Condensed-matter physics articles within Nature Materials

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  • Letter |

    The coupling between electron spins and phonons could lead to a new typology of electronic devices. The effects of such coupling are now experimentally demonstrated by injecting sound waves into a magnetic strip. The results also help to explain the origin of the spin Seebeck effect, which has been controversial for a while.

    • K. Uchida
    • , H. Adachi
    •  & E. Saitoh

  • Letter |

    The arrangement of defects in solid-state phases has an enormous influence on material properties. It is here shown that powerful X-rays can be used to change the properties of an oxide superconductor, thus effectively writing superconducting regions within an insulating matrix. The results open the way to the manipulation of superconductors and potentially other phases.

    • Nicola Poccia
    • , Michela Fratini
    •  & Antonio Bianconi

  • Article |

    With only a few known useful room-temperature multiferroics, other ways of achieving materials showing magnetism as well as electrical polarization are sought. The discovery that the ferroelectric BaTiO3 also shows magnetism at room temperature at the interface with iron or cobalt marks a new approach to achieving multiferroic properties.

    • S. Valencia
    • , A. Crassous
    •  & M. Bibes

  • Article |

    Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy is possibly the most widely used technique to probe the electronic structure of crystals. Unfortunately the technique is usually too sensitive to surface properties. It is now demonstrated that by using hard X-rays as the incident radiation it is possible to probe the electronic structure in the bulk.

    • A. X. Gray
    • , C. Papp
    •  & C. S. Fadley

  • Letter |

    A suspension of magnetic colloidal particles confined at a liquid–liquid interface and energized by an external periodic magnetic field self-assembles into star-shaped structures that can be magnetically manipulated to capture and transport smaller non-magnetic particles.

    • Alexey Snezhko
    •  & Igor S. Aranson

  • Letter |

    Typically, the light-emission of semiconductors always occurs from thermalized electrons, as electrons excited above the bandgap energy relax quickly. In contrast, non-thermalized excitonic light emission has now been observed in nanowires using resonant plasmonic nanocavities. The much higher radiative light-emission rates of the hot excitons suggest their use for ultrafast nanophotonic devices.

    • Chang-Hee Cho
    • , Carlos O. Aspetti
    •  & Ritesh Agarwal

  • Article |

    On standard tissue culture platforms, mesenchymal stem cells tend to spontaneously differentiate with the loss of multi-lineage potential. Now, a robust and reproducible nanotopographical platform has been shown to maintain stem cell phenotype and promote stem cell growth over several months whilst implicating mechanisms for the observed stem cell behaviour

    • Rebecca J. McMurray
    • , Nikolaj Gadegaard
    •  & Matthew J. Dalby

  • Letter |

    Spin current, that is, the flow of angular momentum without charge transfer, may be used in efficient spintronics devices. One problem is that spin current tends to decrease, owing to spin–orbit interaction. It is now shown that through interaction with spin waves it is possible to reverse this effect and enhance the spin current back.

    • Hidekazu Kurebayashi
    • , Oleksandr Dzyapko
    •  & Sergej O. Demokritov

  • Letter |

    Spin injection from a magnetic electrode into the non-magnetic active element of a spintronics device is seriously hampered by the impedance mismatch between the two materials. One common solution is to use high-quality tunnel barriers. An alternative strategy is now demonstrated through spin pumping based on dynamical spin exchange.

    • K. Ando
    • , S. Takahashi
    •  & E. Saitoh

  • News & Views |

    Conventional magnetoresistive devices are composed of magnetic and non-magnetic films. It is now shown that, at low temperature, a carbon nanotube decorated with single-molecule magnets can function as an all-organic spin valve.

    • Stefano Sanvito

  • Article |

    A very large Rashba-type spin splitting, which is a consequence of spin–orbit interaction, has been observed in the heavy-element semiconductor BiTeI. The results show the possibility, in principle, of using the material in spintronics devices in which the electron spin is controlled by electric currents.

    • K. Ishizaka
    • , M. S. Bahramy
    •  & Y. Tokura

  • Letter |

    In macroscopic spin valves, the current between two magnetic electrodes can be tuned by external magnetic fields. Here, a molecular-scale spin valve is demonstrated in which a single-molecule magnet, through its localized magnetic moment, modulates the conductance of a single-walled carbon nanotube quantum dot with magnetoresistance ratios reaching 300%.

    • M. Urdampilleta
    • , S. Klyatskaya
    •  & W. Wernsdorfer

  • Article |

    Electrochemical energy can be produced by using solar energy to oxidize water, providing an abundant source of electrons, which are needed in fuel synthesis. The operation of an efficient and stable semiconductor nanocomposite anode, made of a protective TiO2 layer that protects a silicon substrate during photoelectrochemical water oxidation in both dark and light conditions, is now reported.

    • Yi Wei Chen
    • , Jonathan D. Prange
    •  & Paul C. McIntyre

  • Article |

    Pure spin current—the flow of spin angular momentum involving no charge movement—could lead to highly efficient spintronic devices. It is now shown that through low-resistivity magnetic tunnelling junctions it is possible to induce spin accumulation in solid-state devices one hundred times higher than previously obtained. This is the main requirement for generation of large spin currents.

    • Yasuhiro Fukuma
    • , Le Wang
    •  & YoshiChika Otani

  • Article |

    The energy-level alignment at the heterojunction critically influences the performance of organic photovoltaic devices. It is now shown that the surface dipole moments of individual organic semiconductor films can be tuned with surface-segregated monolayers before forming bilayer solar cells by a simple film-transfer method.

    • Akira Tada
    • , Yanfang Geng
    •  & Keisuke Tajima

  • Letter |

    The production of fuels from sunlight is crucial to the development of a sustainable energy system. Although noble metals are efficient catalysts for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution, earth-abundant alternatives are needed for large-scale use. Bioinspired molecular clusters based on molybdenum and sulphur are now shown to produce hydrogen at rates comparable to platinum.

    • Yidong Hou
    • , Billie L. Abrams
    •  & Ib Chorkendorff

  • News & Views |

    The experimental demonstration of antiferromagnetic tunnelling anisotropic magnetoresistance paves the way for spintronic devices based on antiferromagnets, rather than ferromagnets.

    • Rembert Duine

  • News & Views |

    Local rotations in crystals change our view at the inner structure of crystals and may be the key for a whole range of hidden symmetries and novel physical effects in condensed-matter systems.

    • Manfred Fiebig

  • Article |

    Solution-deposited metal oxides show great potential for large-area electronics, but they generally require high annealing temperatures, which are incompatible with flexible polymeric substrates. Combustion processing is now reported as a new low-temperature route for the deposition of diverse metal oxide films, and high-performance transistors are demonstrated using this method.

    • Myung-Gil Kim
    • , Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
    •  & Tobin J. Marks

  • Article |

    The symmetries of crystals are an important factor in the understanding of their properties. The discovery of a new symmetry type, rotation-reversal symmetry, may lead to the discovery of new rotation-based phenomena, for example in multiferroic materials.

    • Venkatraman Gopalan
    •  & Daniel B. Litvin

  • Letter |

    Bottom gates in epitaxial graphene structures can now be fabricated through a technique based on nitrogen implantation. This is an important achievement to increase both the versatility of the material for fundamental studies and the potential for its use in devices.

    • Daniel Waldmann
    • , Johannes Jobst
    •  & Heiko B. Weber

  • Editorial |

    One hundred years after its discovery, superconductivity is still one of the most fascinating and challenging topics in condensed-matter physics.

  • Interview |

    John Clarke told Nature Materials about his work on superconducting quantum interference devices — SQUIDs — and his fascination with their applicability to many fields, from medicine to geophysics to quantum information and cosmology.

    • Fabio Pulizzi

  • News & Views |

    The interaction between ferroelectric distortion and two rotational modes in some transition-metal oxides promises a strategy for strong magnetoelectronic coupling, possibly at room temperature.

    • Philippe Ghosez
    •  & Jean-Marc Triscone

  • Commentary |

    The high critical temperature and magnetic field in cuprates and Fe-based superconductors are not enough to assure applications at higher temperatures. Making these superconductors useful involves complex and expensive technologies to address many conflicting physics and materials requirements.

    • Alex Gurevich

  • Commentary |

    Superconductivity has gone from a rare event to a ground state that pops up in materials once considered improbable, if not impossible. Although we cannot predict its occurrence yet, recent discoveries give us some clues about how to look for new — hopefully more useful — superconducting materials.

    • Paul C. Canfield

  • Article |

    Explaining why interactions of metal particles with oxide supports can improve their catalytic performance has proved challenging. The origin and nature of metal–oxide interactions on industrially important platinum–ceria catalysts are now clarified, together with the dependence of the catalytic activity on the structure of the support.

    • Georgi N. Vayssilov
    • , Yaroslava Lykhach
    •  & Jörg Libuda

  • Letter |

    Spin-valve structures used in modern hard-drive read heads and magnetic random access memories comprise two ferromagnetic electrodes. It is now shown that antiferromagnets can be used as electrodes in spin valves. The results open a wide range of new possibilities for the choice of materials for spintronics devices.

    • B. G. Park
    • , J. Wunderlich
    •  & T. Jungwirth

  • Letter |

    Knowledge of the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter is essential to understand the origin of superconductivity itself. Studies on the recently discovered heavily doped Fe2Se2 now show that in these compounds the order parameter has a relatively simple symmetry compared with most other Fe-based superconductors, questioning again the generality of the results obtained so far.

    • Y. Zhang
    • , L. X. Yang
    •  & D. L. Feng

  • News & Views |

    The formation of a two-dimensional electron liquid at the interface between two insulating oxides, now extended to oxides on Si, joins a wealth of observations that reveal how electron transfer between layers is responsible for this unusual effect.

    • Darrell G. Schlom
    •  & Jochen Mannhart

  • Letter |

    Magnetic domain walls can be controlled through a spin torque, which is usually influenced by extrinsic factors, such as defects, that pin the domain walls to specific configurations. It is now shown that intrinsic pinning conditions can be achieved, which will facilitate the development of efficient information storage devices based on domain wall control.

    • T. Koyama
    • , D. Chiba
    •  & T. Ono

  • Letter |

    Using boron nitride as a substrate for graphene has been suggested as a promising way to reduce the disorder in graphene caused by space fluctuations. It is now shown by scanning tunnelling microscopy that graphene conforms perfectly to boron nitride and the charge fluctuations are minimal compared with the conventionally used substrate, silica. Boron nitride could really be the natural graphene substrate.

    • Jiamin Xue
    • , Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi
    •  & Brian J. LeRoy

  • Article |

    Monte Carlo simulations are performed to study the assembly of polyhedrons into various mesophases and crystalline states. The formation of new liquid-crystalline and plastic-crystalline phases is predicted at intermediate volume fractions and, by correlating these results with particle anisotropy and rotational symmetry, guidelines for predicting phase behaviour are proposed.

    • Umang Agarwal
    •  & Fernando A. Escobedo

  • Article |

    One of the key loss mechanisms in the operation of organic solar cells is the separation and extraction of the generated charge carriers from the active region. The use of a ferroelectric layer is now shown to create large internal electric fields, resulting in an enhanced carrier extraction and increased device efficiency.

    • Yongbo Yuan
    • , Timothy J. Reece
    •  & Jinsong Huang

  • Letter |

    The occupation of electronic orbitals on the surface and interface of oxide thin films and heterostructures is a key influence over their properties, including magnetism and superconductivity. A new spectroscopy technique now provides the first quantitative, spatially resolved data of orbital occupation in oxide structures.

    • Eva Benckiser
    • , Maurits W. Haverkort
    •  & Bernhard Keimer

  • Review Article |

    Single dopants in semiconductors have an atom-like electron-energy spectrum whose discrete character gives them the potential for applications such as quantum information or transistors. This Review describes the marked advances in the past decade towards observing, controllably creating and manipulating single dopants, as well as their application in devices.

    • Paul M. Koenraad
    •  & Michael E. Flatté

  • Letter |

    Electronic devices based on complex oxides offer the possibility to connect electrical devices with phenomena such as magnetism and superconductivity. However, existing oxide field-effect transistors have drawbacks such as high operation voltage. The demonstration of a metal-base transistor whose geometry makes use of the strong internal electric fields in oxide heterojunctions may now offer a new platform for oxide electronics.

    • Takeaki Yajima
    • , Yasuyuki Hikita
    •  & Harold Y. Hwang

  • Article |

    Phase-change materials are used in computer memories for their switching between amorphous and crystalline phases. However, even the crystalline state shows disorder, with extremely small electron mean free paths. The discovery that, depending on annealing temperature, this disorder leads to a metal–insulator transition in the crystalline phase provides a completely new look at the transport properties of these compounds.

    • T. Siegrist
    • , P. Jost
    •  & M. Wuttig

  • Letter |

    Is friction dominated by electrons or by lattice vibrations? A nano-contact experiment shows that on a Nb surface friction drops by a factor of three when crossing the superconductivity transition, showing that it has essentially an electronic nature in the metallic state, whereas the phononic contribution dominates in the superconducting state.

    • Marcin Kisiel
    • , Enrico Gnecco
    •  & Ernst Meyer

  • News & Views |

    A suitably chosen thin layer inserted between a ferromagnetic electrode and an organic semiconductor allows control over the polarization of the injected spins.

    • Paul Ruden

  • News & Views |

    High annealing temperatures have limited the technological potential of solution-processed metal oxide semiconductors. It is now shown that high-quality films can be formed below 250 °C using precursors that are hydrolysed on-chip.

    • Douglas Keszler

  • Letter |

    A low-temperature, solution-based preparation of amorphous, metal oxide semiconducting thin-films is reported. This ‘sol–gel on chip’ hydrolysis approach yields thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobilities, reproducible and stable turn-on voltages and high operational stability.

    • K. K. Banger
    • , Y. Yamashita
    •  & H. Sirringhaus

  • Letter |

    A one-step preparation method of electrospun, synthetic scaffolds with controlled surface chemistry and functionality is reported. On addition of amphiphilic macromolecules, non-specific protein adsorption on the fibres’ surfaces is reduced, and by the further covalent attachment of certain peptide sequences to the fibres, specific bioactivation of the scaffold is achieved.

    • Dirk Grafahrend
    • , Karl-Heinz Heffels
    •  & Jürgen Groll

  • Letter |

    Ratchet systems can extract work from non-equilibrium processes. Yet present electronic ratchets only operate at cryogenic temperatures and generate low currents, which are clear limitations for their practical use. Now, organic electronic ratchets providing enough power to drive simple logic circuits at room temperature have been realized.

    • Erik M. Roeling
    • , Wijnand Chr. Germs
    •  & Martijn Kemerink

  • Article |

    A polymeric hydrogel coating shows impressive antimicrobial activity against both bacteria and fungi. The biocompatible and reusable coating, formed of a polycationic nanoporous hydrogel, is thought to act by drawing anionic sections of phospholipids on bacterial cell membranes into its pores, causing membrane disruption and cell death.

    • Peng Li
    • , Yin Fun Poon
    •  & Mary B. Chan-Park

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