Electronic properties and materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unusual properties arise in transition metal dichalcogenides as dimensionality decreases. Here, the authors introduce a templated growth approach to precisely control the width of MoS2nanowires on a substrate, allowing them to reveal a relationship between size and electronic properties.

    • Hai Xu
    • , Shuanglong Liu
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The crossover between the weak-coupling limit and strong-coupling limit provides important information for quantum bound states of interacting fermions. Here, Kasahara et al. report thermodynamic evidence for prevailing phase fluctuations of superconductivity, highlighting unusual normal state in the BCS-BEC crossover regime.

    • S. Kasahara
    • , T. Yamashita
    •  & Y. Matsuda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric orders hardly exist in liquid or ice state of water, despite its enormous molecular electrical polarizability. Here, Gorshunov et al. report incipient ferroelectricity in chains of interacting water molecules by placing them in the structural channels of a beryl crystal.

    • B. P. Gorshunov
    • , V. I. Torgashev
    •  & M. Dressel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Until now experimental evidence of an electrical analogy to Mie scattering is lacking. Here, Caridad and Krstićet al. present an experimental demonstration of an electrical analogue to Mie scattering by using graphene as conductor, and circular potentials arranged in a canted two-dimensional array.

    • José M. Caridad
    • , Stephen Connaughton
    •  & Vojislav Krstić

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the Kondo effect, a bath of conduction electrons screens a localized magnetic moment. Here, the authors demonstrate Kondo screening of a normally isolated 4f-like moment in a magnetic molecule on a Cu(001) surface that is modulated by strong ligand-mediated coupling.

    • Ben Warner
    • , Fadi El Hallak
    •  & Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It was recently demonstrated that particular materials with non-trivial electronic band structure support quasiparticle excitations described by the relativistic Weyl equation. Here, the authors explore how an analogous magnonic band structure may exist in breathing pyrochlore antiferromagnets.

    • Fei-Ye Li
    • , Yao-Dong Li
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular magnets may provide fundamental building blocks for future spintronic and quantum information technologies. Here, the authors demonstrate how the Yb4 tetrahedral components of inorganic materials Ba3Yb2Zn5O11behave as isolated molecular magnets.

    • Sang-Youn Park
    • , S.-H. Do
    •  & Sungdae Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, theories have emerged that describe the nonlinear high-energy excitations of one-dimensional electronic fluids. Here, the authors report experimental evidence of their existence and behaviour in tunnelling spectra of short GaAs quantum wires.

    • M Moreno
    • , C. J. B. Ford
    •  & A. J. Schofield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin of interfacial conductivity between two insulating oxides, LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, remains elusive despite a long time research. Here, Lee et al. report atomic-scale observation of electron-gas formation for screening hidden ferroelectric-like lattice instabilities, discounting the role of polar catastrophe and cation intermixing.

    • P. W. Lee
    • , V. N. Singh
    •  & M.-W. Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charge generation and transport are crucial to the performance of organic solar cells, but the mechanism remains controversial. Causa’ et al. show that the phase morphology of polymer:fullerene blends determines the exciton dissociation at femtoseconds, although the spatial separation can occur at picoseconds.

    • Martina Causa'
    • , Jelissa De Jonghe-Risse
    •  & Natalie Banerji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological state in Kondo insulators has been provoked in SmB6, but the origin of surface states and topological order remain elusive. Here, Hagiwara et al. report temperature dependent reconstruction of a metallic surface state on the (001) surface of YbB12driven by Kondo effect and discuss its origin from topology.

    • Kenta Hagiwara
    • , Yoshiyuki Ohtsubo
    •  & Shin-ichi Kimura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanostructured materials offer a route to tuning the bandgap of a semiconductor. Here, the authors use single particle absorption spectroscopy to investigate bandgap evolution between cadmium selenide nanowires and quantum dots and identify the length at which a nanorod becomes zero-dimensional.

    • Matthew P. McDonald
    • , Rusha Chatterjee
    •  & Masaru Kuno

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong electronic correlations are expected to generate novel behaviour in materials possessing exotic massless electrons with a relativistic nature. Here, the authors demonstrate the reshaping of tilted Dirac cones and ferrimagnetism associated with Coulombic interactions in a layered organic compound.

    • Michihiro Hirata
    • , Kyohei Ishikawa
    •  & Kazushi Kanoda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulating nitrogen vacancies in nitrogen-doped diamond is important for quantum information processing. Here the authors use a two-colour excitation to redistribute the localized trapping charges in type-1b diamonds.

    • Harishankar Jayakumar
    • , Jacob Henshaw
    •  & Carlos A. Meriles

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The topological character of electrons in semimetals subtly influences their bulk properties, leading typically to weak experimental signatures. Here, Moll et al. report a distinctive anomaly in the magnetic torque upon entering quantum limit state in the Weyl semimetal NbAs, which only appears due to the presence of Weyl fermions.

    • Philip J. W. Moll
    • , Andrew C. Potter
    •  & James G. Analytis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Resistive switching in metal oxides is related to the migration of donor defects. Here Baeumer et al. use in operandoX-ray spectromicroscopy to quantify the doping locally and show that small local variations in the donor concentration result in large variations in the device resistance.

    • Christoph Baeumer
    • , Christoph Schmitz
    •  & Regina Dittmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flexible rotation of spontaneous polarization at ferroelectric domain walls is predicted in theory but lacks evidence from experiment. Here, Wei et al. image a Néel-like domain wall in Ti-rich ferroelectric Pb(Zr1−xTix)O3crystals, providing insight in exploring chiral domain walls in ferroelectrics.

    • Xian-Kui Wei
    • , Chun-Lin Jia
    •  & Nava Setter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The many-body Kondo effect manifests in low-temperature Coulomb blockaded quantum dots as a zero-bias conductance peak, which arises due to charge-fluctuation-driven transport. Here, the authors demonstrate a counterintuitive Kondo effect in which these conduction channels are blocked.

    • Michael Niklas
    • , Sergey Smirnov
    •  & Milena Grifoni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-molecule-terminated scanning probes typically operate under ultra-high vacuum conditions at low temperatures. Here, the authors show that tips functionalized with C60 can image single-layer graphene and MoS2with high definition in a liquid environment at room temperature

    • Peter Nirmalraj
    • , Damien Thompson
    •  & Heike Riel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been predicted that the presence of strong electronic correlations may generate new phases in materials with topologically non-trivial band structure. Here, the authors demonstrate the generation of Dirac mass in the correlated Dirac semimetal candidate ZrTe5under high magnetic fields.

    • Yanwen Liu
    • , Xiang Yuan
    •  & Faxian Xiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal oxide resistive switches rely on the migration of oxygen vacancies and electrons under applied voltage. Here, Cho et al. use nanocomposites to control the electronic and ionic conductivities in spatially distinct channels, and fabricate memristors with high on/off ratios and reproducibility.

    • Seungho Cho
    • , Chao Yun
    •  & Judith L. MacManus-Driscoll

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron or hole doping in a Mott insulator leads to superconductivity, with the mechanism obscured by multi-orbital Fermi surface reconstructions. Here, Kawasugi et al. report doping dependent Hall coefficients and resistivity anisotropy of an organic Mott insulator, revealing doping asymmetry of reconstructed Fermi surface of a single electronic orbital.

    • Yoshitaka Kawasugi
    • , Kazuhiro Seki
    •  & Reizo Kato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral p-wave superconductors may form the basis for topological quantum computers however one has yet to be identified. Here, the authors propose that such a state may be created by a two-dimensional array of magnetic adatoms on the surface of a superconductor with strong spin-orbit coupling.

    • Jian Li
    • , Titus Neupert
    •  & B. Andrei Bernevig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energy alignment in molecular tunnelling junctions is desirable for altering their electrical properties, however controllability is still an issue. Here the authors report a 2 orders-of-magnitude increase in the tunnelling current via chemical control of the energy-level alignment at a two-terminal junction.

    • Li Yuan
    • , Carlos Franco
    •  & Christian A. Nijhuis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alloying lead telluride has proven a good strategy to improve its thermoelectric properties. Here, the authors use a rapid temperature quenching to prepare compounds alloyed above the thermodynamic solubility limit, which results in band convergence and high thermoelectric figures of merit.

    • Gangjian Tan
    • , Fengyuan Shi
    •  & Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The identification of broken symmetry states in underdoped cuprate superconductors via quantum oscillation measurements remains inconclusive. Here, Chan et al. report the reconstructed Fermi surface of HgBa2CuO4+δ comprises only a single pocket indicating a biaxial charge-density-wave order within each CuO2plane.

    • M. K. Chan
    • , N. Harrison
    •  & M. Greven

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Group IV–VI materials often exist in a state near an electronic or structural phase transition. Here, the authors use ultrafast X-ray scattering to show that coupling of band-edge electrons and phonons causes the ferroelectric instability observed in lead telluride.

    • M. P. Jiang
    • , M. Trigo
    •  & D. A. Reis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disorder localizes electrons, which is usually detrimental to the onset of superconductivity. Here, Petrović et al. report a disorder-enhanced superconducting instability in quasi-one dimensional Na2-dMo6Se6and suggest that this effect may originate from an intrinsically screened Coulomb repulsion.

    • A. P. Petrović
    • , D. Ansermet
    •  & C. Panagopoulos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanisms allowing electrical manipulation of magnetic material possess potential applications in low power memory and sensor technologies. Here, the authors demonstrate the control of magnetic characteristics via voltage-driven migration of oxygen across a GdOx/Co interface, well into the bulk of the cobalt.

    • Dustin A. Gilbert
    • , Alexander J. Grutter
    •  & Brian B. Maranville

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By magnetic-doping, the electronic band structure of a topological insulator can be significantly altered to yield functional behaviour. Here, the authors demonstrate a large photocurrent response, and its control, under zero-bias in an optimally-designed magnetically-doped topological insulator thin film.

    • N. Ogawa
    • , R. Yoshimi
    •  & Y. Tokura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transparent and electrically conducting flexible films are in high demand but production can be both time-consuming and expensive. Here, the authors report a method for assembling modified graphene flakes in controlled distributions within polymeric matrices by use of magnetic fields.

    • Hortense Le Ferrand
    • , Sreenath Bolisetty
    •  & Raffaele Mezzenga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In computers, computation is performed by assemblies of logic gates, most of which are logically irreversible. Here, the authors explore the connection between logical and physical irreversibility through an OR gate made by a micro-electromechanical cantilever that can be operated with extremely little energy.

    • M. López-Suárez
    • , I. Neri
    •  & L. Gammaitoni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The improvement of the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT has been hindered by the challenges associated with the independent control of the electrical and thermal conductivity. Here the authors show that SnS2nanosheets can lead to an increased ZT via negative correlation between electrical and thermal conductivity.

    • Myoung-Jae Lee
    • , Ji-Hoon Ahn
    •  & Moon-Ho Jo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Domain wall between gapped graphene bilayers is believed to host one-dimensional topological states, which is yet waiting for direct evidences. Here, Yin et al.report images of the AB-BA stacked bilayer graphene domain wall, providing direct evidence for topological edge states in such system.

    • Long-Jing Yin
    • , Hua Jiang
    •  & Lin He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oxygen vacancies near the interface in oxide heterostructures can lead to large changes in properties, including metal–insulator transition temperatures or catalytic activity. Here, the authors demonstrate a way to reversibly control the oxygen-vacancy concentration and distribution in oxide heterostructures.

    • Boyd W. Veal
    • , Seong Keun Kim
    •  & Jeffrey A. Eastman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high mobility of graphene has the potential to enable design of devices working in a collisionless regime of carrier transport. Here the authors fabricate a ballistic nano-rectifier based on encapsulated graphene, showing intrinsic performances comparable to those of superconducting bolometers.

    • Gregory Auton
    • , Jiawei Zhang
    •  & Aimin Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The family of topological materials has been growing rapidly but most members bare limitations hindering the study of exotic behaviour of topological particles. Here, Schoop et al. report a Fermi surface with a diamond-shaped line of Dirac nodes in ZrSiS, providing a promising candidate for studying two-dimensional Dirac fermions.

    • Leslie M. Schoop
    • , Mazhar N. Ali
    •  & Christian R. Ast

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Field-induced electronic structures with spatial, momentum and energy resolution reveal the nature of interaction among multiple phases in correlated materials. Here, Machida et al. report two magnetic field-induced electronic superstructures in Bi2Se2CaCu2O8+δ, evidencing competition between superconductivity and emerging states.

    • T. Machida
    • , Y. Kohsaka
    •  & T. Tamegai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gel electrolytes are promising for solid-state supercapacitors, due to their favourable properties such as high ion migration rate, mechanical strength, and water retention. Here, the authors report on a zwitterionic gel electrolyte giving robust performance in graphene-based solid-state supercapacitors.

    • Xu Peng
    • , Huili Liu
    •  & Yi Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charged ferroelectric domain walls show promise for two-dimensional conduction, but their abundance within (Ca,Sr)3Ti2O7 crystals is poorly understood. Here, Huang et al. discover topology related domain structures in such materials, which reveal the rich nature of hybrid improper ferroelectricity.

    • F. -T. Huang
    • , F. Xue
    •  & S. -W. Cheong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The limits of topological protection in photonic systems remain unclear. Here, Gao et al. construct photonic topological edge states and probe their robustness against a variety of defect classes, including some common time-reversal-invariant photonic defects that can break the topological protection.

    • Fei Gao
    • , Zhen Gao
    •  & Baile Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realizing components with decoupled geometrical form and optical function are of interest for various applications. Here, Kamali et al. introduce flexible metasurfaces based on a transmitarray platform that can be conformed to a non-planar arbitrarily shaped object to modify its optical properties at will.

    • Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali
    • , Amir Arbabi
    •  & Andrei Faraon

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