Colloidal nanocrystals exhibit high tunability and low-cost solution processing attractive for next-generation electronic applications. However, colloidal nanocrystals are inherently heterogeneous and the impact of this heterogeneity on device performance has been largely disregarded, since analytical techniques cannot assess the functionality of individual nanocrystals on a...
The cell nucleus is continuously exposed to external signals, of both chemical and mechanical nature. To ensure proper cellular response, cells need to regulate the transmission, timing and duration of these signals. Although such timescale regulation is well described for chemical signals, whether and how it applies to mechanical signals reaching the nucleus is still not fully...
Establishing viable solid-state synthesis pathways for novel inorganic materials remains a major challenge in materials science. Previous pathway design methods using pairwise reaction approaches have navigated the thermodynamic landscape with first-principles data but lack kinetic information, limiting their effectiveness. This gap leads to suboptimal precursor selection and...
Ultrafast control of magnetic textures relies on understanding how domain walls respond to femtosecond laser excitation. Previous X-ray scattering studies suggested transient domain-wall broadening and motion during reversible demagnetization. Yet such dynamics have never been observed directly, owing to insufficient spatiotemporal resolution in existing techniques. Here we...
Biological nanoscale assemblies transfer proteins and RNAs between cells and cellular compartments. Nonetheless, it is unclear if exogenous and synthetic nanostructures affect these molecular assemblies and processes. Here we report nanostructure–biological hybrid complexes that are formed by synthetic nanoparticles after being internalized by cells. These nanoparticles, in rare...
The hybridization of quantum states hosted in materials with very different natures is a key resource for quantum technologies. A main example is light–matter interactions, a cornerstone of many quantum computing architectures. In some instances, coherently interfacing more than two quantum systems is crucial, as required, for example, in frequency conversion. Such multipartite...
Chiral molecules in nature usually show optical activity only in the deep ultraviolet, whereas artificial chiral plasmonic nanostructures can generate much stronger responses at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. An important challenge is whether the abundant biomolecular chirality in nature can be directly transferred to achiral plasmonic systems without elaborate three...
Van der Waals (vdW) materials have emerged as a promising platform for next-generation nanophotonics and optoelectronics. However, employing vdW materials as a core photonic integration platform, rather than as passive or active overlays on conventional silicon-based platforms, remains challenging, leaving their full potential untapped. Here we develop a nanofabrication strategy...
Voltage-induced magnetization switching based on the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect is expected to be the ultimate low-power-consumption writing method for spintronic devices such as non-volatile magnetoresistive random-access memory. However, for conventional VCMA-driven dynamic magnetization switching, in which sub-nanosecond voltage pulses induce...
Interactions between emitters can create cooperative effects that alter light emission. In superfluorescence (SF), excited dipoles couple coherently and radiate collectively, requiring low energetic disorder and strong temporal coherence. Conversely, amplified spontaneous emission results from stimulated amplification and does not require temporal coherence but, unlike SF...
Tissue-level phase transitions are emerging as a crucial mechanism in tumour development and metastasis. When becoming invasive, epithelial tumours undergo a transition from a solid-like state to a more fluid-like one. Although the contributions of cell adhesions, traction forces and cell migration for such behaviour are known, the exact biophysical and molecular mechanisms...
Nuclear magnetic resonance is a powerful tool for applications ranging from chemical analysis to quantum information processing. Achieving optical initialization and detection of molecular nuclear spins promises new opportunities—including improved nuclear magnetic resonance signals at low magnetic field, sensitivity down to the single-molecule level and full access to atomically...
Chemical doping is crucial for fine-tuning the electronic properties of organic semiconductors (OSCs) and enhancing device performance across various technologies. While several methods for controlled dopant distribution have been explored, achieving lateral doping gradients via simple solution processing remains challenging. Here we present a gold-activated persulfate doping...
Complex and robust tissue self-organization requires defined initial conditions and dynamic boundaries—neighbouring tissues and extracellular matrix that actively evolve to guide morphogenesis. A major challenge in tissue engineering is identifying material properties that are compatible with controlling initial culture conditions while mimicking dynamic tissue boundaries. Here...
Spin transfer torques (STTs) control magnetization by electric currents, enabling a range of nano-scale spintronic applications. They can destabilize the equilibrium magnetization state by counteracting magnetic relaxation. Here we maximize the STT effect through a dedicated growth-annealing protocol for CoFeB thin films, such that magnetic anisotropies originating from the...
Through remarkable advances in materials design, the efficiency of photovoltaic energy conversion in molecular materials has risen from 1% to over 20% within 2 decades. Some recent reports argue that charge photogeneration can occur directly in neat films of the best-performing molecular materials, and that this process may assist current generation in heterojunction devices...
Oxidation states underpin the understanding of active states, reaction mechanisms and catalytic performance of electrocatalysts. However, determining them at complex solid–liquid interfaces is challenging. Here we use multimodal spectroscopy to investigate polarized iridium oxide (IrOx) electrodes, a model water oxidation catalyst, to identify potential-dependent iridium and...
Vacuum-based deposition is a scalable, solvent-free industrial method ideal for uniform coatings on complex substrates. However, all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells fabricated by thermal evaporation trail solution-processed counterparts in efficiency and stability due to film quality challenges, necessitating advancement and improved understanding. Here, we report a co...