Nanoscale materials articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Letter |

    In metals, the Coulomb potential of charged impurities is strongly screened, but in graphene, the potential charge of a few-atom cluster of cobalt can extend up to 10 nm. By measuring differences in the way electron-like and hole-like Dirac fermions are scattered from this potential, the intrinsic dielectric constant of graphene can be determined.

    • Yang Wang
    • , Victor W. Brar
    •  & Michael F. Crommie

  • News & Views |

    Single electrons in quantum dots can be disturbed by the apparatus used to measure them. The disturbance can be mediated by incoherent phonons — literally, noise. Engineering acoustic interference could negate these deleterious effects and bring quantum dots closer to becoming a robust quantum technology.

    • Thaddeus D. Ladd

  • Article |

    A demonstration of the ability to transmit spin currents over distances of more than one hundred micrometres with an efficiency of up to 75% in graphene grown epitaxially on silicon carbide improves the prospects of graphene-based spintronic devices.

    • Bruno Dlubak
    • , Marie-Blandine Martin
    •  & Albert Fert

  • Letter |

    You influence a system by measuring it. This back-action is an important consideration when studying tiny structures in which quantum effects play a crucial role. Researchers now show that quantum interference could provide a way to negate back-action in quantum-dot-qubit circuits.

    • G. Granger
    • , D. Taubert
    •  & A. S. Sachrajda

  • Article |

    The extra states sometimes observed in graphene’s quantum Hall characteristics have been presumed to be the result of broken SU(4) symmetry. Magnetotransport measurements of high-quality graphene in a tilted magnetic field finally prove this is indeed the case.

    • A. F. Young
    • , C. R. Dean
    •  & P. Kim

  • Article |

    Small clusters of magnetic atoms can behave in very different ways to those same atoms in bulk. Arranging iron atoms one by one into complex but well-defined patterns on a copper surface enables the construction of nanoscale magnetic structures with tailored characteristics.

    • Alexander Ako Khajetoorians
    • , Jens Wiebe
    •  & Roland Wiesendanger

  • Letter |

    It is well known that graphene deposited on hexagonal boron nitride produces moiré patterns in scanning tunnelling microscopy images. The interaction that produces this pattern also produces a commensurate periodic potential that generates a set of Dirac points that are different from those of the graphene lattice itself.

    • Matthew Yankowitz
    • , Jiamin Xue
    •  & Brian J. LeRoy

  • News & Views |

    Graphene exhibits many extraordinary properties, but superconductivity isn't one of them. Two theoretical studies suggest that by decorating the surface of graphene with the right species of dopant atoms, or by using ionic liquid gating, superconductivity could yet be induced.

    • Oskar Vafek

  • Letter |

    Graphene exhibits many extraordinary properties. But, despite many attempts to find ways to induce it, superconductivity is not one of them. First-principles calculations suggest that by decorating the surface of graphene with lithium atoms, it could yet be made to superconduct.

    • Gianni Profeta
    • , Matteo Calandra
    •  & Francesco Mauri

  • Letter |

    The presence, or otherwise, of magnetism in graphene has been the subject of much debate. A systematic study of point defects—a widely suggested source of ferromagnetism in graphene—suggests that although they can exhibit net spin, they remain paramagnetic, even at liquid helium temperature.

    • R. R. Nair
    • , M. Sepioni
    •  & I. V. Grigorieva

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Nanoscale materials across other nature.com journals