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Two-phase materials hold great promise for multifunctional applications. To realize practical devices, it is first necessary to obtain a high degree of control of the phase composition. By taking into account the properties of each phase, it is now possible to control the strain at the interfaces between them in two-component materials, and obtain phase ordering at large scales.
A highly conductive channel, a few nanometres wide, can be reversibly created by an AFM tip operating at room temperature at the interface between two oxide insulators. This discovery could provide a powerful method for the design and realization of electronic circuits at the nanoscale.
Simplification in large-area manufacturing of complex organic electronics is a critical step towards ubiquitous, flexible, portable applications; why not make the molecules do the work?
The mechanical properties of granular matter are affected by the addition of liquid — however, over a wide range, the actual amount of liquid is unimportant. Now, imaging techniques look inside the wet granular pile, or 'sandcastle', to help solve this puzzle.
The complex electronic properties of alkali-doped fullerides derive from the interplay between competing interactions. Fine control of the doping levels and thickness of fulleride films makes it possible to tune relevant parameters.
Recent developments in bioscience are reported in a business-oriented publication, called SciBX, a joint venture by Nature Publishing Group and Biocentury.
Theoretical work has highlighted the potential of using devices in which spin-polarized carries are injected in single molecular magnets, and a few experiments have shown promising results. The challenges are great, but the advantages compared with more conventional strategies may be considerable, and future research promises to be intriguing and rewarding.
Induced multiferroics, where ferroelectricity arises through the magnetic order, have attracted significant interest, despite maximum Curie temperatures of only 40 K. The discovery of multiferroic coupling up to 230 K in CuO therefore represents a major advance towards high-TC multiferroics.
Modulated proton transport has a significant role in biological processes such as ATP synthesis and in electrochemical energy conversion. Electrostatic gating of proton conduction that can be actively modulated is now shown in aligned mesoporous silica thin-films.
The nature of the charge transport in organic semiconductors is subject to intense research. A study on the thermal and charge transport of single-crystal thin-film polymers now shows close similarities between the transport properties of organic and inorganic semiconductors.
Metamaterials have attracted a great amount of interest, owing to a number of appealing applications such as cloaking. The use of superconducting components now enables the fabrication of metamaterials that could be used to cloak static magnetic fields rather than oscillating light waves.
Controlling and monitoring individual spins is desirable for building spin-based devices. The optical manipulation of the spin of manganese ions in gallium arsenide is now possible. The spins of a small number of ions can be oriented by selecting the polarization of a laser beam. Reduction of the ion concentration enables control of single manganese spins.
A three-step synthetic method that involves silica coating, heat treatment and removal of the silica layer is reported for the preparation of hollow iron oxide nanocapsules. The magnetite nanocapsules made by this simple wrap-bake-peel process show potential as drug-delivery vehicles and MRI contrast agents.
Crystallization of acenes into high-mobility structures for transistors is achieved by pretreating the substrate in the region where crystallization is required. Cross-talk is prevented between devices by the amorphous material produced on the untreated region.
