C Fullerene as the Active Site for CO Electroreduction.

Fullerene (C) was considered as a catalyst promoter in various electrochemical reactions, yet its catalytic role in enhancing catalytic performance beyond electron transfer remains a puzzle to chemists. Traditional simulations imply C's inertness in CO reduction reaction (CORR) due to weak interaction with COOH* intermediates. Here, according to a pH-field coupled microkinetic model at reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) scale, we demonstrate that C acts as molecular active sites to facilitate the CORR toward CO through a strong binding to COOH* in the electrochemical conditions.

Gigantic-oxidative atomic-layer-by-layer epitaxy for artificially designed complex oxides.

In designing material functionalities for transition metal oxides, lattice structure and -orbital occupancy are key determinants. However, the modulation of these two factors is inherently limited by the need to balance thermodynamic stability, growth kinetics and stoichiometry precision, particularly for metastable phases. We introduce a methodology, namely gigantic-oxidative atomic-layer-by-layer epitaxy (GOALL-Epitaxy), to enhance oxidation power by three to four orders of magnitude beyond conventional pulsed laser deposition and oxide molecular beam epitaxy, while ensuring atomic-layer-by-layer growth of the designed complex structures.

Light-induced insulator-metal transition in SrIrO reveals the nature of the insulating ground state.

SrIrO has attracted considerable attention due to its structural and electronic similarities to LaCuO, the parent compound of high- superconducting cuprates. It was proposed as a strong spin-orbit-coupled = 1/2 Mott insulator, but the Mott nature of its insulating ground state has not been conclusively established. Here, we use ultrafast laser pulses to realize an insulator-metal transition in SrIrO and probe the resulting dynamics using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.

Field-induced ultrafast modulation of Rashba coupling at room temperature in ferroelectric α-GeTe(111).

Rashba materials have appeared as an ideal playground for spin-to-charge conversion in prototype spintronics devices. Among them, α-GeTe(111) is a non-centrosymmetric ferroelectric semiconductor for which a strong spin-orbit interaction gives rise to giant Rashba coupling. Its room temperature ferroelectricity was recently demonstrated as a route towards a new type of highly energy-efficient non-volatile memory device based on switchable polarization.

Doping Asymmetry and Layer-Selective Metal-Insulator Transition in Trilayer K_{3+x}C_{60}.

Thin films provide a versatile platform to tune electron correlations and explore new physics in strongly correlated materials. Epitaxially grown thin films of the alkali-doped fulleride K_{3+x}C_{60}, for example, exhibit intriguing phenomena, including Mott transitions and superconductivity, depending on dimensionality and doping. Surprisingly, in the trilayer case, a strong electron-hole doping asymmetry has been observed in the superconducting phase, which is absent in the three-dimensional bulk limit.