycorrhizal information to examine evolutionary patterns. Several findings from this survey enhance our understanding of the roles of mycorrhizas in the origin and subsequent diversification of land plants. First, 80 and 92% of surveyed land plant species and families are mycorrhizal. Second, arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is the predominant and ancestral type of mycorrhiza in land plants. Its occurrence in a vast majority of land plants and early-diverging lineages of liverworts suggests that the origin of AM probably coincided with the origin of land plants. Third, ectomycorrhiza (ECM) and its derived types independently evolved from AM many times through parallel evolution. Coevolution between plant and fungal partners in ECM and its derived types has probably contributed to diversification of both plant hosts and fungal symbionts. Fourth, mycoheterotrophy and loss of the mycorrhizal condition also evolved many times independently in land plants through parallel evolution.
Dynamical quantum phase transitions are closely related to equilibrium quantum phase transitions for ground states. Here, we report an experimental observation of a dynamical quantum phase transition ...in a spinor condensate with correspondence in an excited state phase diagram, instead of the ground state one. We observe that the quench dynamics exhibits a nonanalytical change with respect to a parameter in the final Hamiltonian in the absence of a corresponding phase transition for the ground state there. We make a connection between this singular point and a phase transition point for the highest energy level in a subspace with zero spin magnetization of a Hamiltonian. We further show the existence of dynamical phase transitions for finite magnetization corresponding to the phase transition of the highest energy level in the subspace with the same magnetization. Our results open a door for using dynamical phase transitions as a tool to probe physics at higher energy eigenlevels of many-body Hamiltonians.
Diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) is regarded as an important strategy for promoting renewable energy development and controlling CO2 emissions in China. Thus, several incentive measures and ...policies have been released by the pilot cities in China. The question arises as to whether these policies are effective in promoting the EV deployment. This paper assesses the effectiveness of various EV incentive policies at city level by using the data from 88 Chinese pilot cities. Our regression results show a positive relationship between EV sales volume and two demand-side policies: charging discount and infrastructure construction subsidy. However, purchase subsidy policy is found to have no significant effect. Parking benefits policy shows no effect on promoting EV sales. On the other hand, two supply side policies — model development award and manufacturing award — are not effective. We suggest that local governments may keep those two effective policies, phase out the purchase subsidy policy, terminate the parking benefits policy and suspend the model development award policy. The manufacturing award policy can either be paused or be bundled with other regulations or policies that make specific requirements for EV quality.
•The effectiveness of EV policies in China is evaluated at city level.•The analysis is conducted with the data from 88 pilot cities in China.•Demand side policies are found to be more effective than supply side policies.•Charging discount and infrastructure construction subsidy need to be enhanced.
We study the effect of point-defect chalcogen vacancies on the optical properties of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides using ab initio GW and Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations. We find ...that chalcogen vacancies introduce unoccupied in-gap states and occupied resonant defect states within the quasiparticle continuum of the valence band. These defect states give rise to a number of strongly bound defect excitons and hybridize with excitons of the pristine system, reducing the valley-selective circular dichroism. Our results suggest a pathway to tune spin-valley polarization and other optical properties through defect engineering.
Few-layer black phosphorus has recently emerged as a promising 2D semiconductor, notable for its widely tunable bandgap, highly anisotropic properties, and theoretically predicted large exciton ...binding energies. To avoid degradation, it has become common practice to encapsulate black phosphorus devices. It is generally assumed that this encapsulation does not qualitatively affect their optical properties. Here, we show that the contrary is true. We have performed ab initio GW and GW plus Bethe–Salpeter equation (GW-BSE) calculations to determine the quasiparticle (QP) band structure and optical spectrum of one-layer (1L) through four-layer (4L) black phosphorus, with and without encapsulation between hexagonal boron nitride and sapphire. We show that black phosphorus is exceptionally sensitive to environmental screening. Encapsulation reduces the exciton binding energy in 1L by as much as 70% and completely eliminates the presence of a bound exciton in the 4L structure. The reduction in the exciton binding energies is offset by a similarly large renormalization of the QP bandgap so that the optical gap remains nearly unchanged, but the nature of the excited states and the qualitative features of the absorption spectrum change dramatically.
A systematic study on controlled synthesis of ZnO nanotetrapods by combining metal‐vapor transport, oxidative nucleation/growth, fast‐flow quenching, and water‐assisted cleaning is reported. The ...technique developed in this work makes possible the fabrication of ZnO nanotetrapods with different morphologies, with arm diameters down to 17 nm, and with arm lengths ranging from 50 nm up to a few micrometers. The octa‐twin model is verified for the growth of the ZnO nanotetrapods. Photoluminescence (PL) studies indicate a higher level of surface and subsurface oxygen vacancies for smaller ZnO nanotetrapods. The ZnO nanotetrapods are first used for the fabrication of resistor‐type humidity sensors, which show high sensitivity, quick response/recovery, long lifetime, and a wide range of humidity response. These favorite characteristics of the humidity sensors are ascribed to the unique morphology of the nanotetrapods, which can create a film with faceted pores and large internal surfaces.
The controlled synthesis of ZnO nanotetrapods (see the SEM image in the figure) is investigated by combining metal‐vapor transport, oxidative nucleation/growth, fast‐flow quenching, and water‐assisted cleaning. The technique developed makes possible the fabrication of ZnO nanotetrapods with different morphologies and arm diameters. Photoluminescence studies indicate a higher level of oxygen vacancies for smaller ZnO nanotetrapods.
Phosphorene, a single atomic layer of black phosphorus, has recently emerged as a new two-dimensional (2D) material that holds promise for electronic and photonic technologies. Here we experimentally ...demonstrate that the electronic structure of few-layer phosphorene varies significantly with the number of layers, in good agreement with theoretical predictions. The interband optical transitions cover a wide, technologically important spectral range from the visible to the mid-infrared. In addition, we observe strong photoluminescence in few-layer phosphorene at energies that closely match the absorption edge, indicating that they are direct bandgap semiconductors. The strongly layer-dependent electronic structure of phosphorene, in combination with its high electrical mobility, gives it distinct advantages over other 2D materials in electronic and opto-electronic applications.
Inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed to study spin dynamics in the noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet α-Cu_{2}V_{2}O_{7}. For the first time, nonreciprocal magnons were ...experimentally measured in an antiferromagnet. These nonreciprocal magnons are caused by the incompatibility between anisotropic exchange and antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which arise from broken symmetry, resulting in a collinear ordered state but helical spin dynamics. The nonreciprocity introduces the difference in the phase velocity of the counterrotating modes, causing the opposite spontaneous magnonic Faraday rotation of the left- and right-propagating spin waves. The breaking of spatial inversion and time reversal symmetry is revealed as a magnetic-field-induced asymmetric energy shift, which provides a test for the detailed balance relation.
Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are emerging as a new platform for exploring 2D semiconductor physics. Reduced screening in two dimensions results in markedly enhanced ...electron-electron interactions, which have been predicted to generate giant bandgap renormalization and excitonic effects. Here we present a rigorous experimental observation of extraordinarily large exciton binding energy in a 2D semiconducting TMD. We determine the single-particle electronic bandgap of single-layer MoSe2 by means of scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS), as well as the two-particle exciton transition energy using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. These yield an exciton binding energy of 0.55 eV for monolayer MoSe2 on graphene—orders of magnitude larger than what is seen in conventional 3D semiconductors and significantly higher than what we see for MoSe2 monolayers in more highly screening environments. This finding is corroborated by our ab initio GW and Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations which include electron correlation effects. The renormalized bandgap and large exciton binding observed here will have a profound impact on electronic and optoelectronic device technologies based on single-layer semiconducting TMDs.
The dissolution and subsequent repassivation behavior of a lightweight and single-phase multi-principal element alloy (MPEA) AlTiVCr, have been investigated in a quiescent 0.6 M NaCl. The alloy ...exhibits excellent passivity and repassivation ability in spite of transpassive dissolution of V and Cr during cyclic potentiodynamic polarisation. Elemental-resolved dissolution analysis of the alloy using inline inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS), together with composition analysis of the passive film using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveal that the alloy promptly recovers after each transpassive dissolution due to rapid growth of stable TiO2 in the film, which led to a wide passive window. Moreover, the excellent repassivation behavior was found to be due to significant enrichment of Ti on the alloy surface during anodic polarisation. The results, corresponding to the dissolution and compositional evolution of the passive film, were in good agreement with the predicted E-pH diagram of the alloy.
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