资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

State-of-the-art optical clocks(1) achieve precisions of 10(-18) or better using ensembles of atoms in optical lattices(2,3) or individual ions in radio-frequency traps(4,5). Promising candidates for use in atomic clocks are highly charged ions(6) (HCIs) and nuclear transitions(7), which are largely insensitive to external perturbations and reach wavelengths beyond the optical range(8) that are accessible to frequency combs(9). However, insufficiently accurate atomic structure calculations hinder the identification of suitable transitions in HCIs. Here we report the observation of a long-lived metastable electronic state in an HCI by measuring the mass difference between the ground and excited states in rhenium, providing a non-destructive, direct determination of an electronic excitation energy. The result is in agreement with advanced calculations. We use the high-precision Penning trap mass spectrometer PENTATRAP to measure the cyclotron frequency ratio of the ground state to the metastable state of the ion with a precision of 10(-11)-an improvement by a factor of ten compared with previous measurements(10,11). With a lifetime of about 130 days, the potential soft-X-ray frequency reference at 4.96 x 10(16) hertz (corresponding to a transition energy of 202 electronvolts) has a linewidth of only 5 x 10(-8) hertz and one of the highest electronic quality factors (10(24)) measured experimentally so far. The low uncertainty of our method will enable searches for further soft-X-ray clock transitions(8,12) in HCIs, which are required for precision studies of fundamental physics(6).

Penning trap mass spectrometry is used to measure the electronic transition energy from a long-lived metastable state to the ground state in highly charged rhenium ions with a precision of 10(-11).

Strongly correlated insulating Mott and generalized Wigner phases are detected in WSe2/WS2 moire superlattices, and their electrical properties and excited spin states are studied using an optical technique.

Moire superlattices can be used to engineer strongly correlated electronic states in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures, as recently demonstrated in the correlated insulating and superconducting states observed in magic-angle twisted-bilayer graphene and ABC trilayer graphene/boron nitride moire superlattices(1-4). Transition metal dichalcogenide moire heterostructures provide another model system for the study of correlated quantum phenomena(5) because of their strong light-matter interactions and large spin-orbit coupling. However, experimental observation of correlated insulating states in this system is challenging with traditional transport techniques. Here we report the optical detection of strongly correlated phases in semiconducting WSe2/WS2 moire superlattices. We use a sensitive optical detection technique and reveal a Mott insulator state at one hole per superlattice site and surprising insulating phases at 1/3 and 2/3 filling of the superlattice, which we assign to generalized Wigner crystallization on the underlying lattice(6-11). Furthermore, the spin-valley optical selection rules(12-14) of transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures allow us to optically create and investigate low-energy excited spin states in the Mott insulator. We measure a very long spin relaxation lifetime of many microseconds in the Mott insulating state, orders of magnitude longer than that of charge excitations. Our studies highlight the value of using moire superlattices beyond graphene to explore correlated physics.

A synthetic approach is described, for efficiently converting non-van der Waals solids into two-dimensional van der Waals transition-metal chalcogenide layers with specific phases, enabling the high-throughput production of monolayers.

Although two-dimensional (2D) atomic layers, such as transition-metal chalcogenides, have been widely synthesized using techniques such as exfoliation(1-3) and vapour-phase growth(4,5), it is still challenging to obtain phase-controlled 2D structures(6-8). Here we demonstrate an effective synthesis strategy via the progressive transformation of non-van der Waals (non-vdW) solids to 2D vdW transition-metal chalcogenide layers with identified 2H (trigonal prismatic)/1T (octahedral) phases. The transformation, achieved by exposing non-vdW solids to chalcogen vapours, can be controlled using the enthalpies and vapour pressures of the reaction products. Heteroatom-substituted (such as yttrium and phosphorus) transition-metal chalcogenides can also be synthesized in this way, thus enabling a generic synthesis approach to engineering phase-selected 2D transition-metal chalcogenide structures with good stability at high temperatures (up to 1,373 kelvin) and achieving high-throughput production of monolayers. We anticipate that these 2D transition-metal chalcogenides will have broad applications for electronics, catalysis and energy storage.