Volume 16 Issue 12, December 2021

High-performance quantum light sources based on semiconductor quantum dots coupled to microcavities are showing their promise in long-distance solid-state quantum networks.

Silicon spin qubits have demonstrated some promising properties at the individual level, but the technology is beleaguered by a late start and high barriers to entry. To overcome these challenges, the quantum computing and electrical engineering communities will need to find novel ways to work together.

Molecules have the potential to act as sharp energy filters for electrical currents and could thereby outperform other materials considered for thermoelectric energy conversion. Yet, there is a gap between theoretical predictions and practical implementations in molecular thermoelectricity, and this research roadmap may guide the transition from academic research to valuable technology.

Mid-infrared pulses stimulate fast neutralization of photocharged colloidal nanocrystals, which suppresses blinking of a single nanocrystal’s photoluminescence.

A DNA nanodevice that selectively modulates the lysosomal protease activity in tumour-associated macrophages, increasing their antigen presentation ability, attenuates tumour growth in vivo.

Quantum photonics offers a scalable approach to advanced quantum-information processing. Based on deterministic photon–emitter interfaces, this Review presents a road ahead for resource-efficient hardware architectures towards applications in quantum communication and quantum computing.

Although quantum physics underpins the behaviour of nanoscale objects, its role in nanoscience has been mostly limited to determining the static, equilibrium properties of small systems. This Review describes seminal developments and new directions for the explicit exploitation of quantum coherence in nanoscale systems, a research area termed quantum-coherent nanoscience.

Magnon-mediated angular-momentum flow in antiferromagnets may become a design element for energy-efficient, low-dissipation and high-speed spintronic devices. Here, terahertz emission measurements in magnetic multilayers unveil a superluminal-like magnon velocity of ~650 km s^–1 in the antiferromagnetic insulator NiO at nanoscale distances.

Processing silk through a molecular bonding design and scalable coupling reagent-assisted dip-coating method can lead to subambient daytime radiative cooling.

Engineering the energy dispersion of polaritons in microcavities can yield intriguing effects such as the anomalous quantum Hall and Rashba effects. Now, different Berry curvature distributions of polariton bands are obtained in a strongly coupled organic–inorganic two-dimensional perovskite single-crystal microcavity and can be modified via temperature and magnetic field variation.

Photoluminescence blinking is a ubiquitous phenomenon that detrimentally reduces emission stability and quantum yield. Now, an all-optical method, which employs ultrafast mid-infrared pulses, can effectively suppress the blinking of single CdSe/CdS core–shell quantum dots.

DNA nanoswitch calipers can measure distances within single molecules with atomic resolution. Applied to single-molecule proteomics, they can enable the identification and quantification of molecules in trace samples via mechanical fingerprinting.

Torsion-strained Ta_xTm_yIr_1−x−yO_2−δ nanocatalyst with abundant grain boundaries is promising towards acidic oxygen evolution in practical proton exchange membrane electrolysers. The cost of H₂ is estimated to be reduced to US$1 per kg.

The effective absorption spectrum of metal-bound molecules and a rich plasmon-driven chemistry landscape are constructed by monitoring the interfacial environment of a thousand single nanocavities with slightly varied resonance energies.

Alloying copper with isolated heteroatoms enables the C protonation of CO₂ to HCOO* on activated copper sites, resulting in exclusive electrochemical CO₂-to-HCOOH conversion with considerably high activity.

Innate immune cells such as dendritic cells and macrophages can activate the adaptive immune system against cancer by presenting cancer-specific antigens, although this activity is severely limited in macrophages due to their intrinsic lysosomal cysteine protease activity. Here the authors show that a DNA nanodevice specifically targeted to macrophage lysosomes can inhibit cysteine proteases in these cells, restoring their antigen-presenting capability.

Gas vesicles are air-filled protein nanostructures naturally expressed by certain bacteria and archaea to achieve cellular buoyancy. Here the authors show that, under the stimulation of pulsed ultrasound, targeted gas vesicles and gas vesicles expressed in genetically modified bacteria and mammalian cells release nanobubbles that, collapsing, lead to controlled mechanical damage of the surrounding biological milieu, demonstrating that, under focused ultrasound actuation, gas vesicles have potential applications as therapeutic agents.

Trivalent arsenic (As^III) is a clinically approved treatment agent for patients with promyelocytic leukaemia, but cannot be used for other types of leukaemia due to its toxicity. Here the authors show that different patient-derived leukaemia cells express CD71 and design a ferritin-based nanoparticle for specific delivery of As^III to these cells, demonstrating substantially improved efficacy towards different leukaemia types in animal models, with reduced side effects.

While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell-based therapy has been approved for clinical use for certain types of blood cancers, it remains difficult to achieve precise spatiotemporal control of the elicited anti-tumour response. Here, the authors propose light-switchable CAR T cells that can be remotely activated by a nano-optogenetic approach, reducing unwanted side effects.