Topological semimetals host electronic structures with several band-contact points or lines and are generally expected to exhibit strong topological responses. Up to now, most work has been limited to non-magnetic materials and the interplay between topology and magnetism in this class of quantum materials has been largely unexplored. Here we utilize theoretical calculations, magnetotransport and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to propose FeGeTe, a van der Waals material, as a candidate ferromagnetic (FM) nodal line semimetal. We find that the spin degree of freedom is fully quenched by the large FM polarization, but the line degeneracy is protected by crystalline symmetries that connect two orbitals in adjacent layers. This orbital-driven nodal line is tunable by spin orientation due to spin-orbit coupling and produces a large Berry curvature, which leads to a large anomalous Hall current, angle and factor. These results demonstrate that FM topological semimetals hold significant potential for spin- and orbital-dependent electronic functionalities.

This is to report a study of chain conformation of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) in spread monolayers at the air/water interface (A/W) with the aid of vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). We find that methyl groups of PDMS chains at the interface are completely disordered in the dilute regime of the surface density. At higher surface densities, however, the two methyl groups on the repeating unit point into the air asymmetrically; one points more normal to the interface, whereas the other lies more parallel to the interface. In the first collapsed regime, where the surface pressure of the PDMS monolayer reaches a plateau value of 8.7 mN/m, the signal intensity at 2915 cm (-1), assigned to the symmetric vibrational frequency of the methyl groups, is found independent of the surface density. On the basis of this finding, we propose that PDMS chains, in the first collapse regime at the A/W, form asymmetric layers. Thus, our proposal lends support to earlier works by Langevin's group to refute a widely speculated helix model that was based on energy minimization in the crystalline state of PDMS. In short, the energy consideration in the bulk crystalline state does not provide meaningful guidance as to the chain conformation of the monolayer at the A/W.

A two-dimensional (2D) solid lacks long-range positional order and is diffusive by means of the cooperative motion of particles. We find from molecular dynamics simulations of hard discs that 2D colloids in solid and hexatic phases show seemingly Fickian but strongly heterogeneous dynamics. Beyond translational relaxation time, the mean-square displacement is linear with time, t, implying that discs would undergo Brownian diffusion and the self-part of the van Hove correlation function [G(s)(r,t)] might be Gaussian. But dynamics is still heterogeneous and G(s)(r,t) is exponential at large r and oscillatory with multiple peaks at intermediate length. We attribute the existence of several such peaks to the observation that there are several clusters of discs with discretized mobility. The cluster of marginally mobile discs grows with time and begins to percolate around translational relaxation time while clusters of fast discs emerge in the middle of the marginally mobile cluster.

Dilute oil dispersions of fractal carbon black particles with attractive van der Waals interactions display continuous shear thickening followed by shear thinning at high shear rates. The shear thickening transition occurs at gamma c approximately 10(2)-10(3) s(-1) and is driven by hydrodynamic breakup of clusters. Pre-shearing dispersions at shear rates gamma>gamma c produces enhanced-modulus gels where G' approximately sigma pre-shear 1.5-2 and is directly proportional to the residual stress in the gel measured at a fixed sample age. The observed data can be accounted for using a simple scaling model for the breakup of fractal clusters under shear stress.