Electronic devices articles within Nature Physics

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• Article
  17 January 2024 | Open Access

  Long-lived valley states in bilayer graphene quantum dots

  Using the valley degree of freedom in analogy to spin to encode qubits could be advantageous as many of the known decoherence mechanisms do not apply. Now long relaxation times are demonstrated for valley qubits in bilayer graphene quantum dots.

  • Rebekka Garreis
  • , Chuyao Tong
  •  & Wei Wister Huang

• Article
  09 November 2023 | Open Access

  Coupling to octahedral tilts in halide perovskite nanocrystals induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitons

  Time-resolved measurements show that coupling between electrons and phonons in lead halide perovskites can mediate attractive interactions between excitons, although the interaction strength depends on the specific material.

  • Nuri Yazdani
  • , Maryna I. Bodnarchuk
  •  & Aaron M. Lindenberg

• News & Views | 31 October 2023

  Phonon slowdown

  A detailed understanding of phonon transport is crucial for engineering the thermal properties of materials. A particular doping strategy is now shown to lead to good thermoelectric performance with low thermal conductivity.

  • Zhilun Lu

• Article | 30 January 2023

  Quantum simulation of an exotic quantum critical point in a two-site charge Kondo circuit

  The quantum critical behaviour of a two-impurity Kondo model variant is observed in a system of hybrid-semiconductor islands that could provide a scalable platform for solid-state quantum simulation

  • Winston Pouse
  • , Lucas Peeters
  •  & David Goldhaber-Gordon

• Article | 23 January 2023

  Visualization of bulk and edge photocurrent flow in anisotropic Weyl semimetals

  Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of photocurrent generation is important for photodetector design. Now, the anisotropy of the thermal properties of Weyl semimetals is shown to generate circulating photocurrents.

  • Yu-Xuan Wang
  • , Xin-Yue Zhang
  •  & Brian B. Zhou

• Letter | 09 January 2023

  Direct determination of the topological thermal conductance via local power measurement

  Careful thermal transport measurements identify the topological nature of transverse thermal conductance in the fractional quantum Hall regime.

  • Ron Aharon Melcer
  • , Sofia Konyzheva
  •  & Vladimir Umansky

• Article
  22 December 2022 | Open Access

  Ultrafast X-ray imaging of the light-induced phase transition in VO₂

  The intermediate states in photo-excited phase transitions are expected to be inhomogeneous. However, ultrafast X-ray imaging shows the early part of the metal–insulator transition in VO₂ is homogeneous but then becomes heterogeneous.

  • Allan S. Johnson
  • , Daniel Perez-Salinas
  •  & Simon E. Wall

• News & Views | 08 September 2022

  Qubit readout in miniature

  • Richard Brierley

• Article | 18 August 2022

  Piezomagnetic switching of the anomalous Hall effect in an antiferromagnet at room temperature

  Control of magnetization is important for applications in spintronics. Now, the piezomagnetic effect allows strain to control the anomalous Hall effect in a metal at room temperature by rotating its antiferromagnetic order.

  • M. Ikhlas
  • , S. Dasgupta
  •  & S. Nakatsuji

• Article
  23 December 2021 | Open Access

  Evidence for equilibrium exciton condensation in monolayer WTe₂

  Exciton condensation has been observed in various three-dimensional (3D) materials. Now, monolayer WTe₂—a 2D topological insulator—also shows the phenomenon. Strong electronic interactions allow the excitons to form and condense at high temperature.

  • Bosong Sun
  • , Wenjin Zhao
  •  & David H. Cobden

• Article | 15 July 2021

  Detecting photoelectrons from spontaneously formed excitons

  Excitons have been predicted to form spontaneously—without external excitation—in some materials. Low-temperature ARPES measurements on Ta₂NiSe₅ now provide evidence for such an excitonic insulator and for so-called preformed excitons.

  • Keisuke Fukutani
  • , Roland Stania
  •  & Han Woong Yeom

• Letter | 15 April 2021

  One-dimensional Kronig–Penney superlattices at the LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface

  The two-dimensional electron gas at an oxide interface is patterned to form a channel with a periodic potential imposed on top. This replicates the textbook Kronig–Penney model and leads to fractionalization of electron bands in the channel.

  • Megan Briggeman
  • , Hyungwoo Lee
  •  & Jeremy Levy

• Letter | 02 December 2019

  Long-range ballistic propagation of carriers in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite thin films

  Charge-carrier dynamics are fundamental to the operation and performance of semiconductor devices. In methylammonium lead iodide perovskites, carriers in the non-equilibrium regime after excitation propagate ballistically over 150 nm within 20 fs.

  • Jooyoung Sung
  • , Christoph Schnedermann
  •  & Akshay Rao

• Letter | 26 August 2019

  Giant gate-controlled proximity magnetoresistance in semiconductor-based ferromagnetic–non-magnetic bilayers

  The authors demonstrate magnetoresistance of 80% from a two-dimensional electron gas proximity coupled to a ferromagnetic layer. This extends spintronics functionality to semiconductor devices.

  • Kosuke Takiguchi
  • , Le Duc Anh
  •  & Masaaki Tanaka

• News & Views | 12 November 2018

  Quantum fractals

  Electrons with fractional dimension have been observed in an artificial Sierpiński triangle, demonstrating their quantum fractal nature.

  • Dario Bercioux
  •  & Ainhoa Iñiguez

• Letter | 15 October 2018

  Excess resistivity in graphene superlattices caused by umklapp electron–electron scattering

  An increase in electrical resistance caused by the fundamental process of electrons scattering off of each other (umklapp scattering) is observed in graphene superlattice devices. This will limit the electrical properties of such devices.

  • J. R. Wallbank
  • , R. Krishna Kumar
  •  & V. I. Fal’ko

• Letter | 20 August 2018

  Direct entropy measurement in a mesoscopic quantum system

  The entropy of a few-electron quantum system is measured for the first time by tracking the movement of charge in and out of the system. This could allow the unambiguous detection of Majorana fermions in solid state devices.

  • Nikolaus Hartman
  • , Christian Olsen
  •  & Joshua Folk

• Letter | 30 July 2018

  Giant anomalous Nernst effect and quantum-critical scaling in a ferromagnetic semimetal

  A magnetic field and temperature gradient produce a large electric potential in a ferromagnet, indicating the possible presence of Weyl points. The specific structure of Weyl points gives the electrons quantum-critical properties.

  • Akito Sakai
  • , Yo Pierre Mizuta
  •  & Satoru Nakatsuji

• Perspective | 06 April 2018

  Beyond CMOS computing with spin and polarization

  • Sasikanth Manipatruni
  • , Dmitri E. Nikonov
  •  & Ian A. Young

• Review Article | 02 March 2018

  Antiferromagnetic opto-spintronics

  An overview of how electromagnetic radiation can be used for probing and modification of the magnetic order in antiferromagnets, and possible future research directions.

  • P. Němec
  • , M. Fiebig
  •  & A. V. Kimel

• Article | 04 December 2017

  Strongly anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene–transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures at room temperature

  Large spin–orbit coupling can be induced when graphene interfaces with semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, leading to strongly anisotropic spin dynamics. As a result, orientation-dependent spin relaxation is observed.

  • L. Antonio Benítez
  • , Juan F. Sierra
  •  & Sergio O. Valenzuela

• News & Views | 01 October 2017

  Window of opportunity

  A crystalline organic semiconductor that combines the long spin-relaxation times of organic semiconductors with the high charge-carrier mobilities typically found in inorganic semiconductors provides unprecedented prospects for organic spintronics.

  • Christoph Boehme

• Review Article | 25 September 2017

  Emergent functions of quantum materials

  Topology and collective phenomena give quantum materials emergent functions that provide a platform for developing next-generation quantum technologies, as surveyed in this Review.

  • Yoshinori Tokura
  • , Masashi Kawasaki
  •  & Naoto Nagaosa

• Article | 31 July 2017

  Coexistence of ultra-long spin relaxation time and coherent charge transport in organic single-crystal semiconductors

  A linear relationship between spin and momentum relaxation shows that the spin relaxation in an organic semiconductor crystal that has ultra-long spin lifetimes and coherent band-like transport is governed by the Elliott–Yafet mechanism.

  • Junto Tsurumi
  • , Hiroyuki Matsui
  •  & Jun Takeya

• Letter | 20 March 2017

  Signatures of interaction-induced helical gaps in nanowire quantum point contacts

  Signatures of spin–momentum-locked gap states in nanowire quantum point contacts that have all-electrical origin could provide the conditions for the quasiparticle excitations required for topological quantum computing.

  • S. Heedt
  • , N. Traverso Ziani
  •  & Th. Schäpers

• Letter | 27 February 2017

  Signatures of two-photon pulses from a quantum two-level system

  An excited two-level system emits a single photon, but in special circumstances it can emit two. The reason for this unexpected two-photon emission lies with modified Rabi oscillations.

  • Kevin A. Fischer
  • , Lukas Hanschke
  •  & Kai Müller

• News & Views | 19 October 2015

  The anharmonicity blacksmith

  Anharmonicity is a property of lattice vibrations governing how they interact and how well they conduct heat. Experiments on tin selenide, the most efficient thermoelectric material known, now provide a link between anharmonicity and electronic orbitals.

  • Joseph P. Heremans

• Article | 19 October 2015

  Orbitally driven giant phonon anharmonicity in SnSe

  Tin selenide is at present the best thermoelectric conversion material. Neutron scattering results and ab initio simulations show that the large phonon scattering is due to the development of a lattice instability driven by orbital interactions.

  • C. W. Li
  • , J. Hong
  •  & O. Delaire

• Letter | 16 March 2015

  Orbital textures and charge density waves in transition metal dichalcogenides

  A theoretical and experimental study reveals the relation between charge density waves and orbital textures for different stackings in a two-dimensional layered material.

  • T. Ritschel
  • , J. Trinckauf
  •  & J. Geck

• News & Views | 10 November 2014

  Power inequality

  Non-reciprocal components are useful in microwave engineering and photonics, but they are not without their drawbacks. A compact design now provides non-reciprocity without resorting to magnets or nonlinearity.

  • Ari Sihvola

• Letter | 10 November 2014

  Magnetic-free non-reciprocity and isolation based on parametrically modulated coupled-resonator loops

  Communication systems require non-reciprocal electromagnetic propagation, which is difficult to realize in circuits. An alternative is demonstrated by modulating the phase of strongly coupled resonators in a circular configuration.

  • Nicholas A. Estep
  • , Dimitrios L. Sounas
  •  & Andrea Alù

• Research Highlights | 31 October 2014

  Hot and bothered

  • Luke Fleet

• Article | 19 October 2014

  Exotic circuit elements from zero-modes in hybrid superconductor–quantum-Hall systems

  A superconductor placed near a quantum Hall edge can show emergent excitations with a range of exotic features. For instance, such heterostructures are predicted to exhibit non-local signatures that are direct extensions of ‘Andreev reflection’.

  • David J. Clarke
  • , Jason Alicea
  •  & Kirill Shtengel

• News & Views | 22 September 2013

  Orbital control

  On cooling, transition metal oxides often undergo a phase change from an electrically conducting to an insulating state. Now it is shown that the metal–insulator transition temperature of vanadium dioxide thin films can be controlled by applying strain.

  • Takashi Mizokawa