Research articles

Thin-film phototransistors based on multilayer MoS₂ are of great technological importance, but their photoresponsivity may be hindered by an indirect bandgap. Here, nano-patterning of multilayer MoS₂ overcomes this limitation by inducing trap states within the bandgap, resulting in a high photoresponsivity of 622.2 A W⁻¹.

4D metamaterials offer the additional functionality of being responsive to external stimuli. Here, a metamaterial-based soft robot is composed of bilayer plates that can rotate and translate in response to thermal stimuli, allowing controlled motion.

Ideal qubits should exhibit, simultaneously, long spin coherence times and fast initialization. Here, defect centers in ZnSe epilayers, introduced by ex-situ fluorine implantation, are displaying spin coherence times of 100 ns at room temperature and fast optical access on the picosecond timescale.

Graph neural networks are an accurate machine learning-based approach for property prediction. Here, a geometric-information-enhanced crystal graph neural network is demonstrated, which accurately predicts the formation energy and band gap of crystalline materials.

Experiments and simulations can reveal energetic barriers during atomic-scale growth but are time-consuming. Here, machine learning is applied to single images from kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of sub-monolayer film growth, allowing diffusion barriers and binding energies to be accurately determined.

Thermal cloak metamaterials are important in heat camouflage and protection of electronic devices, but are often purely metallic and limited in flexibility. Here, a durable, non-cracking, and anti-corrosive thermal metasurface is fabricated by laser engraving a graphene coating onto a copper substrate.

Artificial intelligence may significantly accelerate the discovery of new materials but is not easily applicable to non-periodic structures. Here, a deep learning framework is proposed to predict properties of tangible carbon nanotubes by generating virtual structures at different scales and compositions.

Thin-film transistors based on amorphous oxide semiconductors have promising applications, but their stability is hampered by negative bias illumination stress. Here, a systematic study of lanthanide-doped indium oxide semiconductors reveals that Pr and Tb are most efficient in improving the photostability of devices.

Two-dimensional materials have well-defined atomic-scale structure, which has the potential to be tuned by processing. Here, substrate-induced straining during the growth of ReS₂ causes the formation of martensite-like domain structures.

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy typically relies on opaque optical waveguides, compatible only with upright microscopes. Here, a versatile approach is reported that uses CMOS-compatible transparent chips, demonstrated for the imaging of synthetic and biological samples, including super-resolution applications.

Calcium-silicate-hydrate is the main component of cement, and controlling its structure is vital to its properties. Here, graphene oxide is used to constrain the growth and optimize the assembly of calcium-silicate-hydrate, substantially improving its strength and durability.

Polyethylene oxide is a common solid polymer electrolyte for solid-state lithium metal batteries. Here, statistical copolymerization is shown to be an effective approach to reduce its crystallinity, enabling a high ionic conductivity during room temperature battery operation.

There is an ongoing need to lower the Young’s modulus of polymer components produced by 3D printing. Here, a three-stage printing process creates multi-material components with Young’s moduli of 25 kPa – 90 kPa, enabled by the evaporation of ammonium bicarbonate to create gaseous pores.

Nanoscale boron-based materials are promising for electronic devices, and it is important to understand their chemical stability. Here, hydrogen boride nanosheets are stable against hydrolysis in water, which ab initio calculations attribute to the charge state of boron and the boron-boron bond network.

Desulfurization of MoS₂ alters its chemical and physical properties by breaking structural symmetry. Here, the atomic-scale mechanistic pathway by which this occurs is investigated during plasma etching, and changes in chemical structure and physical properties are revealed.

Semiconducting Cu₂O is attractive for photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices, though balancing high hole mobility with low-cost fabrication is challenging. Here, Cu₂O thin films with high hole mobility of 92 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ are deposited in air, and applied in a semi-transparent solar harvester.

Cellulose is a naturally occurring system of interest for its chiral macromolecular structure. Here, colourful structural patterns are observed in a cellulose-based lyotropic cholesteric system, attributed to conformational self-adjustment of the cellulose chain to its environment.

The formation and growth of dendrites in solid-state lithium metal batteries is a common cause of failure. Here, thin-film amorphous Li-La-Zr-O shows high resistance to lithium penetration, making it promising for thin-film solid-state batteries and as a coating for bulk ceramic electrolyte.

Materials that display photostimulated luminescence are attractive for multiple applications. Here, photostimulated luminescence is demonstrated in an all-organic blend film, in which a dopant molecule functions as both an electron trap and a light emitter.

Ultrastable metallic glasses form by surface diffusion on a substrate during deposition. Here, this process is shown to involve the collective diffusion of atoms in a cyclic process, involving the formation of islands, their coalescence into a layer, followed by further island formation.