Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
There are phenomena which are not expected to be able to co-exist within the same system. One of the most notable examples is superconductivity and magnetism, which was overturned by the discovery of iron-based superconductors. Here, the authors report the co-existence of another pair of mutually antagonistic properties-polarity and two-dimensional conductivity-in ferroelectric thin films and analyse the mechanisms which sustain them.
Bolometers have been used for over a century for a wide range of applications with recent developments aiming at reducing noise and increasing readout speed. The authors present a nanobolometer with an order of magnitude lower noise and over an order of magnitude increased readout speed than previously shown, making this instrument a promising candidate for applications in quantum and terahertz technology.
The thermal properties of a material often determine its suitability for application and use in devices. Here, the thermal conductivity of anatase TiO2 is tuned over three orders of magnitude from bulk crystals to foam samples, by controlling polaronic effects and texturing.
Active nematics refers to systems made of a collection of elongated units, each of which consumes ambient or stored energy in order to move. The authors experimentally and numerically study an active nematic system in confinement finding a defect-free regime of shear flow, and defect nucleation under certain boundary conditions, highlighting the importance of topological defects in controlling confined active flows.
Quantum simulation is a crucial tool in areas where classical computers are inefficient. In this work, the authors use a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance quantum simulator to simulate the local dynamics of quantum spacetime as an attempt to exploit quantum information to study loop quantum gravity.
Quantum heat engines hold potential to achieve efficiencies set by the Carnot limit, however loss of energy between quasiparticles and their environment prevents experimental realisation. Here, the authors propose a model to control this heat flow using chirped laser pulses.
The ability of modern society to move towards quantum communications is dependent on the capacity to realize quantum networks with the ability to securely transmit and share information over long distance and among multiple users. The authors propose a protocol for a scalable quantum network made of modules each consisting of continuous-variable measurement-device independent applied to quantum key distribution, allowing to perform secure quantum conferencing among an arbitrary number of users.
Photoacoustic imaging of colloidal nanosystems is a useful tool for biological applications, yet current models of the photo-induced thermal processes contain un-physical assumptions. Here, the authors propose a model capable of disentangling the role of the nanoparticle, shell, surrounding material, and laser pulse properties.
Non-crystalline, amorphous materials are commonly known to exhibit a characteristic local ordering. Here, the authors report a new material prepared by pulsed electrodeposition showing the co-existence of liquid and solid-like amorphous phases, which gives rise to enhanced thermal stability and plasticity.
Light-matter interactions can be used to induce a superconducting-like state in some cuprate superconductors at temperatures above the expected transition temperature. Here, the authors provide time and angle resolved spectroscopic evidence to suggest that photo induced superconductivity can also be achieved in Fe-based superconductors
Finding novel ways of harvesting energy is of fundamental importance in an energy-hungry world. The authors propose a “spin engine” with the potential experimental ability to generate electrical power at room temperature by harvesting the thermal energy of paramagnetic centers using spintronics.
Some layered two-dimensional systems exhibit topologically stable helices in the form of planar magnetic domain walls, which hold potential for all-spin-based technologies. Here, the authors investigate domain walls in rare earth systems and find topologically stable helical ground states which coexist with superspin-glass-like ordering.
Quantum photonics investigates how a controlled number of photons can be used to achieve information processing beyond classical constraints. Here, the authors use optically active defects in hexagonal boron nitride as way to achieve control of photon emission using surface acoustic waves.
Recognition of the contribution made by reviewers to the publication of high quality research may take many forms. We are passionate about ensuring quality in peer review and discuss here how to acknowledge our reviewers fairly.
Graphene is a low dimensional material with a high surface area and so it is expected to be useful for ultra-sensitive sensors with a range of different applications. Here, the authors use graphene nanorings to detect the rotation of hydrogen molecules in the terahertz region.
Control of composition within domains and at the interfaces between domains, within organic photovoltaic blend devices, is a key aspect of performance. Using neutron reflectivity experiments on model polymer/small molecule bilayers, the authors measure layer composition and interfacial width following thermal annealing, and examine the applicability of equilibrium thermodynamic theory for quantification of behaviour as a function of polymer molecular weight.
Weyl semimetals are a class of crystalline materials whose electronic band structure exhibits topologically protected degeneracy points, known as Weyl points. Here, the authors demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that Weyl points can also be present in the magnetic-field dependent spectrum of a double quantum dot system, enjoying a similar topological protection.
Doping of 2D semiconductors by electron acceptor or donor molecules has been suggested as a method to optimize their properties for electronic devices. Here, the authors identify three distinct charge transfer mechanisms that depend on the substrate and yield different doping efficiencies.
The study of electronic structure of new materials has benefited from more widely available angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) at synchrotron sources, but hard X-ray ARPES, capable of mapping at a depth of some tens nanometres is still of limited access. The authors report on a method to obtain bulk electronic structure using hard X-rays ARPES combined with an effective data processing background removal strategy capable of revealing the valence band electronic dispersion of metal and semiconductor surfaces.
Quantum phenomena can often be explored in a more accessible way by so called quantum analogues, making its understanding and applications more achievable. The authors experimentally realise acoustic Bell states by superposition of coupled 1D elastic waveguides, which allows them to explore a section of the Bell’s state Hilbert space by tuning the complex amplitude coefficients, opening options to exploring quantum entanglement with a classical equivalent from phononics.