Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biotic-abiotic photosynthetic systems hold great promise to innovate solar-driven chemical transformation. Here, the authors construct a biotic-abiotic hybrid system composed of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 and biogenic Se0 nanoparticles for photothermal Cu2-xSe biomineralization and then for seawater desalination.

    • Sheng-Lan Gong
    • , YangChao Tian
    •  & Li-Jiao Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In-vitro platforms for personalized cancer diagnosis is required high sensitivity. Here, the authors developed a digital microfluidic system for drug screening using primary tumor cells and established a working protocol for precision medicine.

    • Jiao Zhai
    • , Yingying Liu
    •  & Yanwei Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is known that spatially localized interactions can give rise to self-organized collective motion. Here, by studying pairwise interactions in juvenile zebrafish, authors reveal the role of reciprocal temporal coupling and find that temporal coordination considerably improves spatial responsiveness, such as reacting to changes in the direction of motion of a partner.

    • Guy Amichay
    • , Liang Li
    •  & Iain D. Couzin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Frustrated magnetic systems typically have multiple ground state configurations. While such multistability is common in amorphous materials, periodic mechanical systems have long range elastic interactions that tend to lead to a long-range ordered ground state. Herein, Sirote-Katz, Shohat et al. introduce periodic mechanical systems that have many disordered metastable states.

    • Chaviva Sirote-Katz
    • , Dor Shohat
    •  & Yair Shokef

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Allylic substitution reaction of alkenes has been well-developed, but it has limitations, partly due to the intrinsic predilection for an inner-sphere mechanism. Herein, the authors present an outer-sphere mechanism in Rh-catalyzed allylic substitution reaction of simple alkenes using gem-difluorinated cyclopropanes as allyl surrogates.

    • Yaxin Zeng
    • , Han Gao
    •  & Ying Xia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional graphene-based membranes have gained much interest, but they suffer from poor rejection for monovalent salts. Here, the authors develop an electrostatic-induced ion partitioning strategy to suppress anion-cation transmembrane co-transport, improving the desalination performance.

    • Haiguang Zhang
    • , Jiajian Xing
    •  & Xie Quan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural materials exhibit compelling functionalities owing to their irregular architectures, but the study on irregular architected materials is elusive. Here the authors report a generative computational framework to virtually grow irregular materials with optimized properties that match target stress distributions, facilitating tissue support for orthopedic femur restoration.

    • Yingqi Jia
    • , Ke Liu
    •  & Xiaojia Shelly Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) are a major class of natural products with potent biological activities but a vast majority of RiPP gene clusters remain unexplored in microbial genomes. Here, the authors report a unified biocatalysis (UniBioCat) system based on cell-free gene expression for rapid biosynthesis and engineering of RiPPs.

    • Wan-Qiu Liu
    • , Xiangyang Ji
    •  & Jian Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The hierarchy of symmetry breaking in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene remains a topic of intense fundamental study. Here, the authors determine the spin polarization of symmetry-broken quantum Hall states and Chern insulators in MATBG using a twist-decoupled graphene probe.

    • Jesse C. Hoke
    • , Yifan Li
    •  & Benjamin E. Feldman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Resonance-based systems such as electroacoustic transducers are often limited by narrow bandwidth. Here, authors report a digital non-Foster inspired circuit demonstrating significant bandwidth and power level enhancement with greater reconfigurability than conventional analog non-Foster approaches.

    • Xin Yang
    • , Zhihe Zhang
    •  & Andrea AlĂą

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In open-field-line magnetic plasma traps, the attainable cross-field voltage drops are limited by the tolerances of the solid materials of the vacuum vessel. Here, the authors demonstrate the possibility of equilibria that isolate large voltage drops to the interior of the plasma, circumventing this limit.

    • E. J. Kolmes
    • , I. E. Ochs
    •  & N. J. Fisch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    α,β-unsaturated compounds serve as versatile synthons in organic chemistry, but the α,β-desaturation of aliphatic imines is challenging due to easy hydrolysis and preferential dimerization. Herein, the authors report the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated imines by employing a pre-fluorination and palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenation reaction sequence.

    • Chunyang Zhao
    • , Rongwan Gao
    •  & Junkai Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Helimagnetic materials host a twisted magnetic texture, realizing screws, cycloids, and cones. While helimagnets are common in three dimensional materials, layered van der Waals helimagnets are exceedingly rare. Here, Akatsuka et al. demonstrate conical ordering in the easily cleavable magnet DyTe3.

    • Shun Akatsuka
    • , Sebastian Esser
    •  & Max Hirschberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Selective capture of radiocaesium is highly challenging in radioactive contamination remediation. Here, authors developed “ion-imprinting” strategy towards metal sulfide scavengers to achieve selective capture of Cs(I) in high-salt environments and successful cleanup of actual 137Cs-liquid-wastes.

    • Jun-Hao Tang
    • , Shao-Qing Jia
    •  & Xiao-Ying Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    NĂ©el spin-orbit torques arise due to charge currents in some antiferromagnets, and have sparked interest as a possible pathway for achieving electrical control of antiferromagnetic order. While the driving of antiferromagnetic order by NĂ©el spin-orbit torques is now experimentally well established, the inverse process, where magnetic excitations in an antiferromagnetic drive a charge current is not reported. Here Huang, Liao, Qiu, and coauthors observe this inverse process in an Mn2Au thin film.

    • Lin Huang
    • , Liyang Liao
    •  & Cheng Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional scintillators face challenges in achieving fast response and avoiding afterglow. Guzelturk et al. report colloidal quantum shell heterostructures with bright multiexciton emission, enabling efficient, fast, and robust scintillation for high-resolution and high-speed X-ray imaging.

    • Burak Guzelturk
    • , Benjamin T. Diroll
    •  & Mikhail Zamkov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the microscopic variability of CMOS spin qubits is crucial for developing scalable quantum processors. Here the authors report a combined experimental and numerical study of the effect of interface roughness on variability of quantum dot spin qubits formed at the Si/SiO2 interface.

    • JesĂşs D. Cifuentes
    • , Tuomo Tanttu
    •  & Andre Saraiva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal fatigue frequently leads to failure in electronic solder joints. Here, the authors measure and quantitatively explain how microstructure affects thermal fatigue in a ball grid array package and propose optimum microstructures for thermal fatigue resistance.

    • J. W. Xian
    • , Y. L. Xu
    •  & C. M. Gourlay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors model the transient temperature response of micro-thermoelectric devices with AC current applied, which is locally integrated under a transient hot spot. They develop a strategy for actively canceling the transient temperature variations.

    • Yihan Liu
    • , Hao-Yuan Cheng
    •  & Feng Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mars, an attractive candidate for potential presence of extraterrestrial life, contains oxychlorine species such as perchlorate at its surface. Here, the authors show perchlorate brines support folding and catalysis of functional RNAs, while inactivating representative protein enzymes, and that perchlorate enables new ribozyme functions, including ribozyme catalyzed chlorination of organic molecules.

    • Tanner G. Hoog
    • , Matthew R. Pawlak
    •  & Aaron E. Engelhart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Data-driven detection of governing rules and trends in dynamics of nonautonomous systems usually requires a significant amount of measured data. The authors propose an operator-theoretic technique for identifying trends and persistent cycles using data from a single measured trajectory, relevant for the analysis of climate dynamics.

    • Gary Froyland
    • , Dimitrios Giannakis
    •  & Joanna Slawinska

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extreme magnetoresistance is characterized by a large and non-saturating magnetoresistance. Typically, it is observed in materials with compensated bandstructures, however, here, Christensen et al demonstrate a large and non-saturating magnetoresistance in a ÎłAl2O3/SrTiO3 heterostructure, which is related to disorder, rather than the materials bandstructure.

    • D. V. Christensen
    • , T. S. Steegemans
    •  & N. Pryds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control of correlated excitonic states is a key goal of modern optoelectronic physics. Here, the authors demonstrate filling- and field-tunable exciton valley-pseudospin orders in a moiré heterostructure.

    • Richen Xiong
    • , Samuel L. Brantly
    •  & Chenhao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring new mechanics regime, researchers created centimeter-long, nanometer-thin resonators, achieving unmatched room temperature mechanical isolation via cutting edge nanoengineering and machine learning design; rivaling cryogenic counterparts.

    • Andrea Cupertino
    • , Dongil Shin
    •  & Richard A. Norte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors observe multiferroicity in a single-layer non van der Waals material, CuCrSe2. The coexistence of room-temperature ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism up to 120 K is corroborated by a set of comprehensive experimental techniques.

    • Zhenyu Sun
    • , Yueqi Su
    •  & Baojie Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dielectric elastomer actuators require high driving electric fields to achieve high performances for soft robots due to their low dielectric constant and high stiffness. Here, the authors introduce polar fluorinated groups and nanodomains aggregated by long alkyl side chains into the dielectric elastomer design to overcome these issues and develop fast soft robots.

    • Wenwen Feng
    • , Lin Sun
    •  & Chao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The band topology of twisted 2D systems is a key factor behind their fascinating physics. Here, the authors demonstrate the role of polarization in driving the band topology evolution in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers.

    • Xiao-Wei Zhang
    • , Chong Wang
    •  & Di Xiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing proposals of axion insulators are limited to spin-1/2 systems. Here the authors put forward a concept of a high spin axion insulator with several peculiar properties, such as the absence of gapless surface states and tunability of the axion field by an external magnetic field.

    • Shuai Li
    • , Ming Gong
    •  & X. C. Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At the quantum limit, vacuum fluctuations determine the precision with which a signal can be measured. In this work the authors use a technique known as squeezing to greatly reduce the vacuum fluctuation noise present at microwave frequencies.

    • Arjen Vaartjes
    • , Anders Kringhøj
    •  & Jarryd J. Pla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Asymmetric mechanical transducers are pivotal in various applications; however, conventional methods demand continuous energy and intricate fabrication. Here, the authors demonstrate a droplet-based mechanical transducer utilizing wettability-patterned surfaces, enabling precise control of droplet dynamics.

    • Luanluan Xue
    • , An Li
    •  & Yanlin Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interface engineering by local polarization is becoming increasingly important for tunable electronics. Here, authors demonstrate an electric pulse-tuned piezotronic effect in Ag/HfO2/n-ZnO junction, enabling reversible and accurate regulation of barrier height and piezotronic modification range.

    • Qiuhong Yu
    • , Rui Ge
    •  & Yong Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors introduce Photoacoustic Tomography with Temporal Encoding Reconstruction (PATTERN) - a high-speed, non-destructive photoacoustic brain imaging technique that constructs 3D fluorescent maps of the brain and improves upon some of the limitations associated with traditional whole-brain optical imaging techniques.

    • Yuwen Chen
    • , Haoyu Yang
    •  & Bo Lei

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