Xiao Yi's idea was not temporary.
Before coming here, he actually didn't know anything about the subject, but had a rough understanding of the progress of Academician Pang's research.
Naturally, we also know that the process involves the transformation of the parent compound and the parent-superconductor.
So in his initial research, he thought about what method should be used to achieve an ordered FeSe monolayer with iron vacancies.
Then, hydrogen, the smallest atom of all elements, entered his field of vision.
"Professor Guo, next I need to trouble you to simulate this process to see if it can be realized on a computer."
Finally having a feasible direction, Pang Cheng turned around and said to Guo Ding.
If more positive results can be obtained through computational simulation, then this method will definitely have great potential.
Guo Ding came to his senses at this time, and then nodded. "Okay, leave it to me, but..."
He turned to look at Xiao Yi again and said, "Of course I also need Xiao Yi's help, and I also need you to explain the details to me."
Xiao Yi smiled and said, "Of course."
Pang Cheng nodded, then patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder, "I'm waiting for your good news."
Academician Pang left, but looking at his slightly accelerated pace, he wanted to think about the specific implementation method of this experiment.
Only Xiao Yi and Guo Ding are left.
Guo Ding blinked and said to Xiao Yi, "You are really... it is indeed a surprise."
Xiao Yi said modestly, "I just thought about it casually."
Guo Ding said helplessly, "Then you are so casual."
Shaking his head, Guo Ding said no more. Anyway, he had a very clear positioning of himself, as long as he understood the field of computational physics.
Then he stopped talking nonsense. "Then let's start now. Regarding the Hydrogen Power Method you mentioned, what is the specific implementation principle?"
Xiao Yi nodded, and then began to introduce.
"First of all, we must clarify our purpose, which is to introduce iron vacancy defects in FeSe/SrTiO3 single-layer superconductors."
"What you need to know is that to introduce iron vacancy defects, we have to overcome the migration energy barrier."
"Taking the migration of Fe atoms in FeSe crystals as an example, if Fe atoms migrate from one lattice position to an adjacent position without the help of other auxiliary means, the energy barrier that needs to be overcome is relatively strong. It is also troublesome to do it under experimental conditions. Even through energy input methods, it is difficult for us to ensure the uniformity of energy input."
"So we have to find ways to lower the migration energy barrier."
"As for this, we can easily think of using some other atoms to weaken the metal bonds, and obviously, we can think of the hydrogen bonds of hydrogen atoms."
"When hydrogen atoms combine with metal atoms, it will cause the redistribution of the electron cloud. This redistribution can change the local charge density around the metal atoms, thereby changing the local potential energy surface, and the Fe-Se bond is weakened."
"In addition, another advantage of hydrogen atoms is that they are small enough to diffuse quickly through materials."
When Xiao Yi said this, Guo Ding's eyes lit up. "Oh! I understand!"
Although he was only a computational physicist, he didn't know the basic knowledge. Therefore, after Xiao Yi's detailed explanation, he quickly understood the basic principles of this experiment.
"Awesome!"
He gave a thumbs up.
"There are quite a few people who have studied this topic over the years, but no one has really thought of using hydrogen atoms to achieve this."
Then he took out the scratch paper and started writing on it, "Well... let me model this process first, and then run it on the computer."
"I feel like it's completely feasible."
"Well..."
Without wasting time, Guo Ding immediately began to build a model of this experimental process based on the principles.
Xiao Yi was also watching. Although he did not do it himself, this did not prevent him from roughly understanding the modeling process of Guo Ding.
There is not much of a gap between Computational Materials Science and computational physics, not to mention that what they are currently studying is also closely related to Materials Science.
In this way, time passed quickly. They completed the modeling during the day, and then started running on the computer at night.
As a national research center, there is certainly no shortage of servers here, and even supercomputers can be obtained.
Finally, the simulation results came out.
"Success! We actually introduced an iron vacancy defect!"
In front of the computer, Guo Ding waved his fist excitedly and looked at the results on the computer with great excitement.
This key issue was successfully solved by them!
"It's really yours!"
He glanced at Xiao Yi next to him and laughed.
Xiao Yi smiled, but he was not too happy.
For Guo Ding and the others, this problem may have stumped them for a long time, but for Xiao Yi, this problem was solved on the first day he came here.
Hmm...
It's not really a high sense of accomplishment.
He said calmly, "We still have to simulate a suitable environment."
"For example, the hydrogen environment, the concentration, pressure and temperature of hydrogen are all key parameters."
"Then there's time for heat treatment."
Guo Ding smiled and nodded, "That's natural. I'll set the parameters later and run it all night to see if I can find the optimal temperature range."
"By the way, we have to tell Academician Pang the good news."
It was already 10 o'clock in the evening, so only the two of them were left here.
Then Guo Ding took out his mobile phone and made a call. At the same time, he said with a smile, "I don't know if he is sleeping. It's best not, otherwise he won't be able to sleep tonight."
The call came through quickly.
Pang Cheng's slightly expectant voice came from inside. "Professor Guo, is there any good news?"
Guo Ding shrugged helplessly at Xiao Yi, "Well, it seems he didn't fall asleep."
Xiao Yi laughed and shook his head.
"Yes, good news. Following the idea of Xiao Yi, we successfully introduced iron vacancy defects, and the simulation results also observed the transformation from the superconducting phase to the insulating parent phase!"
Pang Cheng suddenly laughed, "Okay! Okay! Okay!"
"Xiao Yi should be next to you, help me say thank you to him! I will now notify others to hold a group meeting tomorrow morning and tell them the news."
Guo Ding nodded. "No problem."
Soon, they hung up the phone, and Guo Ding smiled at Xiao Yi, "You heard it too, Academician Pang thanks you very much."
Of course Xiao Yi heard it and nodded with a smile.
"OK, then our affairs are settled. Let's have a good sleep tonight. Tomorrow will be their experimental task, which basically has nothing to do with us. Well... but we have to see if we can get the best experimental conditions tomorrow morning. We have to come early tomorrow morning."
Subsequently, Guo Ding set up a program on the computer to find the best conditions and let it run.
"Okay, let's go."
A night of silence.
The next day, 9:30 in the morning.
In the conference room, almost everyone else from the Academician Pang research team has arrived.
However, their faces were still a little confused.
At around ten o'clock last night, Academician Pang suddenly sent a notice in their group chat, saying that a group meeting would be held this morning and that all of them must arrive on time.
"Didn't we just hold a group meeting four days ago? Why is it held again today? Do you know what's going on?"
The graduate students in the group began to talk about it, and the relationship between young people was relatively close.
"I can't come!"
"I can't come either!"
Finally, these graduate students all looked at their senior brother Xu Zhiqiang and asked, "Senior brother, do you know what's going on?"
At this time, Xu Zhiqiang yawned deeply, and at the same time, he slapped his mouth with his palms, making a sound of "Ah~ah~ah~".
Seeing that his junior brothers and sisters all saw him, he showed a blank expression and said, "What happened?"
The junior brothers and sisters immediately shook their heads and sighed.
Sure enough, they shouldn't count on this senior brother.
Xu Zhiqiang At this time, he also realized that this was a bit embarrassing for senior brother.
At least, in the question in Zhihu that he read yesterday, although the other senior brothers did not understand the topic, did not know the experiments, and did not have the papers, they were at least well-informed and had a wide range of approaches.
No, he can't do this anymore. He has nothing but money.
So he observed the people at the scene, finally calmly analyzed and thought carefully, his eyes lit up, and he said, "Ahem, look, who are missing in our room?"
A junior brother said, "Teacher Pang hasn't come yet, and then there is Professor Guo, um... and Scholar Xiao?"
"That's right!" Xu Zhiqiang clapped his hands and then said, "Think about the lab last night. We all left. Who is left?"
"Uh... aren't they Scholar Xiao and Professor Guo?"
Xu Zhiqiang nodded, and then said, "So, maybe Scholar Xiao and Professor Guo have come up with something, which is worthy of our boss Pang setting up a special group for us to discuss."
But at this time, a voice came from the side.
"Then you may be overthinking it. Xiao Yi has just arrived on his first day. It's enough to figure out what our project is about, and what results can it produce?"
The person who spoke was none other than Cui Yuanhao. Apparently, although he was taught a lesson by Academician Pang yesterday, it made him even more dissatisfied.
But Xu Zhiqiang frowned.
What the hell, don't you know that he is trying to establish his prestige in front of his junior brothers and sisters?
What did this guy come over and say?
Although the other party is a full researcher and Excellent Young Scholar, Xu Zhiqiang is not afraid.
As the old saying goes, as long as I show off enough, no one can influence me.
What's more, Xu Zhiqiang's mentor is Academician Pang, not this Cui Yuanhao. Is he afraid of being beaten?
He immediately said sarcastically, "I'm talking about you, why do you care about someone else's student? Although they have already rated Outstanding Young Scholar, and you haven't yet, you are older than them! Look, you are already forty years old, and they are only eighteen years old."
Xu Zhiqiang's words immediately made Cui Yuanhao's eyes widen.
You, a person who has been studying for a PhD for 6 years, still dare to talk to me like this?
He pointed at Xu Zhiqiang and was about to speak, "You..."
But Xu Zhiqiang did not give him a chance to speak, and continued, "You haven't listened to what Old Pang said about you yesterday, have you? Do you want me to repeat it to you? You haven't commented on Outstanding Young Scholar yet. Think more about your own problems, and don't leave it here..."
But at this moment, Academician Pang's deep voice came from the door. "Who are you calling Old Pang?"
Xu Zhiqiang's eyes suddenly widened and he looked towards the door, and saw Academician Pang walking in, followed by Xiao Yi and Guo Ding.
Xu Zhiqiang said quickly, "I'm not, I didn't, teacher, please listen to my excuses... Oh no, listen to my explanation!"
Pang Cheng came up and pinched his ears again and pulled him up. "You stand and listen to this group meeting."
Xu Zhiqiang's junior brothers and sisters immediately cast sympathetic glances at him, and of course some of them were gloating about his misfortune.
However, Pang Cheng did not forget to turn around, glared at Cui Yunhao again, and pointed at him warningly.
Afterwards, he sat in front and said, "This group meeting will mainly be spoken by Xiao Yi and Professor Guo."
Finally talking about the good news, Pang Cheng also smiled, "Yesterday, Xiao Yi proposed an experiment called Hydrogen Power Method, which can help us introduce iron vacancy defects in FeSe/SrTiO3 single-layer superconductors."
"In this group meeting, Xiao Yi will first explain to you what Hydrogen Power Method means, and then Professor Guo will show you the results of the simulation."
"After the group meeting, we officially started to conduct experiments. Based on the simulated situation, we found the best conditions through experiments, and then conducted observations and analysis."
"Xiao Yi, I'll bother you first."
Pang Cheng smiled and said to Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi nodded, then walked to the front and began to introduce Hydrogen Power Method to the people present.
Everyone else in the conference room already showed shocked expressions.
What the hell?
Xiao Yi It was just the first day yesterday and you really got results?
Fake?
At this time, Xu Zhiqiang, who was rubbing his ears, also stopped rubbing his ears and became stunned.
Ah this?
Are you serious?
At this time, his junior brothers and sisters all cast admiring glances at him.
As expected of their senior brother, he actually had news.
Xu Zhiqiang noticed these glances. He was stunned for a moment, and then quickly calmed down his expression, at least not looking shocked.
But he couldn't help but glance at Xiao Yi.
Not bro...
Are you sure you really didn't open it?
But at this time, he glanced at Cui Yuanhao sitting on the other side.
At this time, Professor Cui also looked in disbelief. How could someone make progress on the first day after arriving?
According to what Academician Pang just said, this method of Xiao Yi is even expected to solve the key problem that has stuck in their research group for so long?
Xu Zhiqiang raised his eyebrows.
Hey, this is so unlucky, now you know what Xiao Yi is capable of, right?
Are you awesome, Brother Xiao?
Xiao Yi on the stage didn't know what happened in the laboratory just now. At this time, he was also explaining Hydrogen Power Method.
It was easy to explain, so soon everyone present understood the details of this method, even Xu Zhiqiang understood it.
For a moment, their eyes lit up.
The principle is easy to understand, but being able to figure it out is the key.
Such ingenious methods are not something they can comprehend casually.
Then, Guo Ding showed them the data simulated on the computer, which made everyone in the conference room look surprised.
From this perspective, the problems they are currently facing really have a chance to be solved!
Pang Cheng did not waste time. After the introduction, he took people directly back to the laboratory and began to conduct experiments according to the experimental method given by Xiao Yi.
In the first step, a high-quality FeSe/SrTiO superconducting monolayer sample is prepared, and then the sample is placed in an environment containing hydrogen.
This morning, the computer had already run out several more suitable environmental parameters, so their first experiment also directly set the hydrogen environment based on the calculated parameters.
The second step is to perform heat treatment. The injected hydrogen needs to be decomposed into two hydrogen atoms under high temperature conditions, so that they can diffuse into the sample material and interact with iron atoms inside it.
In a hydrogen environment, iron atoms are more likely to break away from their original positions, migrate to new positions or leave the film surface, thereby forming vacancies in their original positions.
The third step, of course, is to observe whether there is a vacancy formed. This requires using Scanning Tunneling Microscope STM for real-time observation.
In this way, after a day of experiments, at the end, a burst of cheers broke out in the laboratory.
"Success! Iron vacancy defects were generated on the surface of the sample!"
Looking at the images on the scanning tunneling microscopy, everyone looked happy.
This basically means that the hardest step in the entire project has been taken!
"Well done!"
Pang Cheng also smiled, turned around and patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder, smiling, "Thank you for this method! This method alone is more than enough to publish a top article. If we complete our experiment, there is no problem in publishing a PRL. It depends on your choice. If you are willing to publish this experimental method together with our final results, I can give you a top article."
In this regard, Xiao Yi certainly did not choose to publish it separately. For him, the value of publishing it separately is not that high. It is better to publish a PRL. However, another key point is that he actually does not care about these things, so he said, "Let's publish it together. If we publish it separately, I have to write the paper myself."
Pang Cheng suddenly laughed, "Okay! Let's send them together then!"
Then he turned to look at the others and said, "Okay, let's not rest and continue the experiment."
Finding a method that can introduce iron vacancy defects is only the first step. Next, they have to find the most suitable conditions to introduce more defects in the sample. After that, they need to cool down and observe the transformation process from the superconducting phase to the insulating parent phase. Only in this way can they achieve their main goal - to analyze the principle of high-temperature superconductivity.
Thinking of this, they suddenly became more motivated, which was much better than the previous state of stagnation due to being stuck by problems.
And this is all brought by Xiao Yi.
Praise Scholar Xiao!