Condensed-matter physics articles within Nature Materials

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• Letter | 14 February 2010

  A homologous series of structures on the surface of SrTiO₃(110)

  Resolving the surface structure and chemistry of oxides such as strontium titanate has so far proved difficult. Rings of six or eight corner-sharing TiO₄ tetrahedra and a homologous series of surface reconstructions for SrTiO₃(110) are now predicted.

  • James A. Enterkin
  • , Arun K. Subramanian
  •  & Laurence D. Marks

• News & Views | 01 February 2010

  Interfaces heat up

  By using an ionic liquid as a gate dielectric, superconductivity can be induced in an inorganic band insulator up to a temperature of 15 K by an electric field, opening new directions in superconductivity research.

  • Kosmas Prassides

• Letter | 31 January 2010

  Chemically fixed p–n heterojunctions for polymer electronics by means of covalent B–F bond formation

  Creating p–n junctions using semiconducting polymers has proved to be challenging because of difficulties in depositing semiconducting polymer films. Now, by using a cationic conjugated-polymer electrolyte and a neutral conjugated-polymer layer, devices with a fixed bilayer organic p–n junction and fast response times have been fabricated.

  • Corey V. Hoven
  • , Huiping Wang
  •  & Guillermo C. Bazan

• Letter | 24 January 2010

  Portrait of the potential barrier at metal–organic nanocontacts

  Electron transport through metal–molecule contacts greatly affects the operation of electronic devices based on organic semiconductors and single-molecule junctions, but the nature of the contact barrier remains poorly understood. Scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments reveal a significant variation on the submolecular scale, leading to a scheme to locally manipulate the potential barrier of the molecular nanocontacts with atomic precision.

  • Lucia Vitali
  • , Giacomo Levita
  •  & Klaus Kern

• Letter | 17 January 2010

  Many-body effects in electronic bandgaps of carbon nanotubes measured by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy

  Why does the bandgap in semiconducting carbon nanotubes depend on the way it is measured? It is now shown that the results obtained by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy are usually influenced by screening, which creates the discrepancy with optical measurements. The results highlight the importance of many-body effects in the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes.

  • H. Lin
  • , J. Lagoute
  •  & S. Rousset

• Article | 10 January 2010

  Nanopatterning Si(111) surfaces as a selective surface-chemistry route

  The ability to control the surface chemistry of silicon is important for microelectronic applications. Chemical species can now be stabilized on Si(111) surfaces using a partially alkoxylated surface as a nanopatterning template.

  • David J. Michalak
  • , Sandrine Rivillon Amy
  •  & Yves J. Chabal

• Letter | 10 January 2010

  Current-driven spin torque induced by the Rashba effect in a ferromagnetic metal layer

  Control of magnetization in ferromagnetic metals can be achieved through the spin torque of currents of spin-polarized electrons, usually injected externally. It is now shown that even without this spin-polarized injection, a current can induce strong spin torques through the Rashba effect. The efficiency of this process makes it a realistic candidate for room-temperature spintronic applications.

  • Ioan Mihai Miron
  • , Gilles Gaudin
  •  & Pietro Gambardella

• Article | 10 January 2010

  Ordered mesoporous α-MoO₃ with iso-oriented nanocrystalline walls for thin-film pseudocapacitors

  Capacitive energy storage is technologically attractive because of its short charging times and its ability to deliver more power than batteries. The capacitive charge-storage properties of mesoporous films of MoO₃ with iso-oriented grains now lead to pseudocapacitive materials that offer increased energy density while still maintaining high power density.

  • Torsten Brezesinski
  • , John Wang
  •  & Bruce Dunn