Materials science articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    Graphene is highly electronically conducting across the plane of the material. These authors show that a graphene membrane separating two ionic solutions in electrical contact is strongly ionically insulating despite being atomically thin and has in-plane electronic properties dependent on the interfacial environment. Numerical modelling reveals that very high spatial resolution is possible using this system, and the researchers propose that drilled membranes could form the basis of DNA sequencing devices.

    • S. Garaj
    • , W. Hubbard
    •  & J. A. Golovchenko

  • Letter |

    For several years, researchers have aspired to record in situ images of a quantum fluid in which each underlying quantum particle is detected. This goal has now been achieved: here, fluorescence imaging is reported of strongly interacting bosonic Mott insulators in an optical lattice, with single-atom and single-site resolution. The approach opens up new avenues for the manipulation, analysis and applications of strongly interacting quantum gases on a lattice.

    • Jacob F. Sherson
    • , Christof Weitenberg
    •  & Stefan Kuhr

  • Letter |

    The oxygen interstitials in the layers separating the superconducting CuO2 planes undergo ordering phenomena in La2CuO4+y that enhance the transition temperature (Tc). It is also known that complex systems often have a scale-invariant structural organization, but hitherto none had been found in high-Tc materials. These authors report that the ordering of oxygen interstitials in the La2O2+y spacer layers of La2CuO4+y high-Tc superconductors is characterized by a fractal distribution up to a maximum limiting size of 400 µ.

    • Michela Fratini
    • , Nicola Poccia
    •  & Antonio Bianconi

  • Opinion |

    Telecommunications companies and oceanographers should work together to plug old and new submarine cables into research projects, says Yuzhu You. A global network could monitor climate change.

    • Yuzhu You

  • News |

    Independent researchers claim oxygen depletion in the Gulf of Mexico is real, but a US government report advises caution.

    • Amanda Mascarelli

  • Letter |

    The spontaneous assembly of two different types of nanoparticle into ordered superlattices offers a route to designing materials with precisely controlled properties, but available synthesis strategies have many practical limitations. These authors report a fabrication process which overcomes these limitations. They generate large-scale (square-millimetre) binary superlattice structures at a liquid–air interface, allowing the material to be free standing or transferred to any substrate ready for fabrication into useful devices.

    • Angang Dong
    • , Jun Chen
    •  & Christopher B. Murray

  • Letter |

    Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have structure-dependent electronic properties that make them attractive for the fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices, but exploiting this potential has been hindered by the lack of precise production methods. Here the authors demonstrate how to reliably produce different GNRs, using precursor monomers that encode the structure of the targeted nanoribbon and are converted into GNRs by means of surface-assisted coupling.

    • Jinming Cai
    • , Pascal Ruffieux
    •  & Roman Fasel

  • Letter |

    Topological surface states are a class of electronic states that might be of interest in quantum computing or spintronic applications. They are predicted to be robust against imperfections, but so far there has been no evidence that these states do transmit through naturally occurring surface defects. Here, scanning tunnelling microscopy has been used to show that topological surface states of antimony can be transmitted through naturally occurring barriers that block non-topological surface states of common metals.

    • Jungpil Seo
    • , Pedram Roushan
    •  & Ali Yazdani

  • Letter |

    In the high-transition-temperature superconductors, the pseudogap phase becomes predominant when the density of doped holes is reduced. In this phase it has been unclear which electronic symmetries (if any) are broken, what the identity of any associated order parameter might be, and which microscopic electronic degrees of freedom are active. Here, images of the intra-unit-cell states in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 + δ are studied, revealing electronic nematicity of the states close to the pseudogap energy.

    • M. J. Lawler
    • , K. Fujita
    •  & Eun-Ah Kim

  • News & Views |

    According to theory, electrons on the surface of a topological insulator are not allowed to make U-turns. This notion, and some of its main consequences, has now been tested experimentally.

    • Marcel Franz

  • News Feature |

    A new class of materials is poised to take condensed-matter physics by storm. Geoff Brumfiel looks at what is making topological insulators all the rage.

    • Geoff Brumfiel

  • Letter |

    Light–matter interactions in semiconductors hold great promise for numerous applications, but as device size is reduced such interactions typically weaken, potentially posing problems for applications at the nanoscale. Here the authors circumvent these limitations by producing colloidal particles with metallic cores and semiconducting shells, in which coupling of the plasmons in the metal to the excitons in the semiconductor is engineered to enhance light–matter interactions in the particle.

    • Jiatao Zhang
    • , Yun Tang
    •  & Min Ouyang

  • Books & Arts |

    Antonio Santucci's great armillary sphere reveals how patrons sought immortality through science, explains Martin Kemp.

    • Martin Kemp

  • Letter |

    When an atom is excited into a Rydberg state, its electronic wavefunction can extend to several nanometres. This process can be used to induce and coherently control interactions between atoms that are far enough apart to be non-interacting in their normal states. Now, such behaviour has been realized in a solid-state context, by demonstrating coherent control of the wavefunctions of phosphorus dopant atoms in silicon.

    • P. T. Greenland
    • , S. A. Lynch
    •  & G. Aeppli

  • Letter |

    Skyrmions are stable topological textures with particle-like properties — a mathematical concept that was originally used to describe nuclear particles but has since turned up at all scales. Last year, the presence of skyrmions in the magnetic compounds MnSi and Fe1−xCoxSi was confirmed with neutron-scattering experiments. Here, real-space images are presented of a two-dimensional skyrmion lattice in a thin film of the latter compound. The observed nanometre-scale spin topology might reveal new magneto-transport effects.

    • X. Z. Yu
    • , Y. Onose
    •  & Y. Tokura

  • News & Views |

    Skyrmions are a special type of particle that has long been predicted to exist in many fields of physics. Direct images of these structures have now been made in a magnetic material.

    • Christian Pfleiderer
    •  & Achim Rosch

  • News & Views |

    A subtle quantum-interference effect has been used to control the optical response of a single atom confined in a cavity. It could offer a means to develop logic gates for an optical quantum computer.

    • Scott Parkins

  • Letter |

    A quantum computer based on optical processes requires a source of entangled photons that can be delivered efficiently on demand. Such a source has now been developed: it involves a compact light-emitting diode with an embedded quantum dot that can be driven electrically to generate entangled photon pairs.

    • C. L. Salter
    • , R. M. Stevenson
    •  & A. J. Shields

  • Letter |

    A network is frustrated when competing interactions between nodes prevent each bond from being satisfied. Frustration in quantum networks can lead to massively entangled ground states, as occurs in exotic materials such as quantum spin liquids and spin glasses. Here, a quantum simulation of a frustrated spin system is described, in which there are three trapped atomic ions whose interactions are controlled using optical forces.

    • K. Kim
    • , M.-S. Chang
    •  & C. Monroe

  • Article |

    A longstanding mystery in condensed-matter physics involves the appearance of a 'hidden order' state in URu2Si2 at low temperature — an unexpected phase change that is accompanied by a sharp change in the bulk properties of the material. The problem is related to the appearance of a 'heavy fermion' state. Here, scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy have been used to image the electronic structure of URu2Si2 at sub-atomic resolution, revealing how the hidden order state evolves with decreasing temperature.

    • A. R. Schmidt
    • , M. H. Hamidian
    •  & J. C. Davis

  • News & Views |

    The appearance of an unexplained electronic state in the uranium metal URu2Si2 at low temperatures has long puzzled condensed-matter physicists. The latest experiment on the material sheds light on the process.

    • Andrew J. Schofield

  • Letter |

    The magnetism produced by electrons in a solid can have two components — the spin and orbital moments — that are interchangeable on femtosecond timescales. Here it is shown how rapid changes in these two components can be disentangled, providing insights into the underlying dynamical processes that could be of value for the ultrafast control of information in magnetic recording media.

    • C. Boeglin
    • , E. Beaurepaire
    •  & J.-Y. Bigot

  • Letter |

    Although compound semiconductors like gallium arsenide (GaAs) offer advantages over silicon for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, these do not outweigh the costly process of growing large layers of these materials and transferring them to appropriate substrates. However, a new fabrication approach is now demonstrated: films of GaAs and AlGaAs are grown in thick, multilayered assemblies in a single sequence; the individual layers are then released and distributed over foreign substrates by printing.

    • Jongseung Yoon
    • , Sungjin Jo
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • Letter |

    Superconductivity and magnetic order are well known in C60 compounds of the form A3C60 (where A = alkali metal). The spherical C60 molecular ions in these crystals are almost always arranged in a face-centred cubic (f.c.c.) packing, except in Cs3C60, where the known superconducting phase has a body-centred cubic (b.c.c) packing. Now the f.c.c. polymorph for Cs3C60 has been isolated; it too is superconducting, although its magnetic properties are very different to those of its b.c.c counterpart.

    • Alexey Y. Ganin
    • , Yasuhiro Takabayashi
    •  & Kosmas Prassides

  • Letter |

    Spider silk proteins are remarkably soluble when stored at high concentration and yet can be converted to extremely sturdy fibres, through unknown molecular mechanisms. Here, the X-ray structure of the amino-terminal domain of a silk protein is presented, revealing how evolutionarily conserved polar surfaces might control self-assembly as the pH is lowered along the spider's silk extrusion duct. Such a mechanism might be applicable to the design of versatile fibrous materials.

    • Glareh Askarieh
    • , My Hedhammar
    •  & Stefan D. Knight

  • News & Views |

    For many potential applications, carbon nanotubes must be chemically modified, but the reactions involved aren't easily controlled. The discovery of a reversible modification process is a step towards such control.

    • Maurizio Prato

  • Letter |

    Here, artificial proteins are described that mimic the molecular architecture of titin — a protein that helps to govern the passive elastic properties of muscle. The new artificial proteins combine structured and unstructured domains, and can be photochemically crosslinked into a solid biomaterial that is resilient at low strains and extensible and tough at high strains. This provides an example of tailoring the macroscopic properties of a material through engineering at the single-molecule level.

    • Shanshan Lv
    • , Daniel M. Dudek
    •  & Hongbin Li

  • News Feature |

    Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, largely forgotten as attention turned to biofuels and batteries, are staging a comeback. Jeff Tollefson investigates.

    • Jeff Tollefson

  • Letter |

    Supercooling is a phenomenon by which a liquid remains in its fluid phase well below its melting point. Supercooling can be inhibited by the presence of a solid surface, whereby crystalline surfaces cause adjacent atoms in the liquid to become ordered, inducing crystal nucleation of the melt. Here it is shown that a particular surface ordering of gold atoms on top of a silicon substrate can stabilize the liquid phase of a gold-silicon eutectic droplet, and thus enhance supercooling.

    • T. U. Schülli
    • , R. Daudin
    •  & A. Pasturel

  • News & Views |

    Droplets of a liquid alloy on a silicon surface can rearrange the surface atoms so that they mimic the short-range ordering of atoms in the alloy. Remarkably, this effect inhibits freezing of the droplets.

    • A. Lindsay Greer

  • Letter |

    The strength of conventional metals is determined by the interaction of dislocations with obstacles such as grain boundaries. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the strength of ultrafine-grained copper containing twin boundaries can be controlled by a dislocation nucleation mechanism activated below a critical twin thickness. Below this thickness the material becomes softer. The smaller the grains, the smaller the critical twin boundary spacing, and the higher the metal's maximum strength.

    • Xiaoyan Li
    • , Yujie Wei
    •  & Huajian Gao

  • News & Views |

    Microfluidic devices have many applications in chemistry and biology, but practical hitches associated with their use are often overlooked. One such device that optimizes catalysts tackles these issues head-on.

    • Robert C. R. Wootton
    •  & Andrew J. deMello

  • News & Views |

    Bose–Einstein condensates are ideal tools with which exotic phenomena can be investigated. The hitherto-unrealized Dicke quantum phase transition has now been observed with one such system in an optical cavity.

    • Cheng Chin
    •  & Nathan Gemelke

  • Letter |

    Atom chips provide a versatile quantum laboratory for experiments with ultracold atomic gases, but techniques to control atomic interactions and to generate entanglement have been unavailable so far. Here, the experimental generation of multi-particle entanglement on an atom chip is described. The technique is used to produce spin-squeezed states of a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate, which should be useful for quantum metrology.

    • Max F. Riedel
    • , Pascal Böhi
    •  & Philipp Treutlein

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