Materials science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    In some iron-based materials, unconventional superconductivity can emerge near a quantum phase transition where long-range magnetic order vanishes. Giovannettiet al.show that the magnetic quantum phase transition in an iron pnictide superconductor is very close to the quantum tricritical point.

    • Gianluca Giovannetti
    • , Carmine Ortix
    •  & José Lorenzana

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interacting electrons in one dimension are predicted to have independent spin and charge excitations. Wakehamet al. show evidence of this behaviour in a bulk conductor by measuring a ratio of thermal to electrical conductivity orders of magnitude larger than in conventional three-dimensional metals.

    • Nicholas Wakeham
    • , Alimamy F. Bangura
    •  & Nigel E. Hussey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fractional quantum Hall effect occurs when electrons move in Landau levels. In this study, using a theoretical flat-band lattice model, the fractional quantum Hall effect is observed in the presence of repulsive interactions when the band is one third full and in the absence of Landau levels.

    • D.N. Sheng
    • , Zheng-Cheng Gu
    •  & L. Sheng

  • Article |

    Covalent reactions on carbon nanotube surfaces typically occur at random positions on the hexagonal lattice. Denget al. show that Billups–Birch reductive alkylation takes place at, and propagates from, sp3defect sites, leading to confinement of the reaction fronts in the tubular direction.

    • Shunliu Deng
    • , Yin Zhang
    •  & YuHuang Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-qubit operation is an essential part of quantum computation, but implementation has been difficult. Gotoet al.introduce optically controllable internuclear coupling in semiconductors providing a simple way of switching inter-qubit couplings in semiconductor-based quantum computers.

    • Atsushi Goto
    • , Shinobu Ohki
    •  & Tadashi Shimizu

  • Article |

    Interactions between charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in correlated electron systems have resulted in predictions of new electronic phases of matter. Carlson and Dahmen propose two protocols for detecting disordered electron nematics in condensed matter systems using non-equilibrium methods.

    • E.W. Carlson
    •  & K.A. Dahmen

  • Article |

    The unoccupied electronic levels of graphene are modified by corrugation, doping and presence of impurities. Here, the authors map discrete electronic domains within a single graphene sheet using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy and provide insight into the modification of unoccupied levels.

    • Brian J. Schultz
    • , Christopher J. Patridge
    •  & Sarbajit Banerjee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bubble at an air–liquid interface can form a liquid jet upon bursting, spraying aerosol droplets into the air. Leeet al. show that jetting is analogous to pinching-off in liquid coalescence, which may be useful in applications that prevent jet formation and in the improved incorporation of aerosols in climate models.

    • Ji San Lee
    • , Byung Mook Weon
    •  & Wah-Keat Lee

  • Article |

    Waveplates are used in optoelectronics to alter the polarization of light, but they do not typically perform achromatically, which is important for applications such as three-dimensional displays. Here, biologically inspired periodically multilayered structures are produced, which function as achromatic visible-light waveplates.

    • Yi-Jun Jen
    • , Akhlesh Lakhtakia
    •  & Jyun-Rong Lai

  • Article |

    Optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers are used to study the chaotic behaviour of nonlinear systems. Here chaos is observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit with potential for new directions in the study of chaos in quantum systems.

    • Ferdinand Albert
    • , Caspar Hopfmann
    •  & Ido Kanter

  • Article |

    Single nanoparticles are known to emit light intermittently, or 'blink', but the mechanisms describing this phenomenon are not fully understood. This study demonstrates that, for small clusters of blinking nanoparticles, the number of particles within a cluster dramatically influences blinking time.

    • Siying Wang
    • , Claudia Querner
    •  & Marija Drndic

  • Article |

    SiO2 glass and helium are important in various fields of science and engineering. Sato et al. show SiO2glass to be less compressible in helium under high pressure, which may be relevant for the interpretation of high-pressure experiments and in the design of new materials.

    • Tomoko Sato
    • , Nobumasa Funamori
    •  & Takehiko Yagi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Negative thermal expansion—contraction upon heating—is an unusual process that may be exploited to produce materials with zero or other controlled thermal expansion values. Azumaet al. observe negative thermal expansion in BiNiO3which is a result of Bi/Ni charge-transfer transitions.

    • Masaki Azuma
    • , Wei-tin Chen
    •  & J. Paul Attfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how the high-energy physics of Mott-like excitations affects condensate formation is a key challenge in high-temperature superconductivity. Giannettiet al. clarify the relationship of many-body CuO2excitations and the onset of superconductivity using a new optical pump supercontinuum-probe technique.

    • Claudio Giannetti
    • , Federico Cilento
    •  & Fulvio Parmigiani

  • Article |

    Hydro-responsive plant movements have provided inspiration for the design of adaptive materials. Harringtonet al. investigate the hydration-dependent unfolding of ice plant seed capsules and find an origami-like folding pattern, which could aid the development of biomimetic folding structures.

    • Matthew J. Harrington
    • , Khashayar Razghandi
    •  & Ingo Burgert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticles continue to find research and industrial applications, but no single technique exists to characterise their physical properties. Now, an analytical ultracentrifugation method is described which allows the simulataneous determination of nanoparticle size, density and molecular weight distribution.

    • Randy P. Carney
    • , Jin Young Kim
    •  & Osman M. Bakr

  • Article |

    Lithium–sulphur batteries may achieve higher energy densities than conventional lithium-ion cells, but the dissolution of sulphur intermediates is a continuing challenge. Here this problem is overcome using a cathode with a mesoporous structure that is able to accommodate intermediate polysulphide anions.

    • Xiulei Ji
    • , Scott Evers
    •  & Linda F. Nazar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional fluid interfaces are ubiquitous, but studying their surface dynamic properties is difficult because of coupling between the film and bulk fluid. Choiet al.combine active microrheology with fluorescence microscopy to image fluid interfaces under applied stress.

    • S.Q. Choi
    • , S. Steltenkamp
    •  & T.M. Squires

  • Article |

    Sintering is the basis for the production of many metallic and composite materials. Gruppet al. use a new technique to measure the rotation of microscopic copper particles during sintering and find intrinsic rotations to be the dominant movement.

    • R. Grupp
    • , M. Nöthe
    •  & J. Banhart

  • Article |

    Solid gold is most stable as a face-centred cubic structure, and stable colloidal gold with hexagonal close packing has not been produced. Huanget al.prepare square gold sheets with hexagonal close packing that are stable under ambient conditions.

    • Xiao Huang
    • , Shaozhou Li
    •  & Hua Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temperature-controlled regulation of thermal conductivity is difficult to achieve because thermal properties do not change significantly through solid-state phase transitions. Here temperature control of thermal conductivities is demonstrated using liquid–solid phase transitions in a nanoparticle suspension.

    • Ruiting Zheng
    • , Jinwei Gao
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article |

    Melting-related phenomena are of fundamental and applied interest, but the melting theory is poorly understood. Levitas and Samani develop an advanced phase-field theory of melting coupled to mechanics that resolves existing contradictions and reveals the features of melting phenomena.

    • Valery I Levitas
    •  & Kamran Samani

  • Article |

    Infrared cameras are used for night vision and in medical diagnostics, but currently only present monochrome images. Krishnaet al. demonstrate a monolithically intergrated plasmonic infrared quantum dot camera as a step towards coloured infrared imaging.

    • Sang Jun Lee
    • , Zahyun Ku
    •  & Sam Kyu Noh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron–hole exchange interaction is an intrinsic property of semiconductors, which affects their fine structure. Brovelliet al. demonstrate a nanoengineering-based approach that provides control over the exchange interaction energy at nearly constant emission energy, which cannot be carried out using core-only nanocrystals.

    • S. Brovelli
    • , R.D. Schaller
    •  & V.I. Klimov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pattern-forming processes in simple fluids and suspensions are well understood, but displacement morphologies in frictional fluids and granular mixtures have not been studied extensively. Sandneset al. consider the effects of Coulomb friction and compressibility on the fluid dynamics of granular mixtures.

    • B. Sandnes
    • , E.G. Flekkøy
    •  & H. See

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micron and submicron-sized magnetic platelets in a vortex configuration may be useful in micromagnetics and spintronics applications. Kammereret al. show that a fast unidirectional vortex core reversal process occurs when azimuthal spin wave modes are excited at GHz frequency.

    • Matthias Kammerer
    • , Markus Weigand
    •  & Gisela Schuetz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the pseudogap state of cuprates, although diamagnetic signals have been detected, a Meissner effect has never been observed. Morenzoni and colleagues probe the local diamagnetic response in the normal state of an underdoped layer showing that a 'barrier' layer exhibits a Meissner effect.

    • Elvezio Morenzoni
    • , Bastian M. Wojek
    •  & Ivan Božović

  • Article |

    Bismuth ferrite has photoelectric properties that make it an attractive alternative for use in photovoltaic devices. Here, using photoelectric atomic force microscopy, the authors show that photogenerated carriers can be collected by the tip and suggest that this can be used in photoelectric applications.

    • Marin Alexe
    •  & Dietrich Hesse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Embedding carbon fibres in polymer matrices provides significant gains in strength and stiffness. Here, the Raman G peak of carbon fibre is studied in relation to applied strain and referenced to graphene; the work could facilitate stress measurements of carbon fibre polymer composites.

    • Otakar Frank
    • , Georgia Tsoukleri
    •  & Costas Galiotis

  • Article |

    Monitoring the impact of annealing on nanometre-thick polymer layers provides new insight into the changes in the performance of macromolecular materials. Here, the authors present results showing a correlation between the deviations from bulk behaviour and the growth of an irreversibly adsorbed layer.

    • Simone Napolitano
    •  & Michael Wübbenhorst

  • Article |

    Skyrmions are particle-like topological entities in a continuous field that have a role in various condensed matter systems. Here, numerical methods are used to show that a chiral nematic liquid crystal could be used as a model system to facilitate direct structural investigation of Skyrmions.

    • Jun-ichi Fukuda
    •  & Slobodan Žumer

  • Article |

    Graphene and InAs nanowires are both promising materials for coherent spin manipulation, but coupling between a quantum system and its environment leads to decoherence. Here, the contribution of electron–phonon coupling to decoherence in graphene and InAs nanowire is studied.

    • P. Roulleau
    • , S. Baer
    •  & T. Ihn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have potential catalysis, filtration and sensing applications, but device fabrication will require controlled MOF growth. Here, α-hopeite microparticles are used to achieve spatial control of MOF nucleation, and accelerate MOF growth.

    • Paolo Falcaro
    • , Anita J. Hill
    •  & Dario Buso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of micromechanical and nanomechanical resonators is often hampered by mechanical damping. In this study, the authors demonstrate a numerical solver for the prediction of support-induced losses in these structures and verify experimentally the fidelity of this method.

    • Garrett D. Cole
    • , Ignacio Wilson-Rae
    •  & Markus Aspelmeyer

  • Article |

    Oxygen diffusion processes are critical for the catalytic action of manganites but a full understanding of these processes is elusive. The authors perform atomic resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy imaging of layered manganites and show oxygen and defect dynamics on these surfaces.

    • B. Bryant
    • , Ch. Renner
    •  & G. Aeppli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electronic excitations with energies near the superconducting energy gap are strongly affected by superconducting transitions. The authors show, with a comprehensive optical investigation, that excitations with energies up to two orders of magnitude greater are also affected by the transition.

    • A. Charnukha
    • , P. Popovich
    •  & A. V. Boris

  • Article |

    The construction of porous solids from discrete organic molecules usually involves the formation of regular porous crystals. In this study, a covalent scrambling reaction gives molecules with a range of shapes that do not pack effectively — manipulation of the reagent ratio allows fine control of porosity.

    • Shan Jiang
    • , James T. A. Jones
    •  & Andrew I. Cooper

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