Materials for devices articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soliton molecules have been observed only in the temporal dimension for classical wave optical systems. Here, the authors use scanning tunneling spectroscopy to identify a topological soliton molecule in real space in a quasi-1D charge-ordered phase of indium atomic wires.

    • Taehwan Im
    • , Sun Kyu Song
    •  & Han Woong Yeom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, authors report a transparent dynamic infrared emissivity modulation mechanism based on reversible injection/extraction of electrons in aluminium-doped zinc oxide nanocrystals and demonstrate it for smart thermal management applications.

    • Yan Jia
    • , Dongqing Liu
    •  & Tianwen Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Negatively-charged boron vacancy centers in hBN have short coherence times, hindering their potential as quantum sensors. By employing dynamical decoupling, the authors achieve an ensemble coherence time approaching the fundamental relaxation limit, enabling sensitive detection of MHz range electromagnetic fields.

    • Roberto Rizzato
    • , Martin Schalk
    •  & Dominik B. Bucher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-driven actuators have great potential in different types of applications but is still challenging to apply them in flying devices owing to their slow response, small deflection and force output. Here, the authors report a rotary flying photoactuator with fast rotation and rapid response.

    • Dan Wang
    • , Zhaomin Chen
    •  & Metin Sitti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Real-time monitoring of coatings erosive wear is critical to mitigate safety and financial concerns in many applications. Here, authors show a non-destructive inspection system with AI-enabled microwave resonators and a smart monitoring circuitry to identify and estimate wear depth and rate of eroded layers.

    • Vishal Balasubramanian
    • , Omid Niksan
    •  & Mohammad H. Zarifi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferromagnetic insulators offer low magnetic damping, and potentially efficient magnetic switching, making them ideal candidates for spin-based information processing. Here, Zheng et al introduce a ferromagnetic insulator spinel, Li0.5Al1.0Fe1.5O4, with low magnetic damping, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and no magnetic dead layer.

    • Xin Yu Zheng
    • , Sanyum Channa
    •  & Yuri Suzuki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several recent works have demonstrated current based control of antiferromagnetic order, with the potential that such switching could be used for information processing and storage. Here, Haley et al demonstrate that in FexNbS2, this switching is non-local, with magnetic order changing due to an applied current at distances much larger than the spin diffusion length in the material.

    • Shannon C. Haley
    • , Eran Maniv
    •  & James G. Analytis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-fullerene-based organic solar cells generally suffer from poor thermal stability and especially in case of devices with thick active layers. Here, the authors report hexanary blends based on multi-component acceptor mixtures with a device efficiency of 17.6% and thermally stability for 23 days at 130 °C.

    • Sri Harish Kumar Paleti
    • , Sandra Hultmark
    •  & Derya Baran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The utility of microfluidic devices has been limited by several drawbacks including low resolution, inferior feature fidelity, poor repeatability. Here the authors address these challenges by developing a strategic approach of image guided in-situ maskless lithography to fabricate a variety of microfluidic devices and resolve critical proximity effect and size limitations in rapid prototyping.

    • Ratul Paul
    • , Yuwen Zhao
    •  & Yaling Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Avalanche and surge robustness are fundamental for power devices to survive overvoltage and overcurrent stresses in typical applications. Here, authors report NiO/Ga2O3 heterojunctions with smaller reverse recovery, higher switching speed, and a robustness competitive to that of conventional homojunctions.

    • Feng Zhou
    • , Hehe Gong
    •  & Jiandong Ye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline high-κ dielectric materials are desired for the development of future 2D electronic devices. Here, the authors report the in-plane and out-of-plane chemical vapor deposition growth of ultrathin Bi2SiO5 crystals with dielectric constant >30 and a band gap of ~3.8 eV, showing their effective application as gate dielectric layers of MoS2 transistors.

    • Jiabiao Chen
    • , Zhaochao Liu
    •  & Jinxiong Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Actuators provide robot locomotion and manipulation, but most are limited by their number of motion types and coupled motions. Here, Zhang et. al. present an origami actuation module based on a modified Kresling pattern with pneumatically-driven pouches, thus enabling seven motion modes in one module.

    • Chao Zhang
    • , Zhuang Zhang
    •  & Hanqing Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Implanted bioelectronic devices have proven useful for health sensing and therapy, while the interconnection of distributed implants remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate direct implant-to-implant wireless networking at the scale of the human body using metamaterial textiles.

    • Xi Tian
    • , Qihang Zeng
    •  & John S. Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report a hydrostatic-pressure-driven anomalous enhancement of the spontaneous polarization of CuInP2S6 at room temperature, in contrast to the standard pressure-induced suppression of ferroelectricity. The polarization enhancement stems from the spatial instability of the Cu cations and increase of Cu occupancy at the interlayer site.

    • Xiaodong Yao
    • , Yinxin Bai
    •  & Jinlong Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the ketoenamine-enolimine tautomerism and correlating their structure to photoelectronic properties remains challenging in organic solids. Here, the authors show tautomerization in a crystalline dynamic 3D covalent organic framework (dynaCOF) through host-guest interactions leading to reversible framework deformation accompanied by chromic effects which can be used in chemosensing.

    • Yangyang Xu
    • , Tu Sun
    •  & Yue-Biao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanical and electrical properties of liquid-metal particle fibers are limited by incompatible coating techniques. Here, Lee et. al. present a solution shearing-based deposition technique for high performance bi-layer stretchable fibers, showcasing applications in smart clothing and 1D bioelectronics.

    • Gun-Hee Lee
    • , Do Hoon Lee
    •  & Steve Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unwanted vapor backflow and chaotic two-phase flow patterns can hinder thermal transport performance in their respective systems. Here, the authors revisit the classic Tesla valve design and demonstrate a Tesla valve-based thermal regulator with capillary structures that can suppress vapor backflow and achieve directional two-phase flow.

    • Wenming Li
    • , Siyan Yang
    •  & Zuankai Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin-orbit torques, arising in systems with strong spin-orbit interactions, have been a major avenue of research for the potential electric control of magnetization. Recently, unconventional spin-orbit torques, with spin polarizations aligned in atypical ways have garnered interest due to the numerous advantages offered compared to their conventional counterparts. Here, Xue et al investigate ‘type-x’ spin-orbit torque switching, demonstrating both unique spin polarizations, and field-free magnetization switching in Platinum/Cobalt multilayers.

    • Fen Xue
    • , Shy-Jay Lin
    •  & Shan X. Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing efficient multistate resistive switching devices is promising for neuromorphic computing. Here, the authors demonstrate a reversible hydrogenation in WO3 thin films at room temperature with an electrically-biased scanning probe. The associated insulator to metal transition offers the opportunity to precisely control multistate conductivity at nanoscale.

    • Fan Zhang
    • , Yang Zhang
    •  & Pu Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Due to the inherent disorder and fluidity of water, machining of water through laser cutting is challenging. Here, authors report a strategy through laser cutting to realize the machining of nanoparticle encased water pancakes with the depth of water at sub-millimeter level.”

    • Jicheng Niu
    • , Wenjing Liu
    •  & Fei Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene has many intriguing electronic properties. One of note is the absence of backscattering of electrons confined to a single valley. Spin-orbit interactions can allow backscattering, and here, Sun et al. use this spin-orbit coupling dependence of backscattering to measure the strength of the spin-orbit interaction in a graphene/tungsten selenide heterostructure.

    • Lihuan Sun
    • , Louk Rademaker
    •  & Christoph Renner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The success of surgical kidney stone removal is limited by the ability to efficiently retrieve stone fragments, resulting in incomplete stone clearance and subsequent morbidity. Here, the authors show the efficacy and biocompatibility of a magnetic hydrogel that selectively coats human kidney stone fragments in vitro allowing their total extraction using a magnetic wire.

    • T. Jessie Ge
    • , Daniel Massana Roquero
    •  & Joseph C. Liao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trainable responsive materials have received research interests for future adaptive and intelligent material systems but to date trainable responsive materials only allow one direction of functionality change. Here, the authors demonstrate thermally trainable hydrogel systems consisting of two thermoresponsive polymers, where the volumetric response of the system upon phase transitions enhances or decreases through a training process above a certain threshold temperature.

    • Shanming Hu
    • , Yuhuang Fang
    •  & Hang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of 2D MoS2 flexible integrated circuits (ICs) is currently limited by the material quality over large areas and the device fabrication technology. Here the authors report a gate-first fabrication technique to realize wafer-scale monolayer MoS2 ICs on rigid and flexible substrates with high performance and low power consumption.

    • Jian Tang
    • , Qinqin Wang
    •  & Guangyu Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marangoni swimmers have high relative speed, considering the body length and absence of a mechanical system but the fabricating is complex. Song et al. transform simple pen strokes into dynamic, programmable robots that can ‘swim’ with striking versatility.

    • Seo Woo Song
    • , Sumin Lee
    •  & Jiyun Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While reservoir computing can process temporal information efficiently, its hardware implementation remains a challenge due to the lack of robust and energy efficient hardware. Here, the authors develop an all-ferroelectric reservoir computing system, showing high accuracies and low power consumptions in various tasks like the time-series prediction.

    • Zhiwei Chen
    • , Wenjie Li
    •  & Jun-Ming Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Isotropization temperature determines the temperature at which Liquid Crystals Elastomer (LCE) material actuates. Here, the authors give a general strategy based on dynamic covalent bonds for tuning the isotropization temperature for LCEs.

    • Yanjin Yao
    • , Enjian He
    •  & Yan Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of multivariate gas sensors is limited due to their size and cost. Here the authors developed a compact gas sensor with multiple chemiresistive and potentiometric readouts enabling 3D discriminative response of gases at (sub)ppm levels and used the sensor for early fire detection.

    • Hong Zhang
    • , Zuobin Zhang
    •  & Jianxin Yi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Future intelligent vision systems need efficient capacitor-free spiking photoreceptor for color perception. Here, Wang et al. report a metal oxide-based vertically integrated spiking cone photoreceptor array which transduces light into spike trains with a power consumption of less than 400 picowatts.

    • Xiangjing Wang
    • , Chunsheng Chen
    •  & Qing Wan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energy harvesting by utilizing optical control has emerged as a promising solution to alleviate energy and environmental crisis. However, it is challenging to realise nano-scale energy storage and conversion in the same material. Here the authors report a nonferroelectric molecular [CoGa] crystal that uses light as an external stimulus to exhibit photoenergy conversion and energy storage properties.

    • Pritam Sadhukhan
    • , Shu-Qi Wu
    •  & Osamu Sato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing efficient selector devices remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose a CuAg alloy-based selector with excellent ON/OFF ratio and thermal stability. It can effectively suppress the sneak-path current in 1S1R arrays, making it suitable for storage class memory and neuromorphic computing applications.

    • Xi Zhou
    • , Liang Zhao
    •  & Dongdong Li

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