Letters in 2019

Spin-crossover complexes often lose their functionality upon adsorption on metal surfaces. Here, a metal–organic complex adsorbed on a silver surface undergoes reversible interlocked spin and coordination switching, which is enabled by an intramolecular feedback mechanism controlling the position of an axial ligand strapped to the complex.

Topological frustration in the π-electron network of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon C₃₈H₁₈ yields unpaired electrons and a magnetically non-trivial ground state. Here, the authors synthesize this molecule, known as Clar’s goblet, on Au(111) and characterize the antiferromagnetic ground state with scanning tunnelling microscopy.

PEDOT nanodisks show near-infrared plasmonic resonances that can be reversibly switched by chemical redox reactions.

Nuclear spins are excellent qubits, but long-range interactions are difficult to establish. Here, the authors couple a ²⁹Si nuclear spin to electrons in a lithographically defined quantum dot and show initialization, readout and entanglement with the electron spin. The ²⁹Si retains its coherence under electron transfer between quantum dots.

Synthesis of MoS₂ on a silicon surface pre-treated with phosphine enables the growth of one-dimensional MoS₂ nanocrystals with tunable dimensions and optical properties.

The internal electron dynamics of submicrometre devices are hard to resolve because of bandwidth limitations of current measurement techniques. Here, the authors sample the 250 GHz coherent oscillation of a single-electron wave packet inside a quantum dot at 4.2 K employing a resonant level.

Coupling the emission of upconversion nanoparticles to gap plasmon modes enables a direct observation of upconversion superburst with directional, fast and ultrabright luminescence.

Engineering the interlayer coupling in a van der Waals heterostructure enables electrical control over the transport and density of valley-polarized interlayer excitons.

Engineering multiple moiré patterns within a boron nitride–graphene–boron nitride heterostructure enables tunable crystal symmetry and strong modification of the graphene band structure.

van der Waals materials enable the realization of an electrically driven polariton LED operating at room temperature.

Mechanically and electronically stable graphene/molecule/graphene devices can be fabricated by combining a covalent binding of the molecules to the substrate with an optimized intermolecular π–π interaction.

All-electrical switching of magnetization holds promise for applications in information technologies with low power consumption. Here, current-induced spin–orbit torque switches the magnetization in SrIrO₃/SrRuO₃ bilayer structures at 70 K in the absence of an external magnetic field.

Polymer nanocapsules, assembled around a ribonucleoprotein complex of Cas9 nuclease and a single-guide RNA, enable safe and efficient gene editing in vitro and in vivo.

Few-layer micas show proton permeation across the sheet, exceeding that of graphene and hBN by one to two orders of magnitude.

In situ investigation of a single nanowire/quantum dot heterojunction solar cell using a custom-designed photoelectric transmission electron microscope set-up reveals the possibility of achieving improved photovoltaic performance.

The Weyl semimetal WTe₂ possesses strong spin–orbit coupling and time-reversal-protected spin polarization in surface and bulk states. In a WTe₂/permalloy heterostructure, WTe₂ can act as a spin current source that enables magnetization switching at low current densities.

Controlled delivery of neuromodulators in the brain might improve the understanding of the molecular basis of behaviour. In this letter, magnetic liposomes injected in deep brain regions release small molecules under remote magnetic stimulation, activating specific neuronal circuits in freely moving mice.

In a ferromagnetic layer, an electric current parallel to the magnetization generates opposite spin–orbit torques on the two surfaces of the magnetic film, which is attributed to the generation of spin currents with a spin polarization transverse to the magnetization within the ferromagnet.

Random sequences of unitary gate operations on an exchange-only qubit encoded in three physical electron qubits are performed using only voltage pulses and exhibit an average total error of 0.35%, where half of the error originates from leakage out of the computational subspace caused by interactions with substrate nuclear spins.

The spin state of electrons in a double quantum dot in silicon is read in a single shot with 98% average fidelity within 6 μs by means of an on-chip superconducting resonator connected to two of the gates defining the double dot structure.