Articles

Majorana fermions—the particles renowned for being their own antiparticles—have been proposed as candidates for storing qubits for quantum computers. Sau and Das Sarma propose a method for creating stable Majorana fermions in an array of quantum dots.

Quantum communication promises important advances in information and communication technology, yet it suffers from alignment sensitivity. Here, an alignment-free approach is demonstrated using liquid crystal devices, allowing for broader applications, including satellites.

Molecular systems with rigid macrocyclic backbones self-assemble into synthetic nanopores that mimic the mass-transport characteristics of biological channels. Zhouet al. produce self-assembling hydrophobic nanopores that mediate highly selective transmembrane ion transport and highly efficient transmembrane water permeability.

Integration of ferromagnetic and semiconducting elements is important for future devices capable of both processing and storing information. Korenevet al. describe a novel spin-separation effect in a ferromagnet/semiconductor quantum well hybrid and show the optical readout of hysteresis loops.

In uteroelectroporation allows the labelling of specific populations of neurons in the developing mouse brain. The authors of this paper present a simple modification of this method that increases labelling efficiency and allows, for the first time, transfection of Purkinje cells in the rat cerebellum.

Vortex–charge duality is a model that has been proposed for describing the superconducting to insulator transition in disordered thin films. Mehtaet al. report experimental evidence for this duality in the two-dimensional electron gas that arises in LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃heterostructures.

The motor protein myosin-V transports cargo along actin filaments, but the biophysical mechanisms by which myosin-V generates force are unclear. Here, optical tweezers and a DNA handle are used to study the forces generated by myosin-V: the mechanism of force generation is found to depend on the load applied.

X-ray free-electron lasers offer a wealth of possibilities for future diffraction studies, but variations in successive pulses mean the wavefront is not well defined. Rutishauseret al. use grating interferometry to characterize the wavefronts shot to shot, both in situand under operating conditions.

The iron pnictides are a class of superconductors that have received widespread interest in recent years. By doping the prototypical material LaFeAsO with hydrogen, this study reveals the existence of a second superconducting dome at higher doping ranges, which arises due to orbital fluctuations.

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system protects prokaryotes from foreign DNA. Here, bacteriophage DNA containing mutations that can circumvent this response are shown to be incorporated into the CRISPR locus, allowing bacteria to remember previous infections in an adaptive manner.

Correlated electron oxide materials have rich phase diagrams with magnetic or electronic properties. Using a p-n junction configuration, Shenget al. explore the dielectric response of different phases in manganite thin films and uncover their dynamic transport properties.

Chiral metamaterials present interesting ways to manipulate and distinguish between different circular polarizations of light. Zhanget al. realize chiral metamaterials that exhibit photoinduced switching between left- and right-handed circular polarization interactions at terahertz frequencies.

Regulator of transcription 1, Rtr1, has been proposed to function as an RNA polymerase II phosphatase. Here, the lack of phosphatase activity in purified Rtr1 and the absence of an active site in the structure of the yeast protein suggest that Rtr1 does not dephosphorylate RNA polymerase II.

CD8⁺ memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes need help from CD4⁺ T cells to undergo secondary expansion but the mechanisms of help are not fully understood. Here, it is shown that, after activation by CD4⁺ T cells, antigen-presenting cells activate CD8⁺T cells via the CD70/CD27 co-stimulatory pathway.

The exact mechanism for superconductivity in iron-based superconductors remains elusive, but is thought to involve complex interactions between many orbitals. Using angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, Liuet al. report the electronic structure of the single-layer parent compound FeSe.

Single electron pumps have been proposed as potential candidates for redefining the ampere. This study reports measurements of the quantized current flowing through a semiconductor electron pump with a precision that makes a substantial step towards establishing a direct metric for electrical currents.

The ability to manipulate single charges is a key requisite for novel nanoelectronic devices. Allenet al. show how to electrostatically confine electrons in suspended bilayer graphene quantum dots by local control of the graphene band structure.

The SrTiO₃/LaAlO₃ system is widely studied because it forms a two-dimensional electron gas at the interface. This study investigates the effects of diluting the LaAlO₃ layer with SrTiO₃, and finds that the threshold thickness required for the onset of conductivity scales inversely with the fraction of LaAlO₃, suggesting an intrinsic origin for the electron gas.

Switches made up of single molecules form the basis for the concept of molecular electronics. Miyamachiet al.demonstrate that an iron-based spin crossover molecule can be switched between different spin states, provided it is decoupled from a metallic substrate by a thin insulating layer.

Absorption imaging relies on the capture of photons by an object to create intensity contrasts, allowing for the visualization of small quantum systems. Streedet al. demonstrate the first absorption imaging of an isolated ytterbium ion, with contrast at the limit of semiclassical theory.