News & Views

A flexible charge-coupled device can be used to create a sensor capable of measuring the pH of a person’s sweat with high sensitivity.

A combination of spin–orbit and spin-transfer torques could be used to create a versatile magnetic random access memory.

The physical fingerprinting of a memristor crossbar array can be used to prove whether a digital key stored in the array is securely destroyed.

Guided self-assembly of block copolymers can generate the patterns required for the fabrication of advanced integrated circuits.

Nitrogen–vacancy defects in diamond can be used to visualize electric fields in an operating semiconductor device.

Through some unconventional approaches to improving transistor density and performance, the latest logic technology from Intel delivers 100 million transistors per square millimetre — and in the process, reaffirms Moore’s law.

Spin–orbit torque can drive switching in a two-terminal magnetic memory device.

A scanning light probe can locally dope two-dimensional molybdenum ditelluride, allowing monolithically integrated circuits (ICs) to be quickly written on the material.

Scalable electronic synapses fabricated using multilayer hexagonal boron nitride sheets can emulate both long- and short-term plasticity, with an ultralow standby power consumption of 1 fW.

A theoretical analysis of the dynamics of magnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions shows that large current-induced spin–orbit torques can lead to nonlinear trochoidal motion, which results in a sharp drop in translational velocity.

A multifunctional stretchable electronic system, which can be used to monitor vital signs and build human–machine interfaces, can be created through the vertical stacking of highly integrated layers of soft electronics.

A memory cell design based on two memristors and one minimum-sized transistor can nullify parasitic currents, device-to-device variations and cycle-to-cycle variations in memristive crossbar arrays.

Single-crystalline layered perovskite nanowires, which have a high resistance in their interior but a high photoconductivity at their edges, can be used to create sensitive photodetectors.

Spintronic devices capable of performing complementary logic operations can be created with the help of electric-field-controlled spin–orbit torque switching.

A memristor-based system can solve partial differential equations with better energy efficiency than methods based on conventional computers.

Microwave transitions in the rotational spectrum of carbonyl sulfide molecules provide a timing reference that can be used to develop chip-scale atomic clocks.

The electric field in a Schottky barrier can be used to control spin–orbit magnetic fields.

A heterostructure made from various two-dimensional materials can be used to build a device that functions as a diode, transistor, photodetector and non-volatile memory.

Electron tunnelling through a two-dimensional magnetic insulator is assisted by magnon inelastic processes that provide spin-filtering.