The superlattice engineering approach has proven effective in synergistically improving physical properties of multifunctional materials, yet its application in GeTe-based films remains unexplored. In this work, we fabricated (1T'-MoTe2)x/(GeTe)y superlattice films with well-controlled periodic layering and good structural coherence periodicity via molecular beam epitaxy, demonstrating the simultaneous optimization of thermoelectric and ferroelectric properties through superlattice engineering. The improved thermoelectric performance in GeTe-based superlattices arose from the evolution of intrinsic point defects, interfacial charge transfer, and band-bending-induced energy filtering. Specifically, the (1T'-MoTe2)2/(GeTe)80 film achieved a high carrier effective mass of 3.70 m* and a superior room-temperature power factor of 2.53 mW m-1 K-2, arising from an optimal balance between enhanced effective mass and hole density. Meanwhile, the (1T'-MoTe2)2/(GeTe)30 film exhibited markedly enhanced ferroelectric polarization as compared to the pristine GeTe film, with a large piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 15.3 pm V-1, which is likely attributed to interfacial charge-transfer-induced suppression of the depolarization field. This work highlights the efficacy of superlattice engineering in concurrently optimizing thermoelectric and ferroelectric properties of GeTe-based films, offering insights on performance optimization of multifunctional materials.

Altermagnetic materials combine zero net magnetization with large spin splitting, offering new material platforms for spintronics. As the leading altermagnetic candidate, CrSb has been predicted to be a Weyl semimetal but lacks experimental evidence. Here, we report the controllable fabrication of high-quality CrSb (000l) thin films, leveraging optimized growth parameters and a novel Cr2SbTe buffer layer. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements provide definitive evidence of g-wave altermagnetic order, revealing a large band splitting of 0.54 eV near EF. The surface and altermagnetic band splitting are remarkably robust in CrSb thin films, as demonstrated from aspects of long-term storage, protective passivation layer strategy, and film thickness dependence. Moreover, magneto-transport measurements find no hallmark signatures of Weyl fermions, including the absence of negative chiral magnetoresistance and the specific scaling behavior of the planar Hall effect (PHE). This work establishes high-quality CrSb thin films as a robust platform for exploring altermagnetic phenomena and spintronic devices.

Boosting carrier mobility is essential for achieving high room-temperature thermoelectric performance in n-type Bi2Te3-based films, which have long exhibited inferior power factors compared with their single crystal counterparts due to poor carrier mobility. To overcome this challenge, we develop a simple substrate surface engineering strategy to fabricate Twin-free n-type Bi2Te3 (000 l) thin films. Atomic-scale analyses and transport measurements uncover that eliminating twin structures avoids twin-induced band bending and severe lattice strain, enabling the simultaneously enhanced carrier mobility and suppressed bipolar conduction. The optimized Twin-free Bi2Te3 film exhibits a high room-temperature carrier mobility of ~279 cm2 V-1 s-1, doubling the mobility of films containing twin structures, and consequently achieves an extraordinary room-temperature power factor of ~6.17 mW m-1 K-2. These findings highlight the critical role of minimizing twin structures in boosting the carrier mobility and mitigating bipolar conduction, thereby providing an effective route toward high-performance thermoelectric thin films.

The accumulation of tetracycline antibiotics in water environments can lead to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes, posing a potential threat to ecosystems and human health. Therefore, the development of cost-effective and efficient methods for the remediation of antibiotic wastewater has become a current research hotspot. In this study, a novel photocatalyst, UiO-66-CA-Cu (CA was the abbreviation for “citric acid”), was prepared by two-step functionalization modification of the MOF material (University of Oslo-66, abbreviated as UiO-66). Under irradiation of simulated sunlight, UiO-66-CA-Cu-led photocatalysis and peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation co-degradation system achieved 93.3

The excessive use of ofloxacin (OFL) has led to its persistent residues in water sources and animal-derived foods, posing a threat to human health. Therefore, it is urgent to develop fluorescent sensing materials capable of detecting ofloxacin in water environments and food matrices. Herein, a novel Eu3+@tetrafluorosuccinic acid-functionalized ratiometric fluorescent material Eu3+@UiO-67-TFSA was prepared by a two-step post-synthetic modification of UiO-67. In the concentration range of 1-15 μM, the Eu3+@UiO-67-TFSA had a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.42 μM for OFL, which was approximately 3.90 times lower than that of the non-fluorinated Eu3+@UiO-67-SA (LOD = 1.64 μM). The improved sensing performance could be attributed to the pre-concentration effect provided by the Eu3+@UiO-67-TFSA. The possible detection mechanism was systematically elucidated through relevant experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Moreover, the constructed smartphone-assisted visual sensing platform was successfully applied to detect OFL in actual food samples and real water environment samples.

A pentafluoropropionic acid–functionalized fluorescent metal–organic framework material (UiO-66-NH2-PFPA) is prepared by a simple post-synthetic modification (PSM) strategy for the sensitive and selective detection of dichloran (DCN). The results of fluorescence experiments demonstrate that the sensitivity of UiO-66-NH2-PFPA (limit of detection, LOD = 0.478 μM) to DCN is nearly 10.93 times higher than that of UiO-66-NH2 (LOD = 5.225 μM) and the material has good selectivity and anti-interference ability. After the addition of DCN, the blue fluorescence of UiO-66-NH2-PFPA is obviously quenched. Therefore, the possible quenching mechanism is further discussed in combination with relevant experiments and density functional theory calculations. Moreover, the sensor is applied to the detection of DCN in fruit samples with a satisfactory recovery of 101.1—107.9

MnSb, a half-metallic ferromagnet with robust magnetism and high Curie temperature, holds great promise for magneto-optical storage and spintronic applications. However, controlled fabrication and magnetic properties of MnSb films require further investigations. In this study, MnSb films were grown via molecular beam epitaxy, yielding the phase-pure MnSb (000 l) film under optimized Mn/Sb flux ratio as well as films containing Sb impurities at lower ratios. All films exhibited strong in-plane ferromagnetism from 2 to 300 K, with enhanced magnetic anisotropy at low temperatures. The observed magnetoresistance (MR) was strongly correlated with magnetic anisotropy, arising from two competing mechanisms: (1) positive MR due to the Lorentz effect and (2) negative MR from spin scattering. Additionally, a topological Hall effect emerged below 60 K, likely from field-induced non-collinear spin textures. The high-quality MnSb films demonstrated excellent in-plane ferromagnetism, with a coercivity of 500 Oe and anisotropy constant of 5.86 x 106 erg/cm3, providing an important candidate for spintronic device applications.

p-Type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 thermoelectric thin films hold significant promise for thermal management applications in microscale and wearable electronic devices. However, their inferior thermoelectric performances mainly caused by the relatively low carrier mobility hinder the broad applications. In this study, high-quality Mnx(Bi0.25Sb0.75)2- xTe3 (00l) films are fabricated using molecular beam epitaxy at low substrate temperatures. The high crystalline quality, strong (00l) texture, and low lattice defects ensure the high carrier mobility and meanwhile Mn doping optimize carrier concentration, which lead to high thermoelectric power factor. The low substrate temperature suppresses the formation of intrinsic point defects and leads to a high carrier mobility. Scanning tunneling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy confirm that dilute Mn incorporation generate MnSb substitutional defects, which served as effective acceptor defects and significantly modulated the Fermi level and hole density. Finally, the Mn0.0025(Bi0.25Sb0.75)1.9975Te3 film yields optimized hole density and carrier mobility of 7.59 x 1019 cm-3 and 147.13 cm2V-1s-1, respectively, at room temperature, which results in prominent power factor of 6.20 mWm- 1K-2, representing one of the highest values among recent reports. The superior power factor obtained in dilute Mn incorporated Mnx(Bi0.25Sb0.75)2-xTe3 films offers valuable insights for further optimizing thermoelectric performances and device applications of p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3-based films.

Two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) ternary AB(2)X(4) thin films have shown great potential in fields such as quantum transport, thermoelectrics, phase-change memory and spintronics. However, it is challenging to fabricate high-quality, phase-pure vdW ternary AB(2)X(4) (000l) thin films, due to the difficulty of precise control over three elemental components and the complex growth kinetic conditions. Herein, we developed a general epitaxy recipe for engineering the growth kinetics of AB(2)X(4) (000l) thin films to precisely control the stoichiometry and avoid binary impurities. Taking MnSb2Te4 (000l) as the typical example, we successfully demonstrated the fabrication of high-quality, phase-pure AB(2)X(4) (000l) thin films with size of 10 x 10 mm(2) by molecular beam epitaxy technique, achieving excellent reproducibility. The stoichiometry of MnSb2Te4 thin films could be effectively controlled by rationally tuning growth parameters. Moreover, the stable growth of MnSb2Te4 thin films was successfully achieved through substrate surface engineering, appropriate buffer layers, and layer-by-layer annealing processes. The established epitaxy was successfully applied to the large-area fabrication of five other AB(2)X(4) (000l) thin films, which lays an important foundation for the controllable fabrication and application of complex vdW ternary thin films.

MnBi2Te4-based intrinsic magnetic topological insulators have attracted keen interest for many exotic quantum states, such as quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator state and axion insulator state. Such intriguing quantum states have been extensively studied in the atomically thin flakes exfoliated from single crystals. Due to the advantages of thin film processes that facilitate large-scale fabrication and the control of film thickness, MnBi2Te4-based thin films could be indispensable for further pursuit of the QAH effect and for exploring other intriguing quantum states, but they urgently need further exploration. Here, we fabricate high-quality Mn(Bi1- x Sb x ) 2 Te 4 (0 <= x <= 1) thin films by molecular beam epitaxy, and investigate the effect of Sb content on Fermi level, band topology and intrinsic magnetism. The angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements demonstrate a continuous transition from n-type to p-type can be realized by increasing Sb contents, while the Fermi level is close to the charge neutral point at x = 0.25. Mn(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4 films exhibit AH sign reversal and a transition of magnetic exchange interaction across x = 0.5, as a consequence of the topological phase transition induced by lifting Sb content. Furthermore, the promising MnBi1.5Sb0.5Te4 film acquires the most remarkable AH signal among all films and presents robust spontaneous surface magnetization. Our results pave the way for exploring the QAH effect on the potential platform of MnBi1.5Sb0.5Te4 films.

GeTe-based films have attracted tremendous attention from the thermoelectric community owing to their excellent thermoelectric performance. It is vital to reduce the hole density and maintain a high carrier mobility for GeTe films; however, this remains a significant challenge. To overcome this drawback, we succeeded in fabricating high-crystalline quality GeTe-based films and remarkably improve their electrical properties using molecular beam epitaxy under a low substrate temperature and optimized Te/GeTe flux ratios. The Bi2Te3/GeTe double-layer buffer facilitated the reliable fabrication of high-quality GeTe films. The hole density and carrier mobility were synergistically optimized under a relatively low substrate temperature of 503 K and Te/GeTe flux ratio of 0.25/1 that suppress the formation of Ge vacancies, as well as a trace amount of Sb2Te3 incorporation that introduces SbTe substitutional defects. The best (GeTe)24/(Sb2Te3)0.25 film acquires a very low hole density of 2.57 × 1020 cm-3 and, simultaneously, a high carrier mobility of 96.53 cm2 V-1 s-1, which leads to an extraordinary power factor of 3.36 mW m-1 K-2 at room temperature as well as an average power factor of 4.15 mW m-1K-2 within 300-475 K, outperforming the values of GeTe from previous reports. This work provides valuable insights for fabricating high-performance GeTe-based films to promote their future applications near room temperature.

Infrared and visible image fusion technology is widely applied in military reconnaissance, security surveillance, and power equipment inspection. However, traditional methods rely on manual feature extraction, struggling to adaptively separate low-frequency thermal radiation and high-frequency texture information in multimodal images. Deep learning approaches often neglect edge consistency, leading to blurred thermal boundaries and detail loss in fused images. To address these issues, this paper proposes a fusion framework based on the collaborative optimization of dual-guided filtering (Dual-GF) and a parallel convolutional neural network (PCNN). Dual-GF independently extracts low-frequency base layers and high-frequency detail layers from infrared and visible images to avoid modal confusion. A lightweight PCNN architecture is designed: shared parameters at lower layers extract common features, while higher layers employ dilated convolutions in the infrared branch and skip connections in the visible branch to capture thermal diffusion patterns and texture details. A channel-spatial attention mechanism (CSAM) is proposed to achieve dynamic fusion, which adaptively assigns pixel-level weights to infrared thermal targets and visible textures based on their saliency. An improved multi-scale gradient consistency loss (MGCL) is proposed to jointly optimize gradient magnitude and directional consistency, suppressing structural distortion. The method is compared with six other algorithms, including DenseFuse and FusionGAN, using the TNO dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves PSNR, VIF, EN, and SF by an average of 3.12%, 28.46%, 6.25%, and 31.96%, respectively, while achieving the lowest MSE and SCD, demonstrating its superiority in preserving thermal target saliency and texture details.

The interplay between intrinsic point defects and the magnetic/topological characteristics of magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) lies at the heart of controlling quantum phenomena. MnSb2Te4 emerges as a promising platform, offering rich defect chemistry and tunable ground states. Here, high-quality MnSb2Te4 thin films are successfully fabricated using molecular beam epitaxy, where point defects are systematically tuned. Scanning tunneling microscopy revealed MnSb and SbTe antisites as dominant defects exhibiting pronounced clustering behavior, forming MnSb-rich (7.77-8.47%) and MnSb-poor (1.84-3.26%) regions with correlated SbTe defect density. By continuously increasing the Mn flux during growth, the magnetic ground state evolved from antiferromagnetic to ferrimagnetic and finally to a glassy state, driven by the rising MnSb concentration and clustering-induced magnetic frustration. Band structure calculations show that MnSb2Te4 can retain its MTI character under experimentally relevant defect levels, rather than transitioning to a Weyl semimetal phase. Importantly, co-modulation of MnSb and SbTe defects enable simultaneous optimization of the Fermi level position and ferrimagnetic ordering, overcoming the challenge of strong p-type doping. These findings establish a solid foundation for defect-driven control of magnetism and band topology in MnSb2Te4, advancing its perspective for hosting the quantum anomalous Hall state.

Porphyrins, a class of four-pyrrole nitrogen heterocyclic compounds, have been used in photodynamic cancer therapy. In this study, three distinct pyridine cationic porphyrin photosensitizers were synthesized, each possessing unique side chains containing cyanide groups (H-2-P1 similar to H-2-P3). These photosensitizers were prepared using innovative synthetic methods. Subsequently, their theoretical photophysical properties were investigated using density functional theory (DFT). Notably, this research revealed that H-2-P-2 exhibits the smallest band gap (2.3548 eV) and the lowest energy gap (Delta E-ST = 0.67 eV). Simultaneously, it was confirmed that these three photosensitizers could indeed produce singlet oxygen under illumination using DPBF as a singlet oxygen probe. Additionally, TPP was uesed as a reference to calculate the singlet oxygen yield for all three compounds, with H-2-P-2 demonstrating the highest yield (Phi(Delta) = 0.74). The experimental results aligned with the theoretical predictions. The phototoxicity and dark toxicity of the three photosensitizers were further evaluated using the MTT test. Remarkably, H-2-P-2 exhibited the highest phototoxicity toward HepG2 cancer cells (IC50=41.8 nM), while the lowest dark toxicity toward HUVEC cells (IC50>10 mu M). These findings were supported by additional experiments involving cell staining and measurement of reactive oxygen species.

A novel "turn-on" fluorescent sensor of CeO2@MIL-88B was constructed successfully via the facile in-situ strategy. The as-obtained CeO2@MIL-88B could be used for effectively detecting the analyte of thiabendazole (TBZ) by luminescence enhancement, which limit of detection (LOD) was as low as 0.294 mu M (nearly 10.4 times smaller than that of MIL-88B). The detection behavior for TBZ exhibited the excellent selectivity and anti- interference ability. Systematic explorations were performed to shed light on the underlying mechanism of "turn-on" effect on fluorescence after adding TBZ. Moreover, the CeO2@MIL-88B was also employed for the determination of TBZ in the real samples of orange and cucumber.

Electric vehicle power batteries face internal short circuits due to trace copper particles from anode debris and equipment wear. These particles dissolve on the cathode and form dendrites, piercing the separator. Detecting copper particles in carbon powder is critical for battery safety. This study proposes Cu-YOLO (Copper-You Only Look Once), an improved YOLOv8n (You Only Look Once version 8 nano) model for detecting copper particles in complex carbon powder datasets. Key enhancements include: the LCGC (Lightweight Channel Grouping Cascade module) in the backbone network, which reduces computational cost while maintaining feature extraction capability; the HS-FPN (High-level Screening Feature Pyramid Network) in the neck network, which enhances multi-scale feature fusion for small-target detection; and the ESCH (Efficient Shared Convolution Head module), which optimizes detection heads through shared convolution layers to reduce parameters. Experimental results show that Cu-YOLO achieves an mAP@0.5:0.95 (mean Average Precision at Intersection over Union thresholds of 0.5 to 0.95) of 69.5%, a 1.4% improvement over YOLOv8n, while reducing parameters by 58.9% and GFLOPs (Giga Floating-point Operations Per Second) by 45.7%. These results demonstrate its effectiveness in detecting trace copper particles in lithium-ion battery carbon powder.

1T'-MoTe2 exhibits a variety of intriguing physical properties, consisting of nontrivial higher-order topological behavior, ferroelectricity, superconductivity, and reversible phase transition. Hence, 1T'-MoTe2 has emerged as a hot spot in the fields of condensed matter physics and materials science. Nevertheless, the large-area synthesis of phase-pure 1T'-MoTe2 thin films has always been a big challenge for their widespread studies and device applications. In this study, three types of 1T'-MoTe2/XTe heterojunction films are proposed and fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy. The mechanisms of lattice strain and charge transfer influencing the 2H-1T' phase transition are clearly elucidated, while centimeter-size and phase-pure monolayer 1T'-MoTe2 can be successfully fabricated via the choice of XTe functional layers. The results reveal that the substantial charge transfer of 0.005-0.056 e/f.u. at the heterojunction interface and the particular electron accumulation in Mo 4d orbitals (0.010-0.016 e/f.u.) are critical for the formation of 1T'-MoTe2, while, in contrast, the effect from lattice strain that is induced by the underlying XTe layer is negligible. Owing to the most remarkable charge transfer effects, phase-pure monolayer 1T'-MoTe2 is achieved in the 1T'-MoTe2/MnTe heterojunction film among all films. This study lays a solid foundation for the in-depth studies of the important physical properties and functional devices based on 1T'-MoTe2 films and provides valuable suggestions for effective phase control in similar materials utilizing heterojunction engineering.

The neonicotinoid pesticide of Nitenpyram (NTP) is widely used in global agriculture systems, sensitive detection of NTP is critical for safeguarding human health and food safety. A europium-based metal-organic framework (Eu-MOF) was rationally synthesized based on density functional theory (DFT) method. This engineered material showed an effective NTP sensing capability with a detection limit of 5.431 μM. Subsequently, the Eu-MOF was immobilized within a paper-based analytical platform to establish a ratiometric fluorescence sensing system. This configuration significantly enhanced detection sensitivity, achieving an improved limit of detection (LOD) at 0.330 μM (nearly 16.46 times smaller than the LOD of bare Eu-MOF). The developed sensing platform enabled non-invasive visual monitoring of NTP contaminants in real samples through smartphone-assisted analysis. This methodology presents an innovative approach for portable pesticide detection through ratiometric luminescent response.

(E)-4,4 ',4 ''-(20-(4-(2-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazine-1-carbonyl)phenyl)porphyrin-5,10,15-triyl)tris(1-methylpyridin-1-ium) (named as Por-SA) was synthesized and developed as a fluorescent chemosensor for recognition towards Hg2+ ions in organic-semi aqueous DMSO(Dimethyl sulfoxide)/H2O (8:2, v/v) solution with high selectivity. The sensing ability of water-soluble Por-SA ligands to detect various cations was investigated in aqueous solutions via colorimetric and spectrophotometric methods. Hg2+ can be identified by naked eye colorimetric analysis, and the color of the solution changes from pink to green under daylight, the fluorescence of solution is significantly quenched under 365 nm UV lamp. The probe coordination mode to Hg2+ by probe was further evaluated by the means of density functional theory calculation (DFT), 1HNMR spectroscopy and Job's plot. Furthermore, the probe Por-SA can recognize Hg2+ with a low limit of detection of 17.3 mu M. Probe Por-SA is successfully utilised for detecting the changes of Hg2+ ions in test paper strips. Therefore, Por-SA has the potential to become a universal tool for detecting target metal ions in the environmental and biological fields.