Volume 17 Issue 10, October 2018

Sailing to space

The goal of the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative is to send in a few decades an unmanned nanospacecraft to Proxima Centauri b, consisting of a lightsail propelled by laser radiation pressure.

See Editorial, Comment by Ghidini and Perspective by Atwater et al

Image: Cora Went, Artur Davoyan, and Joeson Wong, Caltech. Background courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin. Cover Design: David Shand. [Note: The image credit originally published was incorrect; it has now been updated.]

Editorial

Editorial | 24 September 2018

Across the Universe

Highly sophisticated materials properties and engineering efforts are crucial for the success of missions for space exploration and settlement.
Focus:
- Materials challenges for space exploration

Comment

Comment | 24 September 2018

Materials for space exploration and settlement

Space missions require materials that can preserve functional integrity under extreme conditions of heat, impact and radiation. This Comment outlines the materials properties needed for some of the most ambitious space missions and presents the design and testing principles before their incorporation.
- Tommaso Ghidini
Focus:
- Materials challenges for space exploration

News & Views

News & Views | 17 September 2018

A missing step is a key step

Physicists are searching for superconducting materials that can host Majoranas. New evidence for these elusive particles is provided by missing Shapiro steps in a Josephson effect mediated by an accidental Dirac semimetal.
- Fan Zhang
- & Wei Pan
News & Views | 24 September 2018

Slippery in every direction

A graphite and hexagonal boron nitride heterojunction enables superlubric sliding, almost independent of alignment orientation, in micrometre-sized contacts under ‘real-life’ working conditions.
- J. G. Vilhena
- & Rubén Pérez
News & Views | 24 September 2018

Moonage daydreams of space rock
- Philip Ball
News & Views | 03 September 2018

Orbital-selective metals

The metallic state of an iron chalcogenide superconductor is demonstrated to be characterized by the simultaneous presence of itinerant carriers with different degrees of correlation. This orbital-selective metal arises from a sizeable Hund’s coupling.
- Massimo Capone
News & Views | 24 September 2018

Shedding light on black titania

Multiscale modelling provides atomic-level insights into how oxygen vacancy defect nucleation leads to the formation of the visible light photocatalyst black titania.
- Vassiliki-Alexandra Glezakou
- & Roger Rousseau
News & Views | 24 September 2018

Diamond sculpting pushes extremes

Micromilling gem-quality diamond tips into a toroidal shape has been shown to greatly extend the accessible pressure range of standard diamond anvil cells, opening the way for studies in extreme physics of high-density matter.
- Malcolm McMahon

Perspectives

Perspective | 07 May 2018

Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail

This Perspective explores the optical, mechanical and thermal properties required to successfully design an ultralight spacecraft that can reach Proxima Centauri b, which is the goal of the Starshot Breakthrough Initiative.
- Harry A. Atwater
- , Artur R. Davoyan
- & Joeson Wong
Focus:
- Materials challenges for space exploration

Articles

Article | 03 September 2018

Imaging orbital-selective quasiparticles in the Hund’s metal state of FeSe

Orbital-selective quasiparticle interference is imaged in the Hund’s metal parent state of iron-based superconductivity.
- A. Kostin
- , P. O. Sprau
- & J. C. Séamus Davis
Article | 17 September 2018

4π-periodic Andreev bound states in a Dirac semimetal

Superconductivity is induced in an accidental Dirac semimetal via the proximity effect.
- Chuan Li
- , Jorrit C. de Boer
- & Alexander Brinkman
Article | 17 September 2018

The mechanism of the ultrafast crystal growth of pure metals from their melts

Molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the rapid crystal growth in pure metals is governed by a barrierless ordering process, correlating to the inherent crystalline structure in the liquid at the growth interface.
- Gang Sun
- , Jenny Xu
- & Peter Harrowell
Article | 10 September 2018

Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble-metal alloys

The model alloy of Au–Ag is studied to decouple the role of stress and corrosion in intergranular cracking caused by metal dissolution. Nanoporous corrosion layers can mechanically inject a crack into grain boundaries of the parent phase.
- N. Badwe
- , X. Chen
- & K. Sieradzki
Article | 30 July 2018

Robust microscale superlubricity in graphite/hexagonal boron nitride layered heterojunctions

Robust structural superlubricity is experimentally realized in microscale monocrystalline graphite/hBN heterojunctions. The friction anisotropy upon crystal reorientation is orders of magnitude smaller than that of homogeneous graphite contacts.
- Yiming Song
- , Davide Mandelli
- & Quanshui Zheng
Article | 10 September 2018

Compositional and orientational control in metal halide perovskites of reduced dimensionality

A systematic analysis is performed to reveal how deposition conditions and the use of cations and solvents affect the composition and orientation of 2D and quasi-2D metal halide perovskites in thin films.
- Rafael Quintero-Bermudez
- , Aryeh Gold-Parker
- & Edward H. Sargent
Article | 10 September 2018

Molecularly thin two-dimensional hybrid perovskites with tunable optoelectronic properties due to reversible surface relaxation

Reversible structural surface relaxation under laser exposure is observed for monolayers of 2D metal halide perovskites. These structural changes also induce reversible shifts in the photoluminescence peaks of these materials.
- Kai Leng
- , Ibrahim Abdelwahab
- & Kian Ping Loh
Article | 17 September 2018

Fluid-enhanced surface diffusion controls intraparticle phase transformations

Phase transformations driven by compositional change require mass flux across a phase boundary. Lithium migration in Li_XFePO₄ along the solid/liquid interface now suggests that surface diffusion contributes to tuning phase transformation in anisotropic solids.
- Yiyang Li
- , Hungru Chen
- & William C. Chueh
Article | 16 July 2018

Structural evolution of titanium dioxide during reduction in high-pressure hydrogen

The nature of structural disorder in photocatalytic black TiO₂ is not known. Here, using simulations, it is shown that water formation drives surface reduction, with slowly migrating oxygen vacancies at the {001} facets resulting in the nucleation of disorder.
- Sencer Selcuk
- , Xunhua Zhao
- & Annabella Selloni
Article | 10 September 2018

A multicaloric cooling cycle that exploits thermal hysteresis

Magnetocaloric effects can be used for refrigeration, but application uptake is limited due to large amounts of magnetic material used. Here, a cooling cycle is shown that uses thermal hysteresis, significantly reducing magnetic material quantity.
- Tino Gottschall
- , Adrià Gràcia-Condal
- & Oliver Gutfleisch
Article | 24 September 2018

Ultrafast water harvesting and transport in hierarchical microchannels

Ultrafast water transport in the surface of Sarracenia trichome is reported and demonstrated in synthetic bioinspired materials, where nano- and microchannels induce high-speed sliding of droplets on top of a thin water film.
- Huawei Chen
- , Tong Ran
- & Lei Jiang

Amendments & Corrections

Publisher Correction | 07 August 2018

Publisher Correction: The role of reticular chemistry in the design of CO₂ reduction catalysts
- Christian S. Diercks
- , Yuzhong Liu
- & Omar M. Yaghi
Publisher Correction | 16 August 2018

Publisher Correction: Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail
- Harry A. Atwater
- , Artur R. Davoyan
- & Joeson Wong

Volume 17 Issue 10, October 2018

Sailing to space

Editorial

Across the Universe

Comment

Materials for space exploration and settlement

News & Views

A missing step is a key step

Slippery in every direction

Moonage daydreams of space rock

Orbital-selective metals

Shedding light on black titania

Diamond sculpting pushes extremes

Perspectives

Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail

Articles

Imaging orbital-selective quasiparticles in the Hund’s metal state of FeSe

4π-periodic Andreev bound states in a Dirac semimetal

The mechanism of the ultrafast crystal growth of pure metals from their melts

Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble-metal alloys

Robust microscale superlubricity in graphite/hexagonal boron nitride layered heterojunctions

Compositional and orientational control in metal halide perovskites of reduced dimensionality

Molecularly thin two-dimensional hybrid perovskites with tunable optoelectronic properties due to reversible surface relaxation

Fluid-enhanced surface diffusion controls intraparticle phase transformations

Structural evolution of titanium dioxide during reduction in high-pressure hydrogen

A multicaloric cooling cycle that exploits thermal hysteresis

Ultrafast water harvesting and transport in hierarchical microchannels

Amendments & Corrections

Publisher Correction: The role of reticular chemistry in the design of CO₂ reduction catalysts

Publisher Correction: Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail

Quick links

Discover content

Publishing policies

Author & Researcher services

Libraries & institutions

Advertising & partnerships

Career development

Regional websites

Legal & Privacy

Volume 17 Issue 10, October 2018

Sailing to space

Editorial

Comment

News & Views

Perspectives

Articles

Amendments & Corrections

Search

Quick links