News & Views in 2020

Isolated point defects in silicon that emit light at telecom wavelengths could help accelerate the development of quantum information technologies using commercial platforms.

A magnonic directional coupler based on yttrium iron garnet could be used to create integrated magnonic nanocircuits for logic operations.

An ultrashort pulse of electric current can be used to switch the magnetization of a micrometre-scale magnetic element via spin–orbit torques.

A cleaning–healing–cleaning method can effectively eliminate ionic defects at the surface of perovskite films, resulting in reliable and high-performance perovskite transistors.

Field-effect transistors that use carbon nanotubes as the channel material and an ion gel as the gate exhibit a high tolerance to radiation and can be recovered following radiation damage using a simple annealing process.

With the help of a gate electrode to control the charge state of individual molecules on graphene, information can be moved along a one-dimensional molecular chain, mimicking the behaviour of an electronic shift register.

A monocentric lens and a sensitive hemispherical imager can be combined to create a miniaturized camera that offers a field of view of 120°, deep depth of field and minimal optical aberration.

The two-dimensional semiconductor Bi₂O₂Se can be oxidized to create an atomically thin layer of Bi₂SeO₅ that can be used as the insulator in scaled field-effect transistors.

A van der Waals ferroelectric tunnel junction with asymmetric metal and graphene contacts exhibits a high resistance ratio between on and off states, and could be of value in the development of low-power computing.

Monolayers of boron nitride can be used to build high-performance radio-frequency switches that can operate at the frequencies required for 5G and the communication systems beyond it.

The development of recognition and translation technology for signed language requires an interdisciplinary approach that begins with deaf contributors.

Circuits capable of reconfigurable logic and neuromorphic functions can be created by exploiting the electronic tunability of two-dimensional tungsten diselenide homojunctions.

A flexible processing engine that is hardwired for machine learning can be used to create a smart electronic nose for odour classification.

Electro-optic transmitters with high bandwidth can be created by monolithically integrating bipolar CMOS electronics with plasmonics.

A fibre with liquid-metal core and soft outer shell can be woven into textiles and used to sense multiple compression and stretching events simultaneously.

Non-linear ferroelectric tunnel junctions could be used to create low-power in-memory computing systems.

An impedance measurement technique based on dielectric excitation in oxide semiconductors can provide a highly linear sensing signal over a wide range of gas concentrations.

A charge-programmed 3D printing method can create electronic devices that combine multiple materials into complex architectures.

Metal–semiconductor junctions formed between a transition metal ditelluride and monolayer molybdenum disulfide exhibit nearly ideal Schottky–Mott conditions.

A tetherless microelectronic system can be controlled by wireless power to direct locomotion and perform grasp and release tasks.