Volume 21 Issue 2, February 2022

Glass-forming ability in metallic systems is related to the diversity of atomic packing schemes quenched into the glassy state, which manifests itself in the width of the first broad X-ray diffraction peak. This provides a swift way for screening libraries of deposited alloy films and searching for good glass formers.

A seemingly disordered network of nanowires governed by thermodynamics is used as the physical ‘reservoir’ in a memristive implementation of reservoir computing to process spatiotemporal information.

Despite its tiny magnetization, the non-collinear antiferromagnet YbMnBi₂ is shown to possess exceptional transverse thermoelectric performance owing to its anisotropic transport properties.

Previous demonstrations of long-range supercurrents through magnetic materials were achieved only at liquid helium temperatures. Now, using specially tailored samples, long-distance supercurrents have been realized at temperatures as high as 40 K.

Epitaxial growth followed by topotactic reduction yields superconducting nickelate phases with the same hole-doping level as that obtained by chemical substitution, without causing structural disorder.

The processes of metallic asperities moving across each other, which are decisive in most machinery, have been visualized at the atomic scale, revealing unexpected behaviour especially when under tensile stress.

This Review summarizes limitations in the current techniques used for patient-derived cancer organoid culture and highlights recent advancements and future opportunities for their standardization.

The authors report a superconducting transition beginning at 13 K in films of the quintuple-layer nickelate Nd₆Ni₅O₁₂.

The glass forming ability of alloys is found to be strongly correlated with the full-width at half-maximum of the first diffraction peak in the X-ray diffraction pattern, which facilitates the discovery of bulk metallic glass compositions.

The atomic-scale frictional processes between two metallic single-crystal asperities are visualized by combining in situ high-resolution TEM and AFM, elucidating diffusion-mediated low friction.

The authors use scalar magnetic X-ray tomography under applied magnetic fields to directly visualize the three-dimensional shape of individual skyrmion strings.

Josephson coupling over micrometres and at tens of kelvins is demonstrated across the half-metallic manganite La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ combined with the superconducting cuprate YBa₂Cu₃O₇.

A network of self-organized nanowires combined with a memristive read-out layer is used to demonstrate a hardware implementation of reservoir computing for recognition of spatio-temporal patterns and time-series prediction.

The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) in topological materials with large Berry curvature shows great potential for transverse thermoelectrics, but antiferromagnets typically show small ANEs. The antiferromagnet YbMnBi₂ has an ANE thermopower of 3 μV K⁻¹, similar to ferromagnets, and a larger ANE conductivity.

Triplet exciton harvesting through thermally activated delayed fluorescence is shown to be effective also under X-ray excitation, increasing the efficiency and imaging quality of X-ray detectors based on organic scintillation.

Designing electrode architectures for Li-ion batteries that can be reversibly accessible for ion storage can be challenging. Using operando techniques the mechanistic origin of lithiation-induced phase transformations in a V₂O₅ model cathode is now clarified.

The tunability of covalently bound cationic and anionic moieties of zwitterionic materials makes them attractive for potential applications. A family of zwitterions exhibiting molecular disorder and plasticity allows their use as a solid-state conductive matrix.

Ionic and dipolar liquids display unexpected behaviours, especially in confinement, that are relevant to energy storage, electrochemistry and catalysis. An approach that involves electronic screening while capturing molecular aspects of interfacial fluids is now proposed.

Controlled synthesis of heterostructured III-V–II-VI nanocrystals shows that dipole moments formed at the core–shell interface can tune the optoelectronic properties of these nanomaterials and their performance in light-emitting devices.

The solvent-free conversion of phthalonitrile derivatives into phthalocyanines in the bulk is described, involving a reductive cyclotetramerization step and the formation of one-dimensional single-crystalline fibres. This solvent-free autocatalytic supramolecular polymerization may enable for a sustainable fabrication of multi-block supramolecular copolymers.