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Hexagonal boron nitride has been theoretically predicted to have high values for its thermal conductivity which would make it useful for thermal management of devices but these values have not been experimentally achieved. The authors manipulate the isotope concentration of B to increase the thermal conductivity and reach these predicted values.
The energy efficient control of magnetisation for memory applications is one of the most important challenges in the field of spintronics. The authors investigate theoretically the possibility of the switching a one-dimensional antiferromagnet using an external electric field.
Protons can be accelerated up to energies of tens of MeV by having an ultra-intense laser pulse interacting with a solid target, in a mechanism known as Target Normal Sheath Acceleration. The authors show that strong enhancement of proton acceleration and number can be achieved by splitting the laser pulse into two parts of equal energy and opposite incidence angles.
In a society relying on large amount of digital information and big data, information security is of paramount importance. The authors present a concept of physically unclonable function (PUF) based on the randomness of biological systems and offering the potential for a fully unclonable, reproducible and reconfigurable PUF.
Semiconductor microcavities coupled to a quantum well can produce three regimes of coherent light generation depending on the nature of the light–matter and electron–hole interactions. The authors design a Se/Te based microcavity containing a single quantum well which enables them to achieve all three lasing regimes in the one device.
Quantum phase transitions and emergent electronic ordered states are intriguing phenomena in condensed matter physics. Using a ruthenate material system, the authors employ scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy to visualise the transition from a metal to a Mott insulator via doping and find evidence for emergent charge order.
The concept of non-Hermitian parity-time reversal symmetry in optics has given rise to a vast amount of research aimed at exploring some of the exotic features displayed by photonics systems. The authors present a brief account of the state-of-the-art on non-Hermitian photonics and provide their perspective on the topic.
Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is an important technology for many branches of science where unpaired electrons need to be unambiguously detected. The authors propose an EPR spectrometer that uses a single artificial atom as a sensitive detector of spin magnetization enabling them to significantly improve the sensitivity when small sample volumes are present.
Magnetic resonance imaging is widely used for the diagnosis of many ailments and efforts to continuously improve image resolution and decrease acquisition time are strongly sought after. The authors demonstrate that the application of specially designed metamaterials could help improve the signal-to-noise ratio, which in turn can be translated to boost the performance of MRI.
Soliton explosions are a nonlinear instability phenomenon in which a dissipative soliton experiences a sudden structural collapse, but can return back to its original shape despite the strong energy dissipation. The authors report the experimental observation of soliton explosions in a fibre laser, finding that the instability is triggered by the collision of double dissipative solitons.
Ferroelectric negative capacitance could be used to overcome the Boltzmann limit for next-generation energy-efficient transistors. This study demonstrates the performance capability of nanothick ZrO2 observing negative capacity and ferroelectric inductance and characterizes the role of multidomains in the observed behaviors.
Standard time domain photoacoustic imaging techniques neglect the abundant information encoded in the frequency domain of photoacoustic signals. The authors present an imaging technique that utilizes features in photoacoustic signal power spectra to visualize structures of different scale in image datasets acquired using classical methods.
Applications of high temperature superconductors often use layers of materials, and the application of a magnetic field to these layers can generate disk-like pancake vortices within layers crossed with vortices in between layers. The authors present low temperature magnetic force microscopy imaging on a layered superconducting crystal and demonstrate that they are able to manipulate the crossed vortex lattices, hence making this technique an ideal tool for imaging and manipulating superconducting vortices.
The electronic structure and transport properties of organic semiconductors are known not to follow standard semiconductor models and a complete understanding is still lacking in the literature. The authors experimentally and theoretically demonstrate the role of phonon–charge interactions on the highest occupied molecular orbital and mobility of the organic semiconductor tetracene.
The necessity to design transistors at increasingly smaller scale is at the heart of future technological developments. The authors report a fabrication method to produce uniform electrochemical metallization cells at the nanometer scale with precisely designed geometries and which demonstrate applicable functionality.
Antiferromagnetic materials were considered unfavorable for spintronic devices due to their zero net magnetic moment however recent research suggests that they may be much more useful than their ferromagnetic counterparts. The authors model an antiferromagnetic system, where the spin textures can be controlled and detected by breaking the inversion symmetry and by applying a magnetic field.
The valley Hall effect in transition metal dichalcogenides has been studied as a potential mean to develop new electronic and optoelectronic devices. The authors theoretically demonstrate that valley Hall effect can be derived from spin degrees of freedom, which is distinct from the conventional orbital related type.
Quantifying the entropic effects of confined polymers in biological environments or single molecule experiments is a challenging task. Using the same strategy as the chemical potential of solutions, the authors derive a simple entropic force formula, which largely reduces that difficulty and clarifies several recent experiments in confined polymers.
Topological superconductors possess Majorana modes at the edge and are important in future quantum computational devices. The authors theoretically demonstrate the Larkin-Ovchinnikov superconducting phase can be topologically non-trivial in certain sandwich structure or iron-based superconductor films and possess a chain of Majorana modes.
Single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides are expected to be suitable for a number of applications and by stacking layers of different materials on top of each other (heterostructures) an even richer variety of properties can be explored. To this end the authors theoretically investigate cross material exciton states in a heterostructures of MoSe2 and WSe2 layers.
