Electronic properties and materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    In materials with strongly correlated electrons, charge carriers can separate into stripes of different electronic phases. Here, Anissimova et al. present evidence that in La2−xSrxNiO4these stripes can dynamically fluctuate, which helps to understand phenomena such as insulator–metal transitions.

    • S. Anissimova
    • , D. Parshall
    •  & D. Reznik

  • Article |

    A memristor is the missing fourth circuit element that remembers its bias history. The storage in established devices today occurs by binary switching between ON and OFF states due to filamentary or interfacial mechanisms. Here, Aoki et al.show an analogue-type, homogeneous switching memristor system based on gallium oxide.

    • Yoshitaka Aoki
    • , Carsten Wiemann
    •  & Manfred Martin

  • Article |

    Spin-orbit Mott materials such as Sr3Ir3O7 and Sr2IrO4exhibit rich correlation-driven physics, which makes them promising candidates for novel electronic states. Here, the authors explore the effect of hole-doping within the spin-orbit Mott phase and show that the carriers localize within a phase-separated ground state.

    • Chetan Dhital
    • , Tom Hogan
    •  & Stephen D. Wilson

  • Article |

    It has been a puzzle that the capacitance of high surface area carbon electrodes is relatively low. Ji et al. measure capacitances of mono- and multilayer graphene electrodes, rationalize the ‘capacitance deficit’ and report an unexpected increase of capacitance with decreasing electrode thickness.

    • Hengxing Ji
    • , Xin Zhao
    •  & Rodney S. Ruoff

  • Article |

    Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as interesting two-dimensional materials. Here, the authors show that in a new member of this family of compounds, rhenium disulphide, the layers in the bulk are vibrationally and electronically decoupled, so that they behave almost as monolayers.

    • Sefaattin Tongay
    • , Hasan Sahin
    •  & Junqiao Wu

  • Article |

    The electrical contacts to semiconductor nanostructures play an important role for the performance of nanotechnology devices. Here Suyatin et al.observe a strong reduction in the Schottky barrier height between Au–In alloy particles and GaAs-nanowires owing to a reduced density of pinning states and formation of an electric dipole layer.

    • Dmitry B. Suyatin
    • , Vishal Jain
    •  & Håkan Pettersson

  • Article |

    Usually magnetoelectric switching is accompanied by hysteresis, which is a consequence of the large barrier between different magnetoelectric states. Here, the authors show that in the antiferromagnet Ni3TeO6magnetoelectric switching of magnetization as well as polarization occur without hysteresis.

    • Yoon Seok Oh
    • , Sergey Artyukhin
    •  & Sang-Wook Cheong

  • Article |

    There is interest in hexagonal boron nitride and hexagonal boron carbonitride in electronics applications, but synthesizing them with high quality is challenging. Here, chemical vapour deposition graphene was chemically converted to hexagonal boron nitride and hexagonal boron carbonitride with both high on-off ratios and mobilities.

    • Yongji Gong
    • , Gang Shi
    •  & Pulickel M. Ajayan

  • Article |

    Isotopic substitution alters the optoelectronic properties of conducting polymers, but a microscopic understanding is still missing. Shao et al.address this effect using a series of polymer isotopes that are synthesized with deuterium atoms substituted either on their backbone or side chains.

    • Ming Shao
    • , Jong Keum
    •  & Kai Xiao

  • Article |

    Realising flexible, lightweight and transparent electronics is a continuous challenge. Here, the authors report a process to create such transistor devices, which can be transferred onto various flexible substrates, and continue to function when wrapped around human hairs.

    • Giovanni A. Salvatore
    • , Niko Münzenrieder
    •  & Gerhard Tröster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular transport junctions show promising applications in the fabrication of computing nanocircuits. Meng et al. design a family of organometallic compounds and use them in logic gates whereby molecular conductivity can be orthogonal and stepwise controlled by light and electrochemical potential.

    • Fanben Meng
    • , Yves-Marie Hervault
    •  & Xiaodong Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional graphene offers an ideal sheet-to-sheet connectivity of assembled graphenes, but often suffers from poor electrochemical performance. Wang et al. present a sugar-blowing technique to prepare a 3D graphene, which overcomes such problems and shows potential in supercapacitor applications.

    • Xuebin Wang
    • , Yuanjian Zhang
    •  & Yoshio Bando

  • Article |

    The energy alignment at organic-metal interface has a strong influence on the performance of organic-based electronic devices. Lin et al.show this alignment can be tuned by varying the thickness of a uniform metallic thin film, which is confined between organic active layers and the substrate.

    • Meng-Kai Lin
    • , Yasuo Nakayama
    •  & S.-J. Tang

  • Article |

    The success of spintronics as a new technology hinges on the materials that are suitable for turning a spin current into an electric current. Here, the authors introduce a new material, iridium oxide, for this purpose, which outperforms traditional materials like platinum.

    • Kohei Fujiwara
    • , Yasuhiro Fukuma
    •  & Hidenori Takagi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inversion type transistors – which are widely used in silicon-based industries – are thought to not be obtainable in organic devices. Lüssem et al.realize the first inversion organic field-effect transistor by doping at the source and drain contacts without degrading its ON/OFF ratio.

    • Björn Lüssem
    • , Max L. Tietze
    •  & Karl Leo

  • Article |

    The behaviour of strongly correlated nickelates is well studied in bulk but the corresponding strained thin films are largely unexplored. Here, the authors study strained NdNiO3thin films with various degrees of strain and, in addition to a metal-to-insulator transition, find quantum critical behaviour.

    • Jian Liu
    • , Mehdi Kargarian
    •  & Jak Chakhalian

  • Article |

    The electrostatic response of materials to macroscopic deformations is crucial for the operation of sensors and actuators. Here, the author combines ideas from transformation optics and density-functional perturbation theory to achieve a general description of surface flexoelectric effects.

    • Massimiliano Stengel

  • Article |

    Nanopores of porous electrodes have key roles in enhancing supercapacitor performance, but little is known at the atomic level. Merlet et al. perform molecular dynamics simulations and report the effects of confinement of electrolyte ions inside the pores on charge storage efficiency.

    • C. Merlet
    • , C. Péan
    •  & M. Salanne

  • Article |

    The alloying of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride results in tunable electronic properties that can be used for solid state devices. Lu et al. identify atomic-scale mechanisms of alloying boron–carbon–nitrogen on ruthenium as a model system, which allow for potentially greater control of properties.

    • Jiong Lu
    • , Kai Zhang
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article |

    Plutonium has unusual physical properties due to strong electronic correlation, but its α-phase has not been studied much in this respect. Using sophisticated numerical methods, Zhu et al. show that in this phase different atomic sites have different degrees of electronic correlation.

    • Jian-Xin Zhu
    • , R. C. Albers
    •  & J. M. Wills

  • Article |

    To reach terabit density in random access memory devices, the select switching and storage components need to be improved. Here, the authors fabricate a fully stackable switching device based on chalcogenides, which reaches an exceptional performance following reactive nitrogen and nitrogen plasma treatments.

    • Myoung-Jae Lee
    • , Dongsoo Lee
    •  & In-Kyeong Yoo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micro-supercapacitors offer the advantage of high power density over lithium batteries and high energy density over electric capacitors, but integration of these advantages is yet to be achieved. Wu et al. develop a graphene-based in-plane micro-supercapacitor with ultrahigh power and energy densities.

    • Zhong–Shuai Wu
    • , Khaled Parvez
    •  & Klaus Müllen

  • Article |

    Nanowires show unique physical properties owing to their one-dimensional nature. Here Mocking and colleagues demonstrate that the length of nanowires is electronically stabilized such that the length distribution shows a preference for integer multiples of half of the electron Fermi wavelength.

    • Tijs F. Mocking
    • , Pantelis Bampoulis
    •  & Harold J. W. Zandvliet

  • Article |

    Exploiting the optics-like dynamics of low-energy electronic excitations in graphene requires the challenging combination of ballistic transport and complex gating. Here the fabrication and characterization of suspended graphene p–njunctions is reported, paving the way for future electron optics experiments.

    • Peter Rickhaus
    • , Romain Maurand
    •  & Christian Schönenberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The incorporation of electronic circuits into various plastic products and devices is limited by the brittle nature of silicon wafers. Here, Sun et al.demonstrate flexible and high-performance all-carbon-based transistor circuits that can be thermo-moulded into various shapes.

    • Dong-Ming Sun
    • , Marina Y. Timmermans
    •  & Yutaka Ohno

  • Article |

    Bismuth selenide has emerged as a model topological insulator system, but in the actual material surface-state band bending introduces complications. Here, the authors use defects as sensors in scanning tunnelling measurements to investigate the band bending and achieve its reduction by copper doping.

    • Chris Mann
    • , Damien West
    •  & Chih-Kang Shih

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although organic transistors have many advantages, they are not typically known for their high performance. Khodagholy et al. report the fabrication of organic electrochemical transistors that combine high transconductance with mechanical flexibility, and are attractive for biosensor applications.

    • Dion Khodagholy
    • , Jonathan Rivnay
    •  & George G. Malliaras

  • Article |

    The Casimir effect is based on quantum electrodynamical effects between two electrically neutral objects in close proximity. Here Zou et al. observe the Casimir effect between two silicon components on a single micromechanical chip, allowing for an on-chip exploitation of the Casimir force.

    • J. Zou
    • , Z. Marcet
    •  & H. B. Chan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 are both insulators, when they are brought together at a (100) interface, a highly conducting two-dimensional electron gas forms between them. Annandi et al.show that this also happens at a (110) interface, counter to expectations that it should not.

    • A. Annadi
    • , Q. Zhang
    •  & Ariando

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although ferroelectrics are generally insulating, their domain walls can show electrical conductivity. Here Sluka et al. observe a highly conducting free-electron gas at charged domain walls in ferroelectric BaTiO3.

    • Tomas Sluka
    • , Alexander K. Tagantsev
    •  & Nava Setter

  • Article |

    The high-speed, large-area printing of aligned semiconducting nanowires is vital for practical device applications. Here, the authors use a high-speed printing technique to print semiconducting nanowire arrays onto device substrates with precise nanowire control, and high field-effect mobilities are observed.

    • Sung-Yong Min
    • , Tae-Sik Kim
    •  & Tae-Woo Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When physicists study the characteristics of quantum conductors they usually take great pains to limit the resistance of other elements in the system. But Jezouin et al. show that when a single quantum channel is measured in series with a resistor, it exhibits analogous characteristics to a Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid.

    • S. Jezouin
    • , M. Albert
    •  & F. Pierre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conductive polymers are of great interest for electronic applications, but their disorder has made it difficult to realize their full electronic potential. Here transport measurements uncover the intrinsic transport properties of metal-organic polymer nanoribbons.

    • Cristina Hermosa
    • , Jose Vicente Álvarez
    •  & Félix Zamora

  • Article |

    Dielectric breakdown in Mott insulators induced by strong electric fields is thought to take place via a Zener mechanism. Guiot et al. show that the breakdown characteristics are instead similar to the avalanche breakdown in conventional semiconductors, although with much longer delay times.

    • V. Guiot
    • , L. Cario
    •  & D. Roditchev

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