Volume 14 Issue 4, April 2015

Porous rubber microbeads suspended in a gel are found to exhibit a negative acoustic index of refraction, which makes these metamaterials promising for underwater acoustic applications.

The confinement and scattering lifetimes of graphene plasmons are improved when graphene is sandwiched between layers of thin hexagonal boron nitride. This finding should pave the way for nanophotonic applications in the low-loss regime.

The folding of origami structures involves bending deformations that are not explicit in the crease pattern.

The visualization of organic-acid-induced crystal growth by means of liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy can provide key insights into the nucleation of calcium carbonate in an organic matrix.

The coupling of monolayer tungsten diselenide and a photonic-crystal cavity leads to ultralow-threshold lasing.

The application of a high magnetic field is shown to induce spin-density-wave order in Sr₃Ru₂O₇. This magnetic order correlates with the electronic nematic behaviour observed in this material.

Nonlinear scattering theory, contrary to Miller’s rule, is shown to be able to establish the nonlinear optical response of metamaterials, a tool that can be used towards the efficient design of strongly nonlinear metamaterials.

Soft acoustic metamaterials that consist of a concentrated suspension of macroporous microbeads and that show a broadband negative acoustic refractive index are now demonstrated.

The square-twist origami structure, believed to have a non-foldable crease pattern, is now shown to be foldable through bending deformations that are not explicit in the pattern and that lead to a transition between mechanical mono- and bistability.

In situ liquid-phase electron microscopy experiments show that the binding of calcium ions to a biomimetic polymer matrix can direct the nucleation of amorphous calcium carbonate, a main precursor phase in calcium carbonate mineralization.

Molecular beam epitaxy now enables the growth of nanowire heterostructures composed of a semiconducting core and a metallic epitaxial shell. This improved synthesis leads to the creation of a hard superconducting gap with no subgap states.

Room-temperature switchable polarization and the presence of charged domain walls with insulating and conducting configurations are now experimentally demonstrated in bulk (Ca,Sr)₃Ti₂O₇.

The study of the electronic, thermal and optical properties of dysprosium-doped cadmium oxide reveals high electron mobility, rendering the material suitable for plasmonic applications in the mid-infrared region.

Direct imaging and characterization of propagating plasmons in high-quality graphene, encapsulated between two films of hexagonal boron nitride, has now been achieved together with the observation of very low plasmon damping.

Design rules for the synthesis of donor–acceptor systems with efficient intramolecular singlet fission are now proposed. These guidelines have been applied to both small molecules and polymeric chains.

The inclusion of long-range electrostatic effects in the modelling of donor–acceptor systems now leads to a more accurate estimation of the energy landscape and open-circuit voltage of organic solar cells.

Nanoscale resistance-switching cells that operate by means of electrochemical modification of metallic filaments are promising devices for post-CMOS electronics. Simulations of operating conductive cells are now used to describe electrochemical reactions.

Nanosized faujasite crystals are promising catalysts and adsorbents. The template-free synthesis of such zeolites with a narrow particle size distribution and excellent thermal stability that lead to superior catalytic performances is now reported.