Applied physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analog signal processors could potentially offer faster operation and lower power consumption than digital versions, but are not yet commonly used for large scale applications due to considerable observational errors. Here, the authors demonstrate the unique relevance of topological insulators for improving reliability in such analog processors.

    • Farzad Zangeneh-Nejad
    •  & Romain Fleury

  • Article
    | Open Access

    3D topological nodal lines that give rise to drumhead surface states could help study a range of exotic topological phenomena. Here, Deng et al. experimentally demonstrate 3D nodal ring dispersion and topological drumhead surface states for acoustic waves in a phononic crystal.

    • Weiyin Deng
    • , Jiuyang Lu
    •  & Zhengyou Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The determination of entropy production from experimental data is a challenge but a recently introduced theoretical tool, the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, allows one to infer a lower bound on entropy production. Here the authors provide a critical assessment of the practical implementation of this tool.

    • Junang Li
    • , Jordan M. Horowitz
    •  & Nikta Fakhri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong vibrational coupling has not been observed in ultra-high frequency mechanical resonators. By engineering phonon dissipation pathways, the authors increase the vibrational quality factor to allow strong coupling observations in plasmonic nanostructures, which has implications for observation and control of quantum phonon dynamics.

    • Junzhong Wang
    • , Kuai Yu
    •  & Guo Ping Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crumpled matter hasn’t been widely used to solve real world engineering problems largely due to the lack of quantitative models. Croll et al. show that it is the bending in ridges making both elastic and plastic sheets resistant to compression and describe the mechanical response using an empirical model.

    • Andrew B. Croll
    • , Timothy Twohig
    •  & Theresa Elder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the group velocity of light in free space has been limited to small deviations so far. Here, the authors present a method to control the spatio-temporal spectrum and allow arbitrary group velocities of a wave packet in free space both above and below the speed of light.

    • H. Esat Kondakci
    •  & Ayman F. Abouraddy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors integrate an acoustic trap with a compact light sheet fluorescence microscope to provide contactless sample confinement of biological organisms. The application of verapamil and norepinephrine to zebrafish larvae was also studied, and the heartbeat response was monitored with light sheet imaging.

    • Zhengyi Yang
    • , Katy L. H. Cole
    •  & Kishan Dholakia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonic effects and subwavelength scattering arrays are used in the optical domain to access subwavelength resolution imaging in the far field. Here, the authors develop an analogous strategy for far-field, subwavelength imaging at acoustic wavelengths and demonstrate edge detection of acoustic scattering objects.

    • Chu Ma
    • , Seok Kim
    •  & Nicholas X. Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report an approach for creating various acoustic wavefronts in free space by using soft gradient-index porous metasurfaces. These flat lenses generate steered planar, focused spherical and helical ultrasonic beams in water by manipulating the spatial distribution of the material porosity.

    • Yabin Jin
    • , Raj Kumar
    •  & Thomas Brunet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methods to silence broadband noise and shield large volumes are lacking. Here, the authors show theoretically and experimentally that acoustic bianisotropic materials, with non-zero strain to momentum coupling, lead to effective sound barriers with excellent efficiency in terms of attenuation, bandwidth, and shielded volume.

    • Bogdan-Ioan Popa
    • , Yuxin Zhai
    •  & Hyung-Suk Kwon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solar steam generation is limited by fouling of solar converters, and the steam temperature is usually pinned to 100 °C. Here, both limitations are overcome in a system utilizing a solar absorber and light down-converter to achieve radiative heating, which does not require physical contact between absorber and water.

    • Thomas A. Cooper
    • , Seyed H. Zandavi
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The measure of microscopic forces is currently dominated by optical methods requiring parameter-based analyses and long data acquisitions. This work describes a fast and parameter-free method that can characterize both the conservative and non-conservative force fields acting on Brownian particles.

    • Laura Pérez García
    • , Jaime Donlucas Pérez
    •  & Giovanni Volpe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors propose an acoustic metasurface design to extend the wave manipulations to both far- and near-fields while reducing the complexity with a simple structure, which consists of an array of deep-subwavelength-spaced slits perforated in a thin plate.

    • Jian Chen
    • , Jing Xiao
    •  & Zheng Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Propagating shear cracks in solids emit both shear and pressure waves, but it is usually thought that only shear waves coalesce to form shock fronts when the crack exceeds the shear wave speed. Here, the authors show that local material stiffening can further increase rupture speed and produce pressure shock fronts that hint at supersonic propagation.

    • M. Gori
    • , V. Rubino
    •  & N. Lapusta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice sublimation is a common, yet little-studied, heat and mass transfer problem with climatic and industrial implications. Here, the authors show that the sublimation of ice crystals is purely diffusive and is unaffected by the underlying crystalline lattice.

    • Etienne Jambon-Puillet
    • , Noushine Shahidzadeh
    •  & Daniel Bonn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors experimentally observed, numerically simulate, and mathematically analyze the existence of amplitude gaps for elastic vector solitons in highly deformable mechanical metamaterials consisting of rigid units and elastic hinges.

    • Bolei Deng
    • , Pai Wang
    •  & Katia Bertoldi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supercooled water is susceptible to spontaneous freezing, and preventing this process is a challenge. Here, the authors use surface sealing with immiscible liquids to eliminate primary ice nucleation at the water/air interface, enabling deep supercooling of large volumes of water and red cell suspensions for long time periods.

    • Haishui Huang
    • , Martin L. Yarmush
    •  & O. Berk Usta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precise control of elastic waves is of great use in current technologies. Here, Yu et al. realize the analogue of quantum spin Hall effects for the elastic waves in a plain plate consisting of identical perforated holes in wavelength scales.

    • Si-Yuan Yu
    • , Cheng He
    •  & Yan-Feng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contamination is an obstacle to the functioning of microfluidic devices. Here the authors exploit acoustic streaming to manipulate droplets which float on a layer of immiscible oil. This prevents contamination and enables rewritability by which different fluids can be used on the same substrate.

    • Steven Peiran Zhang
    • , James Lata
    •  & Tony Jun Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have sustained research interest due to attractive optoelectronic and excitonic properties. Here, Guo et al. systematically investigate coherent acoustic phonon transport versus layer thickness in these materials with strong acoustic impedance mismatch

    • Peijun Guo
    • , Constantinos C. Stoumpos
    •  & Richard D. Schaller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optics that have no rotational or translation symmetry, termed freeform, have the potential to make well-corrected compact optical systems. Here, Bauer et al. approach the design of freeform optics with aberration theory and present general guidelines to design and optimize physically realizable systems.

    • Aaron Bauer
    • , Eric M. Schiesser
    •  & Jannick P. Rolland

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Demonstrations of sensing devices using nitrogen vacancy centres have shown significantly improved sensitivity compared to traditional methods. Here the authors demonstrate an approach for performing nanoscale electron spin resonance without magnetic fields in order to achieve better spectral resolution.

    • Fei Kong
    • , Pengju Zhao
    •  & Jiangfeng Du

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The organic electrochemical transistor is a type of transistor that modulates the channel current by the ion concentration and is thus explored for bio-applications. Here Ghittorelli et al. show a current-driven device configuration to increase the sensitivity by ten times than conventional approaches.

    • Matteo Ghittorelli
    • , Leona Lingstedt
    •  & Fabrizio Torricelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acoustic metasurfaces can be used to control acoustic waves, but generally they focus on phase control which limits potential functionality. Here, Ghaffarivardavagh et al. analytically develop a horn-like space coiling acoustic metasurface to control both the amplitude and phase of acoustic radiation patterns.

    • Reza Ghaffarivardavagh
    • , Jacob Nikolajczyk
    •  & Xin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors present an experimental observation of topological states in soft elastic metamaterials. They show reversibility in topological phases by changing filling ratio, tension and/or compression, while also demonstrating tunability of topological interface states by mechanical deformation.

    • Shuaifeng Li
    • , Degang Zhao
    •  & Jianfeng Zang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate the temporal control of ultrasonic wave propagation in a one-dimensional phononic crystal waveguide. Four-wave mixing experiments are implemented, providing a platform on which to realize novel nonlinear phenomena in the system.

    • M. Kurosu
    • , D. Hatanaka
    •  & H. Yamaguchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal camouflaging techniques typically use bulky structures and require a well-defined and unchanging background. Here, the authors propose a strategy for thermal camouflage using a structured thermal surface, independent of the background material for many practical situations.

    • Ying Li
    • , Xue Bai
    •  & Cheng-Wei Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control over the crystallographic orientation of solder joints based on βSn will improve the reliability of electronic interconnects. Using a technique based on droplet solidification and lattice matching, Ma et al. are able to control the βSn nucleation events, hence control the grain orientation.

    • Z. L. Ma
    • , S. A. Belyakov
    •  & C. M. Gourlay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although optomechanics enables precision metrology, measurements beyond mechanical properties often require hybrid devices. Here, Kim et al. demonstrate that a ferromagnetic needle integrated with a torsional resonator can determine the magnetic properties and amplify or cool the resonator motion.

    • P. H. Kim
    • , B. D. Hauer
    •  & J. P. Davis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linear acoustic metamaterials based on resonances are generally tunable but limited by their narrow bands. Here, Fang et al. fabricate one- and two-dimensional nonlinear acoustic metamaterials with a broadband, low-frequency, response—greatly suppressing low frequency noise.

    • Xin Fang
    • , Jihong Wen
    •  & Dianlong Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, Manenti et al. present measurements of a device in which a tuneable transmon qubit is piezoelectrically coupled to a surface acoustic wave cavity, realising circuit quantum acoustodynamic architecture. This may be used to develop new quantum acoustic devices.

    • Riccardo Manenti
    • , Anton F. Kockum
    •  & Peter J. Leek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One of technological challenges building organic electronics is efficient injection of electrons at metal-semiconductor interfaces compared to that of holes. The authors show an air-stable electrode design with induced gap states, which support Fermi level pinning and thus ambipolar carrier injection.

    • Thangavel Kanagasekaran
    • , Hidekazu Shimotani
    •  & Katsumi Tanigaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Devising effective swimming and propulsion strategies in microenvironments is attractive for drug delivery applications. Here Ahmed et al. demonstrate a micropropulsion strategy in which a combination of magnetic and acoustic fields is used to assemble and propel colloidal particles along channel walls.

    • Daniel Ahmed
    • , Thierry Baasch
    •  & Bradley J. Nelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Higher beam quality and stability are desired in laser-plasma accelerators for their applications in compact light sources. Here the authors demonstrate in laser plasma wakefield electron acceleration that the beam loading effect can be employed to improve beam quality by controlling the beam charge.

    • J. P. Couperus
    • , R. Pausch
    •  & A. Irman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The miniaturization of antennas beyond a wavelength is limited by designs which rely on electromagnetic resonances. Here, Nan et al. have developed acoustically actuated antennas that couple the acoustic resonance of the antenna with the electromagnetic wave, reducing the antenna footprint by up to 100.

    • Tianxiang Nan
    • , Hwaider Lin
    •  & Nian Xiang Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metamaterials enable the realization of unique material properties such as coupling between strain and momentum in a fluid—known as Willis coupling. Here, Muhlesteinet al. use homogenization theory to better understand Willis coupling in acoustic metamaterials and demonstrate the unusual material response.

    • Michael B. Muhlestein
    • , Caleb F. Sieck
    •  & Michael R. Haberman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic non-volatile memories based on ferroelectric and semiconductor polymers are one of promising candidates for flexible electronics, yet the relevant device physics remains elusive. Ghittorelliet al. show that quantum tunnelling and charge accumulation govern the ferroelectric memory operation.

    • Matteo Ghittorelli
    • , Thomas Lenz
    •  & Fabrizio Torricelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Impedance mismatch between acoustic metamaterials and a surrounding medium hinders efficient applications, especially for zero-index materials. Here, Duboiset al. utilize the Dirac-like dispersion in a double-zero-index material to overcome this problem and to collimate sound.

    • Marc Dubois
    • , Chengzhi Shi
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling acoustic fields is of interest for diverse applications. Here the authors develop metasurfaces using a small set of pre-manufactured three-dimensional unit cells, quantized in both the spatial and phase domains, achieving with them acoustic levitation.

    • Gianluca Memoli
    • , Mihai Caleap
    •  & Sriram Subramanian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional metallic communication elements suffer from substantial losses in the visible and near-infrared. Here, Barredaet al. show in a proof of principle in the microwave regime that a pair of high-index dielectric spheres can operate as a perfect switch in a beam-splitter configuration.

    • Ángela I. Barreda
    • , Hassan Saleh
    •  & Fernando Moreno

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