Volume 18 Issue 1, January 2023

By applying strain to artificially reduce the crystal symmetry of a non-centrosymmetric two-dimensional material, a very large bulk photovoltaic effect is uncovered with anisotropic properties that reflect its non-linear origins.

Manipulation of vacancy and strain enables fabrication of large area, phase-controllable 2D ferroelectric materials and their hetero-phase junction.

A multi-beam optical tweezer scheme achieves levitation and cooling of two nanoparticles at the same time.

Combining equilibrium self-assembly with coupling mechanisms defying Newton’s third law allows for the design of programmable, time-varying, self-organized assemblies mimicking living matter.

This Review analyses the possibilities that a nanomedicine approach offers to tackle COVID-19-induced thrombosis and the associated challenges.

The interaction between distinct excitations in solids is of both fundamental interest and technological importance. The layered magnetic semiconductor CrSBr exhibits strong coupling between excitons and coherently hybridized magnons, where both magnetic fields and strain can tune the coupling precisely.

Femtosecond electron diffraction and ab initio theory unravel ultrafast lattice dynamics in photoexcited two-dimensional heterostructures during charge transfer.

A strain-engineering approach enables enhancement of the bulk photovoltaic effect in non-centrosymmetric rhombohedral-type MoS₂ multilayer flakes.

Although the toxicity of graphene‐based nanomaterials on human health has been extensively studied, their impact on the microbiome remains poorly understood. Using zebrafish as a model, we show that graphene oxide modulates the immune system in a microbiome‐dependent manner through a mechanism mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. The study suggests an interplay among graphene‐based nanomaterials, microbiome and innate immune system.

Optical traps equipped with a feedback system allow simultaneously cooling the motion of two particles.

A chemical-vapour-deposition-based approach enables the phase-controllable synthesis of large-scale two-dimensional β-, β′- and α-In₂Se₃ films.

Scanning near-field optical microscopy measurements show that polaritonic nanophotonics is attainable in natural low-symmetry materials, leading to a general way to manipulate light at the nanoscale.

A plasmonic metasurface for full-colour nanopainting simultaneously achieves a chiaroscuro presentation, wide-gamut palette, high saturation and dynamic colour tunability.

Living systems employ a common set of building blocks that can self-organize into a multitude of different structures. Now, a model system based on programmed non-reciprocal interactions, which generically emerge in non-equilibrium systems with chemical activity, exhibits self-assembly pathways that feature temporal structures in the form of cyclic motifs.

Measuring the in situ activation status of T cells is important to gauge the efficacy of immunotherapy approaches. In this Article the authors design a chemical probe that binds to the T cell membrane and scavenges reactive oxygen species (ROS), preventing ROS-driven T cell exhaustion while serving as a magnetic resonance imaging probe to quantify T cell activity in tumours and predict radiotherapy outcomes.