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Featured
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Review Article |
Exceptional points and non-Hermitian photonics at the nanoscale
This Review discusses the latest theoretical progress related to exceptional points in non-Hermitian physics and the associated implications for emerging technologies in nanophotonics.
- Aodong Li
- , Heng Wei
- & Lin Chen
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Article |
Highly stable and pure single-photon emission with 250 ps optical coherence times in InP colloidal quantum dots
Colloidal quantum dots are a potential source of scalable single-photon emitters, but they typically exhibit broad emission linewidths. Proppe et al. show narrow-linewidth emission from heavy-metal-free InP/ZnSe/ZnS dots with coherence times of up to 250 ps.
- Andrew H. Proppe
- , David B. Berkinsky
- & Moungi G. Bawendi
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Article |
Efficient solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into separable cyclic hydrocarbons
Ru nanoparticles on HZSM-5 catalysed solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into a separable distribution of linear (C1 to C6) and cyclic (C7 to C15) hydrocarbons.
- Junjie Du
- , Lin Zeng
- & Jie Zeng
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News & Views |
Quantum friction with water effectively cools graphene electrons
Coupling between electrons and water hydrons at the graphene–water interface provides a new way to cool heat in graphene.
- Sarah B. King
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Article |
Fluorescence-amplified nanocrystals in the second near-infrared window for in vivo real-time dynamic multiplexed imaging
Lanthanide downshifting nanoparticles with tunable emissions in the NIR-IIb sub-window (1,500–1,700 nm) region are ideal for deep-tissue imaging. Biofunctionalized core–shell, cubic-phase thulium-based nanoprobes show the non-invasive imaging of murine cerebral vasculature and the tracking of single immune cells and their extravasation in an inflammatory microenvironment.
- Yiwei Yang
- , Ying Chen
- & Fan Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessElectron cooling in graphene enhanced by plasmon–hydron resonance
Ultrafast spectroscopy experiments demonstrate that graphene electrons can transfer energy directly to liquid water with no mediation from the crystal lattice as their collective plasmon oscillation excites water’s molecular charge fluctuations.
- Xiaoqing Yu
- , Alessandro Principi
- & Nikita Kavokine
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News & Views |
Voltage enables ferro-rotational domain switching
In a simple two-probe device made of van der Waals dichalcogenide nano-flakes, two pathways are found to switch ferro-rotational domain states by application of a volt-scale voltage.
- Wencan Jin
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Article |
Spatially multiplexed single-molecule translocations through a nanopore at controlled speeds
In single-molecule characterization, the near-infinite re-read capability on the same region of interest has the potential to unlock greater sensing capacity. A nanopore-based method, named scanning ion conductance spectroscopy, provides complete control over the translocation speed and nanopore position along a selected region and can detect a single 3 Å gap in a long strand of DNA.
- S. M. Leitao
- , V. Navikas
- & A. Radenovic
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Article |
Berry curvature dipole generation and helicity-to-spin conversion at symmetry-mismatched heterointerfaces
The authors generate the Berry curvature dipole and valley-coupled spin photocurrent via interfacial symmetry engineering at the WSe2/SiP heterostructure, and can electrically tune such nonlinear optoelectronic phenomena via the gate bias.
- Siyu Duan
- , Feng Qin
- & Hongtao Yuan
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Review Article |
Layered materials as a platform for quantum technologies
This Review highlights the role of transition metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride and stacked heterostructures in applications in quantum communication, computation, sensing and single-photon detection.
- Alejandro R.-P. Montblanch
- , Matteo Barbone
- & Andrea C. Ferrari
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Article |
Pressure tuning of minibands in MoS2/WSe2 heterostructures revealed by moiré phonons
Hydrostatic pressure is an underexplored tuning knob to study moiré systems. Here a MoS2/WSe2 heterostructure is compressed and the enhancement in the moiré potential strength is quantified via moiré-activated Raman modes.
- Luiz G. Pimenta Martins
- , David A. Ruiz-Tijerina
- & Riccardo Comin
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Article |
Environmentally stable and stretchable polymer electronics enabled by surface-tethered nanostructured molecular-level protection
A surface functionalization approach allows for preparing a nanostructured molecular protection layer, enabling stretchable polymer electronics that stably operate in physiological environments over 80 days.
- Yu Zheng
- , Lukas Michalek
- & Zhenan Bao
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News & Views |
Carbon nanotubes activate inflammatory signalling through binding to Siglec-14
Discovery of a novel axis through which multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) elicit toxicity in human macrophages, involving the propagation of inflammatory signalling via the Siglec-14-DAP12-Syk pathway, and how it may be controlled pharmacologically.
- Michelle K. Greene
- & Christopher J. Scott
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Article |
A universal reagent for detection of emerging diseases using bioengineered multifunctional yeast nanofragments
Yeast cells are engineered to prepare multifunctional synthetic biofragments as nanoprobes, which allow multivalent interactions and optimal molecular orientation on material surfaces for the detection of emerging biomarkers in a range of sensor platforms.
- Junrong Li
- , Christopher B. Howard
- & Matt Trau
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Research Briefing |
Nanoplasmonic acceleration of nucleic acid amplification for pathogen detection
An automated system that couples microfluidics with plasmonic hot electron injection to accelerate colorimetric detection of DNA and RNA amplification is shown to achieve 95% detection accuracy in human saliva samples. This technique uses different amplification assays for pathogen identification and can differentiate between viral variants and subtypes.
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Article
| Open AccessAn all-in-one nanoprinting approach for the synthesis of a nanofilm library for unclonable anti-counterfeiting applications
A laser printing approach generates physical unclonable fluorescent patterns, made from simple sugar. These environmentally friendly and ultraviolet-stable materials can be applied as anti-counterfeiting labels.
- Junfang Zhang
- , Yuxin Liu
- & Felix F. Loeffler
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Article |
Coherent magnon-induced domain-wall motion in a magnetic insulator channel
Spin waves are excited in a thin film of bismuth-doped yttrium iron garnet using radio-frequency pulses and interact with magnetic domain walls. Pulses as short as 1 ns translate a domain wall over 15 µm distances, offering control over domain-wall dynamics.
- Yabin Fan
- , Miela J. Gross
- & Caroline A. Ross
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Nanoplasmonic amplification in microfluidics enables accelerated colorimetric quantification of nucleic acid biomarkers from pathogens
Autonomous microfluidics with plasmonic hot electron injection accelerates colorimetric DNA/RNA amplification detection and rapid diagnosis of pathogens in patient samples on par with polymerase chain reaction.
- Tamer AbdElFatah
- , Mahsa Jalali
- & Sara Mahshid
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Article |
Tunable phononic coupling in excitonic quantum emitters
Quantum emitters with strong and tunable coupling to breathing-mode phonons are observed in bilayer WSe2. The emission of each single photon heralds the creation of a phonon Fock state in the atomic-scale excitonic–optomechanical system.
- Adina Ripin
- , Ruoming Peng
- & Mo Li
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Comment |
Nanotechnology for coral reef conservation, restoration and rehabilitation
The mounting environmental pressure on coral reefs calls for a rapid push towards innovative actions. Nanotechnology could help understand and protect present-day reefs to ensure their survival.
- Liza Roger
- , Nastassja Lewinski
- & Daniel Wangpraseurt
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Article |
Ferromagnetic single-atom spin catalyst for boosting water splitting
A versatile hydrothermal approach in an operando acidic environment created ferromagnetic single-atom spin catalysts (SASCs). Ni-based SASC exhibits a giant magnetic field enhancement of OER activity, boosting both water and saline water electrolysis.
- Tao Sun
- , Zhiyuan Tang
- & Jiong Lu
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Article |
Scalable CMOS back-end-of-line-compatible AlScN/two-dimensional channel ferroelectric field-effect transistors
A large array of ferroelectric field-effect transistors with record memory windows, ON/OFF ratios and ON-current density is presented at ~80 nm channel length.
- Kwan-Ho Kim
- , Seyong Oh
- & Deep Jariwala
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Article |
Engineering metal oxidation using epitaxial strain
A quest to resolve ultra-high vacuum synthesis of high-quality, single-crystalline metal oxide thin films containing hard-to-oxidize metals reveals a hidden role of epitaxial strain on the metal oxidation chemistry and resulting thin-film growth.
- Sreejith Nair
- , Zhifei Yang
- & Bharat Jalan
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Article |
Cell spheroid creation by transcytotic intercellular gelation
Creation of cell spheroids by using triggered d-peptide self-assembly is reported. Peptides are dephosphorylated by transcytosis in cells and intercellularly assembled to facilitate fibronectin fibrillogenesis and subsequent spheroid formation.
- Jiaqi Guo
- , Fengbin Wang
- & Bing Xu
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News & Views |
Measurement of scale-dependent time-reversal asymmetry in biological systems
The level of non-equilibrium activity of the cytoskeleton network at different time and length scales can be quantified by observing the bending dynamics of embedded nanotube probes.
- Sarah A. M. Loos
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News & Views |
Getting to the bottom of transition metal dissolution
Multidimensional synchrotron in operando studies of the electrode–electrolyte interface disclose the manganese dissolution and redeposition dynamics on the electrodes upon cycling.
- Seongkoo Kang
- , Seonyong Cho
- & Yong-Mook Kang
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Article |
Non-invasive activation of intratumoural gene editing for improved adoptive T-cell therapy in solid tumours
Cancer resistance to apoptosis can hinder T-cell-based therapies. Here, the authors develop a temperature-sensitive system for the controlled delivery of a Cas9 gene-editing sequence targeting resistance mechanisms HSP70 and BAG3, which with a mild thermal effect increases T-cell delivery and therapeutic outcomes.
- Xiaohong Chen
- , Shuang Wang
- & Yuan Ping
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News & Views |
Interacting electrons collide at a beam splitter
High-energy electrons that collide at a beam splitter repel each other because of strong Coulomb interactions, which could be harnessed for quantum information processing.
- Fredrik Brange
- & Christian Flindt
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Article |
Coulomb-mediated antibunching of an electron pair surfing on sound
Collisions between two individual electrons in a quantum nanoelectronic circuit revealed a mutual interaction fully mediated by Coulomb repulsion—an essential building block for two-qubit logic implementations with flying electrons.
- Junliang Wang
- , Hermann Edlbauer
- & Christopher Bäuerle
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Article |
Electrical switching of ferro-rotational order in nanometre-thick 1T-TaS2 crystals
Domain wall formation and propagation using a small electric voltage are demonstrated in ferro-rotational 1T-TaS2, although the ferroic order does not couple with electromagnetic fields, providing an opportunity for the manipulation and application of ferro-rotational order.
- Gan Liu
- , Tianyu Qiu
- & Xiaoxiang Xi
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Article |
Two electrons interacting at a mesoscopic beam splitter
Coincidence correlations between ballistic on-demand electrons passing through a mesoscopic beam splitter are measured and modelled to reveal signatures of unscreened Coulomb interactions, establishing a platform for quantum nonlinearity.
- Niels Ubbelohde
- , Lars Freise
- & Vyacheslavs Kashcheyevs
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Article |
Time-resolved Coulomb collision of single electrons
Coulomb forces between ballistic electrons are detected and analysed using a mesoscopic electron collider in an unscreened regime. Controlling Coulomb interactions on picosecond time scales is key for quantum logic devices with flying electrons.
- J. D. Fletcher
- , W. Park
- & M. Kataoka
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Comment |
Nano-enabled strategies to enhance biological nitrogen fixation
Increasing the capacity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an effective strategy to enhance food security while simultaneously reducing the carbon and nitrogen footprint of agriculture. Nanotechnology offers several pathways to enhance BNF successfully.
- Mingshu Li
- , Li Gao
- & Peng Zhang
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News & Views |
Floating solar hydrogen production
Floatable hydrogel photocatalytic platform at the air–water interface features practical advantages for scale-up of solar H2 production with light delivery, supply of water, and instantaneous gas separation.
- Mingshan Zhu
- & Zhi Li
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Article
| Open AccessAntiferromagnetic half-skyrmions electrically generated and controlled at room temperature
The implementation of topological antiferromagnetic vortices in information storage devices requires an efficient method of nucleation and a way to control their movement. Here the authors find CuMnAs to be a suitable electrically conducting antiferromagnet host material for topological spin textures.
- O. J. Amin
- , S. F. Poole
- & P. Wadley
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Article |
Leaky-wave metasurfaces for integrated photonics
Based on symmetry-breaking perturbations, leaky-wave metasurfaces with pointwise control of the amplitude, phase and polarization of surface emission offer a universal generalization of grating couplers for integrated photonics.
- Heqing Huang
- , Adam C. Overvig
- & Nanfang Yu
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Article |
Inferring scale-dependent non-equilibrium activity using carbon nanotubes
Non-equilibrium mechanical activity in active matter is quantified across spatiotemporal scales through time-reversal-asymmetry measurements of conformational fluctuations of carbon nanotube probes.
- Alexandru Bacanu
- , James F. Pelletier
- & Nikta Fakhri
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Article
| Open AccessDNA storage in thermoresponsive microcapsules for repeated random multiplexed data access
Microcompartments with a temperature-responsive membrane are used to stably localize DNA-encoded files, which enables parallel, repeated polymerase-chain-reaction-based random access and DNA file sorting using fluorescent barcodes.
- Bas W. A. Bögels
- , Bichlien H. Nguyen
- & Tom F. A. de Greef
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Atomically thin optomemristive feedback neurons
Atomically thin heterostructures function as optomemristors, which are used for biomimetic neural algorithms for performing winner-take-all tasks, such as competitive and cooperative learning.
- Ghazi Sarwat Syed
- , Yingqiu Zhou
- & Harish Bhaskaran
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Hierarchical helical carbon nanotube fibre as a bone-integrating anterior cruciate ligament replacement
An artificial ligament replacement is made from aligned carbon nanotubes formed into hierarchical helical fibres with nanometre and micrometre channels which are demonstrated for the replacement of anterior cruciate ligaments in both rabbit and ovine models, showing strong integration and functional recovery.
- Liyuan Wang
- , Fang Wan
- & Huisheng Peng
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Research Briefing |
A floatable photocatalytic nanocomposite to facilitate scale-up of solar hydrogen production
A floatable photocatalytic platform made from a porous elastomer–hydrogel nanocomposite has been developed for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel. This platform enables efficient light delivery, a facile supply of reactant and rapid product separation to achieve high hydrogen-evolution rates. Large-scale and seawater experiments indicate the potential for scale-up and practical application.
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News & Views |
Low-temperature MoS2 growth on CMOS wafers
Growth of molybdenum disulfide at 275 °C and monolithic integration of 2D transistors with silicon complementary metal oxide semiconductor circuits have been demonstrated.
- Max C. Lemme
- & Alwin Daus
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Review Article |
Wurtzite and fluorite ferroelectric materials for electronic memory
This Review presents the most recent ferroelectric materials with wurtzite structure and emphasizes applications in memory and storage-based microelectronic hardware.
- Kwan-Ho Kim
- , Ilya Karpov
- & Deep Jariwala
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Article |
Floatable photocatalytic hydrogel nanocomposites for large-scale solar hydrogen production
Floatable hydrogel nanocomposites, with facile intercalation of various photocatalysts, effectively produce hydrogen. The easily scalable nature of the nanocomposites demonstrates the practical application of this new type of photocatalytic platform.
- Wang Hee Lee
- , Chan Woo Lee
- & Taeghwan Hyeon
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Article |
Low-thermal-budget synthesis of monolayer molybdenum disulfide for silicon back-end-of-line integration on a 200 mm platform
Monolayer MoS2 is grown at the back end of the line of 200 mm silicon CMOS wafers at a temperature of <300 °C, and hybrid silicon CMOS/MoS2 circuits are demonstrated through heterogeneous integration.
- Jiadi Zhu
- , Ji-Hoon Park
- & Tomás Palacios
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Article |
Spin-dependent properties of optical modes guided by adiabatic trapping potentials in photonic Dirac metasurfaces
Photonic Dirac metasurfaces with smooth trapping potentials guide optical modes endowed with pseudo-spin. Such potentials give rise to different radiative properties of modes of opposite pseudo-spin.
- Svetlana Kiriushechkina
- , Anton Vakulenko
- & Alexander B. Khanikaev
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Article |
Switchable moiré potentials in ferroelectric WTe2/WSe2 superlattices
Intrinsic ferroelectricity in bilayer WTe2 can be used for electrical switching of the centred-rectangular moiré potential in WTe2/WSe2 heterostructures.
- Kaifei Kang
- , Wenjin Zhao
- & Kin Fai Mak
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Article |
Hierarchically resistive skins as specific and multimetric on-throat wearable biosensors
Wearable resistive sensors for biometrics and machine interfacing are often non-specific. Here the authors report on the creation of hierarchically resistive skins for monitoring physical or physiological activities around the throat which, with the use of neural networking, can be used to distinguish different activities.
- Shu Gong
- , Xin Zhang
- & Wenlong Cheng
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Article
| Open AccessCRISPR-Cas-amplified urinary biomarkers for multiplexed and portable cancer diagnostics
Protease profiling of the tumour microenvironment using DNA-barcoded nanosensors and CRISPR amplification enables portable cancer diagnosis in preclinical models.
- Liangliang Hao
- , Renee T. Zhao
- & Sangeeta N. Bhatia