We propose a fully symmetrical QKD system that enables quantum states to be prepared and measured simultaneously without compromising system performance. Over a 25.6 km fiber channel, we demonstrate point-to-point QKD operations with asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer modules. Two interference visibilities of above 99% indicate that the proposed system has excellent stability. Consequently, the scheme not only improves the feasibility of distributing secret keys, but also enables QKD closer to more practical applications.

Concurrence is viewed as the most commonly approach for quantifying entanglement of two-qubit states, while intrinsic concurrence contains concurrence of four pure states consisting of a special pure state ensemble concerning an arbitrary two-qubit state. Thus, a natural question arises: Whether there is a specified relation between them. We firstly examine the relation between concurrence and intrinsic concurrence for the maximally nonlocal mixed state under a special unitary operation, which is not yet rigorously proved. In order to obtain a general result, we investigate the relation between concurrence and intrinsic concurrence using randomly generated two-qubit states, and derive an inequality relation between them. Finally, we take into account the relation between concurrence and intrinsic concurrence in open systems, and reveal the ratio of the two quantum resources, which is only correlated with the experiencing channels.

The deformations and the corresponding configurations of the odd-odd As isotopes are investigated using the adiabatic and configuration-fixed constrained triaxial relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. Energy minima with triaxial deformations and high-$j$ particle-hole configurations are obtained in $^{72,74,76,78,80}$As, where the chiral doublet bands are possible to appear. The existence of multiple chiral doublet (M$\chi$D) is demonstrated in $^{74,76,78}$As. Based on the calculated single-particle levels, we also find possible coexistence of chiral and pseudospin symmetries in the odd-odd As isotopes.

The geometry of fireballs in relativistic heavy ion collisions is approximated by a static box, which is infinite in two directions while finite in the other direction. The critical temperature of deconfinement phase transition is calculated explicitly in the MIT bag model at vanishing baryon density. It is found that the critical temperature shifts to a value higher than that in an unconstrained space.

Nuclear reaction rate $\lambda$ is a significant factor in processes of nucleosyntheses. A multi-layer directed-weighted nuclear reaction network, in which the reaction rate is taken as the weight, and neutron, proton, $^4$He and the remainder nuclei as the criteria for different reaction layers, is for the first time built based on all thermonuclear reactions in the JINA REACLIB database. Our results show that with the increase in the stellar temperature $T_{9}$, the distribution of nuclear reaction rates on the R-layer network demonstrates a transition from unimodal to bimodal distributions. Nuclei on the R-layer in the region of $\lambda = [1,2.5\times10^{1}]$ have a more complicated out-going degree distribution than that in the region of $\lambda = [10^{11},10^{13}]$, and the number of involved nuclei at $T_{9} = 1$ is very different from the one at $T_{9} = 3$. The redundant nuclei in the region of $\lambda = [1, 2.5\times10^{1}]$ at $T_{9} = 3$ prefer $(\gamma,{\rm p})$ and $({\gamma,\alpha})$ reactions to the ones at $T_{9}=1$, which produce nuclei around the $\beta$ stable line. This work offers a novel way to the big-data analysis on the nuclear reaction network at stellar temperatures.

Universality of the dynamic characteristic relationship between the characteristic time $t_{\rm c}$ and the two-electron Coulomb interaction energy $\overline{V}_{12}$ of the ground state in the two-photon double ionization process is investigated via changing the parameters of the two-electron atomic system and the corresponding laser conditions. The numerical results show that the product $t_{\rm c}\overline{V}_{12}$ keeps constant around 4.1 in the cases of changing the nucleus charge, the electron charge, the electron mass, and changing simultaneously the nucleus charge and the electron charge. These results demonstrate that the dynamic characteristic relationship in the two-photon double ionization process is universal. This work sheds more light on the dynamic characteristic relationship in ultrafast processes and may find its application in measurements of attosecond pulses.

Employing a silver nano semi-ellipsoid nanoarray with high symmetry into applications in plasmonic color printing, we fulfill printing images with colors independent of observing angles. Also, by decreasing the period of a nano semi-ellipsoid array into deep-subwavelength scales, we obtain high reflectivity over 50%, promising high efficiency for imaging generations. A facile technique based on the transfer of anodized aluminum oxide template is developed to fabricate the silver nano semi-ellipsoid nanoarray, realizing plasmonic color printing with features of low cost, scalable, full color and high flexibility. Our approach provides a feasible way to address the angle-dependent issue in the previous practice of plasmonic color printing, and boosts this field on its way to real-world commercial applications.

We demonstrated the generation and characterization of 9.7 fs, 180 μJ pulses centered at 385 nm via the frequency doubling of few-cycle near-infrared pulses. Both moderate conversion efficiency (9.5%) and broad phase matching bandwidth (20 nm) were achieved by shaping the spectra of the fundamental pulses. The strong intensity dependence of second-order harmonic generation and well controlled material dispersion ensured the inexistence of satellite pulses, which was confirmed by the self-diffraction frequency resolved optical gating measurement.

Determination and control of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers play an important role in sensing the vector field by using their quantum information. To measure orientation of NV centers in a diamond particle attached to a tapered fiber rapidly, we propose a new method to establish the direction cosine matrix between the lab frame and the NV body frame. In this method, only four groups of the ODMR spectrum peaks shift data need to be collected, and the magnetic field along $\pm Z$ and $\pm Y$ in the lab frame is applied in the meantime. We can also control any NV axis to rotate to the $X$, $Y$, $Z$ axes in the lab frame according to the elements of this matrix. The demonstration of the DC and microwave magnetic field vector sensing is presented. Finally, the proposed method can help us to perform vector magnetic field sensing more conveniently and rapidly.

Through atomic molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the performance of two graphenic materials, boron (BC$_{3}$) and nitrogen doped graphene (C$_{3}$N), for seawater desalination and salt rejection, and take pristine graphene as a control. Effects of inter-layer separation have been explored. When water is filtered along the transverse directions of three-layered nanomaterials, the optimal inter-layer separation is 0.7–0.9 nm, which results in high water permeability and salt obstruction capability. The water permeability is considerably higher than porous graphene filter, and is about two orders of magnitude higher than commercial reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. By changing the inter-layer spacing, the water permeability of three graphenic layered nanomaterials follows an order of C$_{3}$N $\ge$ GRA $>$ BC$_{3}$ under the same working conditions. Amongst three nanomaterials, BC$_{3}$ is more sensitive to inter-layer separation which offers a possibility to control the water desalination speed by mechanically changing the membrane thickness. This is caused by the intrinsic charge transfer inside BC$_{3}$ that results in periodic distributed water clusters around the layer surface. Our present results reveal the high potentiality of multi-layered graphenic materials for controlled water desalination. It is hopeful that the present work can guide design and fabrication of highly efficient and tunable desalination architectures.

The isothermal compression dynamics of ternary Ti-6Al-4V alloy with initial martensitic structures were investigated in the high temperature range 1083–1173 K and moderate strain rate regime 0.01–10 s$^{-1}$. Shear banding was found to still dominate the deformation mechanism of this process, despite its nonadiabatic feature. The constitutive equation was derived with the aid of Zener–Hollomon parameter, which predicted the apparent activation energy as 534.39 kJ/mol. A combination of higher deformation temperature and lower strain rate suppressed the peak flow stress and promoted the evolution of shear bands. Both experiments and calculations demonstrated that a conspicuous temperature rise up to 83 K could be induced by severe plastic deformation. This facilitated the dynamic recrystallization of deformed martensites, as evidenced by the measured microhardness profiles across shear bands.

We investigate the Rashba and Dressehaus spin–orbit (SO) couplings in an ordinary GaAs/AlGaAs asymmetric double well, which favors the electron occupancy of three subbands $\nu=1,2,3$. Resorting to an external gate, which adjusts the electron occupancy and the well symmetry, we demonstrate distinct three-level SO control of both Rashba ($\alpha_\nu$) and Dresselhaus ($\beta_\nu$) {intraband} terms. Remarkably, as the gate varies, the first-subband SO parameters $\alpha_1$ and $\beta_1$ comply with the usual linear behavior, while $\alpha_2$ ($\beta_2$) and $\alpha_3$ ($\beta_3$) respectively for the second and third subbands interchange the values, triggered by a gate controlled band swapping. This provides a pathway towards fascinating selective SO control in spintronic applications. Moreover, we observe that the {interband} Rashba ($\eta_{\mu\nu}$) and Dresselhaus ($\varGamma_{\mu\nu}$) terms also exhibit contrasting gate dependence. Our results should stimulate experiments probing SO couplings in multi-subband wells and adopting relevant SO features in future spintronic devices.

We study theoretically the exciton Bose–Einstein condensation and exciton vortices in a two-dimensional (2D) perovskite (PEA)${_2}$PbI${_4}$ monolayer. Combining the first-principles calculations and the Keldysh model, the exciton binding energy of in a (PEA)${_2}$PbI${_4}$ monolayer can approach hundreds of meV, which make it possible to observe the excitonic effect at room temperature. Due to the large exciton binding energy, and hence the high density of excitons, we find that the critical temperature of the exciton condensation could approach the liquid nitrogen regime. In the presence of perpendicular electric fields, the dipole-dipole interaction between excitons is found to drive the condensed excitons confined in (PEA)${_2}$PbI${_4}$ monolayer flakes into patterned vortices, as the evolution time of vortex patterns is comparable to the exciton lifetime.

We report an exact numerical study on disorder effect in double-Weyl semimetals, and compare exact numerical solutions for the quasiparticle behavior with the Born approximation and renormalization group results. It is revealed that the low-energy quasiparticle properties are renormalized by multiple-impurity scattering processes, leading to apparent power-law behavior of the self-energy. Therefore, the quasiparticle residue surrounding nodal points is considerably reduced and vanishes as $Z_{\rm E}\propto E^{r}$ with nonuniversal exponent $r$. We show that such unusual behavior of the quasiparticle leads to strong temperature dependence of diffusive conductivity. Remarkably, we also find a universal minimum conductivity along the direction of linear dispersion at the nodal point, which can be directly observed by experimentalist.

We carry out ab initio density functional theory calculations to study manipulation of electronic structures of self-assembled molecular nanostructures on metal surfaces by investigating the geometric and electronic properties of glycine molecules on Cu(100). It is shown that a glycine monolayer on Cu(100) forms a two-dimensional hydrogen-bonding network between the carboxyl and amino groups of glycine using a first principles atomistic calculation on the basis of a recently found structure. This network includes at least two hydrogen-bonding chains oriented roughly perpendicular to each other. Through molecule–metal electronic hybridization, these two chains selectively hybridized with the two isotropic degenerate Cu(100) surface states, leading to two anisotropic quasi-one-dimensional surface states. Electrons occupying these two states can near-freely move from a molecule to its adjacent molecules directly through the intermolecular hydrogen bonds, rather than mediated by the substrate. This results in the experimentally observed anisotropic free-electron-like behavior. Our results suggest that hydrogen-bonding chains are likely candidates for charge conductors.

We study the behavior of two-dimensional electron gas in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) regime in the presence of disorder potential. The principal component analysis is applied to a set of disordered Laughlin ground state model wave function to enable us to distill the model wave function of the pure Laughlin state. With increasing the disorder strength, the ground state wave function is expected to deviate from the Laughlin state and eventually leave the FQH phase. We investigate the phase transition from the Laughlin state to a topologically trivial state by analyzing the overlap between the random sample wave functions and the distilled ground state wave function. It is proposed that the cross point of the principal component amplitude and its counterpart is the critical disorder strength, which marks the collapse of the FQH regime.

Breakdown of bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian (NH) topological systems with generalized inversion symmetries is a controversial issue. The non-Bloch topological invariants determine the existence of edge states, but fail to describe the number and distribution of defective edge states in non-Hermitian topological systems. The state-dependent topological invariants, instead of a global topological invariant, are developed to accurately characterize the bulk-boundary correspondence of the NH systems, which is very different from their Hermitian counterparts. At the same time, we obtain the accurate phase diagram of the one-dimensional non-Hermitian Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model with a generalized inversion symmetry from the state-dependent topological invariants. Therefore, these results will be helpful for understanding the exotic topological properties of various non-Hermitian systems.

We report the experimental investigation of the superconductor-metal quantum phase transition of the EuO/KTaO$_{3}$ interface. Around the transition, a divergence of the dynamical critical exponent is observed, which supports the quantum Griffiths singularity in the EuO/KTaO$_{3}$ interface. The quantum Griffiths singularity could be attributed to large rare superconducting regions and quenched disorders at the interface. Our results could pave the way for studying the exotic superconducting properties at the EuO/KTaO$_{3}$ interface.

We report a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) cell with a tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of nearly 200% at room temperature based on CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB as the free layer (FL) and a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) multilayer [Pt/Co]/Ru/[Pt/Co]/Ta/CoFeB as the reference layer (RL). The field-driven magnetization switching measurements show that the pMTJs exhibit an anomalous TMR hysteresis loop. The spin-polarized layer CoFeB of SAF-RL has a lower critical switching field than that of FL. The reason is related to the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) through a moderately thick Ta spacer layer among SAF-RLs, which generates a moderate and negative bias magnetic field on CoFeB of RL. However, the IEC among RLs has a negligible influence on the current-driven magnetization switching of FL and its magnetization dynamics.

We report a distinctive way for designing lead-free films with high energy storage performance. By inserting different single perovskite cells into Bi$_{4}$Ti$_{3}$O$_{12}$, $P$–$E$ hysteresis loops present larger maximum polarization, higher breakdown strength and smaller slim-shaped area. We prepared 0.15Bi$_{7}$Fe$_{3}$Ti$_{3}$O$_{21}$-0.5Bi$_{4}$Sr$_{3}$Ti$_{6}$O$_{21}$-0.35Bi$_{4}$Ba$_{3}$Ti$_{6}$O$_{21}$ solid solution ferroelectric films employing the sol-gel method, and obtained high energy storage density of 132.5 J/cm$^{3}$ and efficiency of 78.6% while maintaining large maximum polarization of 112.3 μC/cm$^{2}$ and a high breakdown electric field of 3700 kV/cm. Moreover, the energy storage density and efficiency exhibit stability over the temperature range from 20 ℃ to 125 ℃, and anti-fatigue stability maintains up to 10$^{8}$ cycles. The films with a simple preparation method and high energy storage performance are likely to become candidates for high-performance energy storage materials.

High-performance WSe$_{2}$ complementary transistors are demonstrated on an individual flake by ozone exposure, which relies on the charge transfer mechanism. This technology is readily feasible for modulating the conductivity type in WSe$_{2}$, and the p–n junction presents a high on-off ratio of 10$^{4}$. Based on robust p-type transistors and matched output current of n-type WSe$_{2}$ transistors, the complementary inverter achieves a high voltage gain of 19.9. Therefore, this strategy may provide an avenue for development of high-performance complementary electronics.

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a satellite-borne detector for high-energy cosmic rays and $\gamma$-rays. To fully understand the detector performance and obtain reliable physical results, extensive simulations of the detector are necessary. The simulations are particularly important for the data analysis of cosmic ray nuclei, which relies closely on the hadronic and nuclear interactions of particles in the detector material. Widely adopted simulation softwares include the GEANT4 and FLUKA, both of which have been implemented for the DAMPE simulation tool. Here we describe the simulation tool of DAMPE and compare the results of proton shower properties in the calorimeter from the two simulation softwares. Such a comparison gives an estimate of the most significant uncertainties of our proton spectral analysis.