News & Views

The memristor, in which an external electric field controls the formation and annihilation of conductive channels, has been described both as a missing electronic element and a memory and computational element. Here, their utility as building blocks for promising reflective and energy-efficient colour technology is described.

The use of phase-change materials makes metasurfaces and nanoantennas electrically tunable and switchable, bringing their functionality to the next level.

Localized zero-energy fermionic states can bind to topological defects such as two-dimensional vortices, which can be realized in the bulk of artificial acoustic and optical lattices.

Near-field optical microscopy reveals unique nanoscale domain structures of Moiré patterns in minimally twisted bilayer graphene via the photothermoelectric effect.

Selective growth of nanoporous metal–organic framework nanocrystals in the stacking defects of graphene oxide layers improves the mechanical integrity and water–solute selectivity of graphene oxide membranes.

In a simple bilayer structure, spin torque induced by a reduced crystal symmetry switches perpendicular magnetization reliably at zero magnetic field.

The careful optimization of all components of a quantum emitter single photon source yields over 50% end-to-end efficiency, a benchmark for optical quantum technologies.

Targeting of the peptide hormone relaxin to injured mouse liver, via a nanoparticle/gene therapy approach, switches pro-fibrotic hepatic macrophages to a restorative phenotype that orchestrates tissue repair.

Ultrafast spectroscopy measurements present a new direct non-equilibrium energy transfer mechanism across a metal–semiconductor interface, without charge transfer, opening up a new avenue for plasmonic energy conversion.

The intercalation of an antennae array with a geometric Pancharatnam–Berry phase into a defective two-dimensional photonic crystal slab enables a spin-dependent splitting of directional emission in momentum space, that is, a Rashba effect for photons.

A new memory device in which the electric dipole, rather than the magnetic dipole, stores information at the single-molecule level is demonstrated.

In situ NMR and magnetic resonance imaging unravel new chemistries for the formation and growth of metal microstructures, with consequences on the solid–electrolyte interphase stability.

Overcoming the challenges of plastic detection in plants has made it possible to transfer many of the lessons learned from plant–metal nanoparticle interactions to plastic nanoparticles.

Co-drawing of metallic glass with polymers of similar viscosity–temperature behaviour enables highly uniform nanoscale cross-sectional features of various shapes in functional fibres without length limit.

A combination of two different types of sites shows high catalytic performance for selective hydrogenation due to hydrogen spillover.

Breaking the mirror symmetry in twisted bilayer MoSe₂ results in large scale exciton dipole oriented domains in a two-dimensional homostructure.

Tuning the twist angle in bilayer transitional metal dichalcogenides yields ordered structural phases with mesoscopically modulated electronic properties revealed by the combination of electron and scanning probe microscopies.

Nitric oxide, a gaseous neurotransmitter, can be electrochemically generated inside the brain to activate calcium ion channels, paving the way for implantable neurotransmitter probes.

Lattices of magnetic whirls are a promising model system to study phases and phase transitions in two dimensions.