Materials chemistry articles within Nature Materials

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• Letter | 13 November 2011

  Magnetoelastic metamaterials

  Metamaterials are widely studied for their optical properties offering applications such as perfect lenses or cloaking. As is now shown, the interaction between the individual elements of metamaterials can also be used to design magnetoelastic metamaterials, which are able to change their structure in response to light.

  • Mikhail Lapine
  • , Ilya V. Shadrivov
  •  & Yuri S. Kivshar

• News & Views | 23 September 2011

  An X-ray oxygen regulator

  X-ray illumination can be used to control the arrangement of oxygen atoms in cuprate superconductors, allowing the writing of regions of robust high-transition-temperature superconductivity.

  • Peter Littlewood

• Letter | 18 September 2011

  Kinetic frustration and the nature of the magnetic and paramagnetic states in iron pnictides and iron chalcogenides

  Iron-based superconductors all share the same building blocks. So why do local magnetic properties vary from one compound to another? A new theoretical model explains the variation in physical properties and links it to the structural differences, providing a description for a wide range of materials.

  • Z. P. Yin
  • , K. Haule
  •  & G. Kotliar

• Editorial | 21 February 2011

  Elements in short supply

  In a special issue this month we explore the challenges caused by supply shortages of several important chemical elements.

• Article | 09 January 2011

  From local structure to nanosecond recrystallization dynamics in AgInSbTe phase-change materials

  Phase-change materials are key components in rewritable optical disks and are promising for non-volatile electronic memories. The very different structure and ultrafast recrystallization dynamics of another class of phase-change materials, Sb–Te-based alloys, now suggests their use in future memory applications.

  • Toshiyuki Matsunaga
  • , Jaakko Akola
  •  & Rie Kojima

• Letter | 28 February 2010

  Template engineering of Co-doped BaFe₂As₂ single-crystal thin films

  While superconductivity experts investigate the fundamental properties of iron pnictides, it is worth wondering whether the properties of these materials are good enough for applications. A strategy for growing high-quality BaFe₂As₂ thin films shows that the use of an appropriate buffer layer allows very high critical currents to be reached.

  • S. Lee
  • , J. Jiang
  •  & C. B. Eom