Volume 10 Issue 3, March 2015

Solid-state memory devices with all-electrical read and write operations might lead to faster, cheaper information storage.

New non-volatile memory devices store information using different physical mechanisms from those employed in today's memories and could achieve substantial improvements in computing performance and energy efficiency.

Racetrack memory stores digital data in the magnetic domain walls of nanowires. This technology promises to yield information storage devices with high reliability, performance and capacity.

Emerging technologies need to be developed responsibly if their benefits are to outweigh any potential risks. Yet do entrepreneurs really have the luxury of grappling with future consequences from the get-go, asks Andrew D. Maynard.

Artificially synthesized silicene — an atomically thin layer of silicon — is set to rival natural layered materials in the development of field-effect transistors.

Full-colour displays with high spatial resolution can be produced with properly designed upconversion nanocrystals that emit light at different wavelengths, depending on the properties of the excitation pulses.

Molecular dipoles can self-assemble in a head-to-tail fashion inside single-walled carbon nanotubes to form a material with a large second-order nonlinear optical response.

The radiative heat exchange on the nanoscale can be tuned using polar dielectric nanostructures.

This Review discusses recent advances towards electric-field control of magnetism in ferromagnetic semiconductors and metals, and in multiferroics.

Racetrack memories made from synthetic antiferromagnetic structures with almost zero net magnetization allow for fast current-driven motion of domain walls.

A process for the growth, transfer and fabrication of silicene field-effect transistors enables devices that have mobility of about 100 cm² V⁻¹ s^–1.

A hard superconducting gap can be induced in the semiconductor InAs by proximity with aluminium, paving the way for a range of fundamental studies in mesoscopic superconductivity.

The emission wavelength of upconversion nanocrystals can be tuned by varying the shape and intensity of the excitation pulses.

A microwave signal can be used to control semiconductor charge qubits with high fidelity.

Asymmetric dye molecules encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes align in a head-to-tail fashion to obtain a large cooperative nonlinear optical response.

Near-field radiative heat transfer between two surfaces is enhanced when the cold surface is coated with a thin polar dielectric film and the gap between the two surfaces is comparable to or smaller than the film thickness.

Magnetic-field-sensitive negative differential resistance gives rise to tunable magnetoresistance in asymmetric single-molecule junctions.

An atomic force microscope can be used to image and three-dimensionally reconstruct chemical groups inside a protein complex with the help of single-stranded DNA molecules that act as imaging labels.

The high charge doping achieved in ionic field-effect transistors by lithium intercalation allows gate-controlled phase transitions in thin flakes of 1T-TaS₂.

Freeze-casting cellulose nanofibres, graphene oxide and clay results in insulating and fire-resistant foams that could improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

When you have discovered something unusual, trust your instinct and pursue it with determination and enthusiasm, says Renren Deng.

Non-volatile memories that are faster, cheaper and less power-hungry than existing solutions might be built by using solid-state devices in which information is stored and read electrically rather than by magnetic fields. Spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) — the most advanced of these emerging technologies for solid-state non-volatile memory — is about to hit the market. This Nature Nanotechnology focus overviews the prospects and remaining challenges that STT-MRAM and competing emerging technologies face in terms of mass-market commercialization.Produced with support from Spin Transfer Technologies