Condensed-matter physics articles within Nature Materials

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  • News & Views |

    Chiral single-photon emitters are desirable, versatile tools for quantum information processing. Exploiting proximity to a strain-induced local magnetic field in the van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS3 enables the emission of high-purity chiral single photons from monolayer WSe2 at zero external magnetic field.

    • Jing Tang
    •  & Xi Ling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric dead layers can form at perovskite interfaces—a major challenge in integrating oxide thin films into devices. Here, by depositing an in-plane-polarized epitaxial buffer layer of Bi5FeTi3O15, out-of-plane polarization is demonstrated in ultrathin films down to the single-unit-cell level.

    • Elzbieta Gradauskaite
    • , Quintin N. Meier
    •  & Morgan Trassin

  • Article |

    Trapped films of air known as plastrons are promising for underwater engineering but typically have short lifetimes. Here, aerophilic titanium alloy surfaces are developed with thermodynamically stabilized plastrons for antifouling applications.

    • Alexander B. Tesler
    • , Stefan Kolle
    •  & Wolfgang H. Goldmann

  • News & Views |

    In a non-collinear antiferromagnet, elementary spins rotate with opposite handedness with respect to the collective octupole magnetic moment when stirred by spin currents.

    • Enrique del Barco
    •  & Andrew D. Kent

  • News & Views |

    By tracking the electrochromic doping front, a hole-limited electrochemical doping mechanism is discovered in organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors.

    • Ruiheng Wu
    • , Dilara Meli
    •  & Jonathan Rivnay

  • News & Views |

    By means of a precise folding–tearing process, screw dislocations with helical cores — appearing in pairs and taking on a DNA-like double-helix structure — are engineered to control the growth of twisted bilayer graphene.

    • Pascal Pochet
    •  & Harley T. Johnson

  • News & Views |

    Piezoresponse microscopy and spectroscopy reveal the inextricable role of surface electrochemistry in stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in doped hafnia.

    • Xia Hong

  • Article |

    Ferroelectricity in hafnia-based systems seems to be correlated with oxygen vacancy dynamics, but the coupling of this and ferroelectric response is rarely studied. Here it is shown that Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 can be antiferroionic, with antiferroelectric behaviour coupled to surface electrochemistry.

    • Kyle P. Kelley
    • , Anna N. Morozovska
    •  & Sergei V. Kalinin

  • News & Views |

    Detailed transmission electron microscopy imaging of the dynamics of domain walls in twisted van der Waals ferroelectrics is obtained, capturing the transition to a hysteretic response.

    • Moshe Ben Shalom

  • News & Views |

    Circularly polarized photoexcitation initiates spin domain formation in polycrystalline halide perovskite films with strong spin–orbit coupling and local inversion symmetry breaking, as revealed by ultrafast optical microscopy.

    • Richard D. Averitt

  • News & Views |

    By monitoring the lattice dynamics of single-crystal argyrodite Ag8SnSe6 through the superionic transition, low thermal conductivity and ionic transport are found to arise from extreme phonon anharmonicity.

    • M. de Boissieu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The two-dimensional layered crystal structure of niobium oxide polymorph T-Nb2O5 exhibits fast Li-ion diffusion that is promising for energy storage applications. Epitaxial growth of single-crystalline T-Nb2O5 thin films with ionic transport channels oriented perpendicular to the surface are now demonstrated.

    • Hyeon Han
    • , Quentin Jacquet
    •  & Stuart S. P. Parkin

  • News & Views |

    Quantum dots are engineered to use dopant states to achieve substantially enhanced impact ionization, which is potentially useful for light-harvesting applications.

    • Miri Kazes
    •  & Dan Oron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carrier multiplication generates multiple excitons for each absorbed photon but is normally limited by fast phonon-assisted relaxation. Here the authors achieve a threefold enhancement in multiexciton yields in Mn-doped PbSe/CdSe quantum dots, due to very fast spin-exchange interactions between Mn ions and the quantum dots that outpace energy losses arising from phonon emission.

    • Ho Jin
    • , Clément Livache
    •  & Victor I. Klimov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report the emergence of a transient hexatic state during laser-induced transformation between two charge-density wave (CDW) phases in a thin film of the CDW material 1T-TaS2.

    • Till Domröse
    • , Thomas Danz
    •  & Claus Ropers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochemical doping is assumed to be limited by ion motion due to large mass in mixed ionic-electronic conductors. Here, the authors reveal in a typical polythiophene that electrochemical doping speeds are limited by poor hole transport at low doping levels, leading to much slower switching speeds than expected.

    • Scott T. Keene
    • , Joonatan E. M. Laulainen
    •  & George G. Malliaras

  • Editorial |

    After a decade of intense activity, the Graphene Flagship has helped to establish an incipient European graphene industry, yet mainstream commercialization of graphene products continues to be hindered by limited market readiness and industry acceptance.

  • Comment |

    The study of point defects in non-metallic crystals has become relevant for an increasing number of materials applications. Progress requires a foundation of consistent definitions and terminology. This Comment clarifies the underlying definitions of point defects, encourages the correct use of relative charge for their description and emphasizes their recognition as quasiparticles.

    • Roger De Souza
    •  & George Harrington

  • Article |

    FeSe does not exhibit magnetic order and lacks a nematic quantum critical point coinciding with optimal superconductivity, suggesting that an orbital mechanism drives nematicity, but direct evidence is lacking. Here, combining X-ray linear dichroism with in situ uniaxial stress, the role of spontaneous orbital polarization in nematic-phase FeSe is determined.

    • Connor A. Occhialini
    • , Joshua J. Sanchez
    •  & Riccardo Comin

  • Article |

    A method to manipulate the dislocation motion via a non-mechanical field alone has remained elusive. Here, using in situ TEM, it is directly observed that dislocation motion can be controlled solely by an external electric field.

    • Mingqiang Li
    • , Yidi Shen
    •  & Yu Zou

  • News & Views |

    Current-inducing switching of magnetization is crucial for future magnetic data processing technologies, but switching it with speed and energy efficiency remains challenging. Using femtosecond optical pulses, instead of conventional charge currents, is found to make spintronics not only ultrafast but also counterintuitive.

    • Dmytro Afanasiev
    •  & Alexey V. Kimel

  • Research Briefing |

    The output mechanical energy densities of ferroelectric polymers remain orders of magnitude smaller than those of piezoelectric ceramics and crystals, limiting their applications in soft actuators. But polymer composites subject to an electro-thermally driven ferroelectric phase transition under low electric fields are now shown to have giant actuation strains and large energy densities.

  • Article |

    Piezoelectric actuators play a critical role in precision positioning devices; however, materials with high actuation strain and mechanical energy density are rare. Here a composite of poly(vinylidene fluoride) and TiO2 demonstrates superior performance in these metrics, with the ferroelectric transition driven by Joule heating.

    • Yang Liu
    • , Yao Zhou
    •  & Qing Wang

  • Article |

    Superionic materials are of interest for solid-state batteries or thermoelectrics, yet a clear understanding of the atomistic mechanisms is lacking. Here it is shown that transverse acoustic phonons persist above the superionic transition in argyrodite Ag8SnSe6, and that the free-Se sublattice controls fast Ag cation diffusion.

    • Qingyong Ren
    • , Mayanak K. Gupta
    •  & Jie Ma

  • News & Views |

    In heavily hole-doped cuprates, superconductivity does not die by simply dissolving into a uniform metal due to the lack of pairing, but rather survives by shattering into nanoscale superconducting puddles.

    • Yu He

  • Editorial |

    Ferroelectrics have already impacted scientific research and commercial applications, but they still show plenty of potential to surprise.

  • News & Views |

    Antiferromagnetism has a vanishing total magnetization and thus is extremely challenging to manipulate. Now, circularly polarized light is shown to efficiently detect, induce and switch a unique class of antiferromagnets.

    • Youngjun Ahn
    •  & Liuyan Zhao

  • Perspective |

    Nanoscale ferroelectric topological solitons, such as polar bubbles, polar bubble skyrmions and hopfions, have garnered immense interest due to their emergent properties. This Perspective discusses how these structures form, advances in their study and how they can enable new devices and physics.

    • Vivasha Govinden
    • , Sergei Prokhorenko
    •  & Nagarajan Valanoor

  • News & Views |

    An optical spectroscopy approach unravels different layer-dependent correlated electron phases in a two-dimensional semiconductor heterobilayer.

    • Mauro Brotons-Gisbert
    •  & Brian D. Gerardot

  • Article |

    The authors demonstrate electrical on/off switching of interlayer interactions in tungsten diselenide/molybdenum disulfide heterobilayers, the phase diagram of which contains layer-dependent correlated regions that reveal the role of strong correlations in interlayer exciton dynamics.

    • Qinghai Tan
    • , Abdullah Rasmita
    •  & Weibo Gao

  • News & Views |

    Epitaxial topological heterostructures of (Bi,Sb)2Te3/graphene/gallium have been achieved using molecular-beam epitaxy, providing the opportunity to access Majorana zero modes in electrical transport when combined with van der Waals tunnel junctions.

    • Faxian Xiu

  • News & Views |

    The arrangement of magnetic ions between layers of NbS2 affects it as though a giant magnetic field is applied in different directions for electrons moving with opposite velocities. This discovery goes beyond the reach of conventional magnets, and opens up the way to custom-made effective fields engineered to guide materials into new territory.

    • Jasper van Wezel

  • News & Views |

    Scientists have realized Weyl modes by exposing a topological insulator to large magnetic fields. Their effort enriches the toolbox to design, engineer and manipulate topological materials for physics research and materials applications.

    • Zhengguang Lu
    •  & Long Ju

  • News & Views |

    Using low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy on a MoSe2/few-layer graphene heterostructure enables localized exciton generation and mapping with atomic-scale spatial resolution.

    • Libai Huang

  • Article |

    Nickelate superconductivity has so far been limited to thin films, raising questions about the role of the polar substrate–film interface. Here the authors utilize advanced characterization techniques to reveal the interfacial atomic structure and its relevance for superconductivity.

    • Berit H. Goodge
    • , Benjamin Geisler
    •  & Lena F. Kourkoutis

  • Article |

    Optically detected magnetic resonance of nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond enables the detection of pressure-induced phase transitions, but interpreting their magnetic resonance spectra remains challenging. Here the authors propose implanted silicon vacancy defects in 4H-SiC for in situ magnetic phase detection at high pressures.

    • Jun-Feng Wang
    • , Lin Liu
    •  & Guang-Can Guo

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