Switchability of materials properties by applying controlled stimuli such as voltage pulses is an emerging field of study with applicability in adaptive and programmable devices like neuromorphic transistors or non-emissive smart displays. One of the most exciting approaches to modulate materials performance is mobile ion/vacancy insertion for inducing changes in relevant electrical, optical, or magnetic

In recent years, significant advancements in high-repetition-rate, high-average-power mid-infrared laser pulses have enabled the generation of tabletop high-flux coherent soft x-ray harmonics for photon-hungry experiments. However, for practical applications, it is crucial to effectively filter out the driving beam from the high harmonics. In this study, we leverage the distinctive properties of a

Electronic skin (e-skin), capable of sensing a physical or chemical stimulus and triggering a suitable response, is critical in applications such as healthcare, wearables, robotics, and more. With a substantial number and types of sensors over a large area, the low-cost fabrication is desirable for e-skin. In this regard, printing electronics attract the attention as it allow efficient use of materials

Magnetic skyrmions are promising for future spintronic devices due to their nanoscale size, high thermal stability, and mobility at low current densities. However, their practical applications may be limited by the skyrmion Hall effect (SkHE), which causes skyrmions to deflect from the direction of the driving current. The SkHE usually results in annihilation of skyrmions due to the destructive skyrmion–boundary

Shape-programmable magnetoresponsive soft actuators (SMSAs) are highly desirable for diverse applications in soft robotics and minimally invasive medicine. Current methods face challenges in achieving programmable magnetoresponsive three-dimensional (3D) shapes with non-uniform and continuously adjustable curvatures, which are crucial for the highly effective locomotion of SMSAs. Here, we propose an

GeSn has emerged as a promising semiconductor with optoelectronic functionality in the mid-infrared, with the potential of replacing expensive III–V technology for monolithic on-chip Si photonics. Multiple challenges to achieve optoelectronic-grade GeSn have been successfully solved in the last decade. We stand today on the brink of a potential revolution in which GeSn could be used in many optoelectronic

Metasurface polarization optics, manipulating polarization using metasurfaces composed of subwavelength anisotropic nanostructure array, has enabled a lot of innovative integrated strategies for versatile and on-demand polarization generation, modulation, and detection. Compared with conventional bulky optical elements for polarization control, metasurface polarization optics provides a feasible platform

Recognized by the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become a world-revolutionary technology. Further developments of LIB-based and “beyond LIBs” regarding capacity, cycle life, and safety are intimately associated with the fundamental understanding of chemical compositions, structures, physical properties of electrodes and electrolytes, and other related components

Electrocatalysis is crucial for sustainable energy solutions, focusing on energy harvesting, storage, and pollution control. Despite the development of various electrocatalysts, understanding the dynamic processes in electrochemical reactions is still limited, hindering effective catalyst design. In situ Raman spectra have emerged as a critical tool, providing molecular-level insights into surface

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are receiving great attention as promising nanomaterials for optoelectronic applications due to their unique electronic properties and straightforward processability. Despite extensive global research and significant progress in the surface chemistry and device architecture of CQDs, meeting the future demands for stability and device performance continues to be a challenge

In recent years, metamaterials have shown great potential in various fields such as optics, acoustics, and electromagnetics. Sensors based on metamaterials have been gradually applied in daily production, life, and military. Metamaterials are artificial materials with unique properties that ordinary materials do not possess. Through clever microstructure design, they can achieve different properties

Identification and detection of toxic/explosive environmental gases are of paramount importance to various sectors such as oil/gas industries, defense, industrial processing, and civilian security. Surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based gas sensors have recently gained significant attention, owing to their desirable sensitivity, fast response/recovery time, wireless capabilities, and reliability. For detecting

Liquid metal batteries have been introduced as promising option to address the needs for new energy storage technologies. Currently, batteries based on sodium and zinc are under development and a favorable option due to their high theoretical cell potential, readily abundant materials, and cost-advantages. Nevertheless, they face the problem of self-discharge, which makes it inevitable to understand

Two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) ferroelectrics, renowned for their spontaneous breaking of inversion symmetry and finite electric polarization, are pivotal in nonlinear optics and low-power nanoelectronics. Prior studies primarily focused on materials exhibiting out-of-plane or in-plane ferroelectric polarization, whose rotational degrees of freedom are commonly overlooked. Herein, we experimentally

The Casimir force, which arises from quantum electrodynamic fluctuations, manifests as an attraction between metallic surfaces spaced mere hundreds of nanometers apart. As contemporary device architectures scale down to the nano- and microscales, quantum phenomena exert increasing influence on their behaviors. Nano- and microelectromechanical systems frequently encounter issues such as components adhering

The evolution of power and radiofrequency electronics enters a new era with (ultra)wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN, SiC, and β-Ga2O3, driving significant advancements across various technologies. The elevated breakdown voltage and minimal on-resistance result in size-compact and energy-efficient devices. However, effective thermal management poses a critical challenge, particularly when pushing

Chiral materials, known for their unique structural and quantum properties, have garnered significant interest, with InSeI emerging as a promising chiral topologically trivial insulator. In this study, we introduce a scalable Bridgman crystal growth technique to synthesize large, environmentally stable single crystals of InSeI, achieving centimeter-sized chiral crystals with superior quality. Notably

Wearable sensors capable of simultaneous monitoring of multiple physiological markers have the potential to dramatically reduce healthcare cost through early detection of diseases and accelerating rehabilitation processes. These skin-like sensors can deliver significant benefits thanks to their ability to continuously track various physiological indicators over extended periods. However, due to the

The development of neuromorphic systems necessitates the use of memcapacitors that can adapt to optoelectronic modulation. Two-dimensional (2D) materials with atomically thin features and their derived heterostructures are able to allow for controlling local transfer of charge carrier but reports on 2D materials-enabled capacitive-type photoelectric synapses have not been experimentally exploited yet

The rapid progress of high-performance microelectronic devices underscores the urgent necessity to develop materials possessing superior thermal conductivity for effectively dissipating heat in cutting-edge electronics. Boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) have garnered significant attention due to their exceptional thermal conductivity, combined with electrical insulation and low thermal expansion coefficient

Recently, the rapid development of flexible electronic materials and devices has profoundly influenced various aspects of social development. Flexible magnetoelectric systems (FMESs), leveraging magnetoelectric coupling, hold vast potential applications in the fields of flexible sensing, memory storage, biomedicine, energy harvesting, and soft robotics. Consequently, they have emerged as a significant

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a crucial role in affecting health, environmental integrity, and industrial operations, from air quality to medical diagnostics. The need for highly sensitive and selective detection of these compounds has spurred innovation in sensor technologies. This editorial introduces a special collection of articles in Applied Physics Reviews, exploring the latest advancements

Single-photon terahertz (THz) detection is one of the most demanding technologies for a variety of fields and could lead to many breakthroughs. Although significant progress has been made in the past two decades, operating it at room temperature still remains a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, a room temperature THz detector at single-photon levels based on nonlinear wave

Recently, the flexoelectric effect has triggered considerable interest in energy-related applications, such as flexo-actuation, flexo-photovoltaic, and flexo-catalysis, because of its ubiquitous feature allowing the creation of electric polarity, i.e., the flexoelectric polarization (Pflexo), in non-polar materials by strain gradient. Here, we show a flexoelectric strategy in electrocatalytic water

The rapid pace of technology and increasing energy demands underscore the urgent need for eco-friendly materials with exceptional energy conversion and storage capabilities. Two-dimensional (2D) energy materials, characterized by unique physicochemical properties, hold great promise in renewable energy conversion, catalysis, and electronics. Nevertheless, conventional synthesis methods often falter

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have emerged as a potential solution-processible technology that can offer efficient light emission with high color purity. Here, we explore the device physics of perovskite LEDs using simple analytical and drift-diffusion modeling, aiming to understand how the distribution of electric field, carrier densities, and recombination in these devices differs from

Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, is an innovative technique for fabricating batteries with arbitrary architectures. Understanding the intricacies of 3D printing designs in sodium battery materials is crucial for optimizing their electrochemical properties and unlocking the full potential of 3D printed sodium batteries. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the key aspects

Encoding and processing quantum information in the time-of-arrival of photons offer significant advantages for quantum information science and technology. These advantages include ease of experimental realization, robustness over photon state transmission, and compatibility with existing telecommunication infrastructure. Additionally, time-of-arrival encoding has the potential for high-rate quantum

This review aims to offer strategic synthesis of new carbon materials under the thematic concept of “nanoarchitectonics” applied to metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived porous carbons. The background tracing of carbon materials in terms of the development of carbon microstructure is outlined first to offer the microstructural level of understanding of traditional carbons as well as recent MOF-derived

Understanding contact mechanics and adhesion processes in thin films and micro-structured materials is fundamental in phonon and heat transport phenomena and is ubiquitous for the miniaturization of mechanical and thermal devices as well as the design/functionalization of structured surfaces and membranes. Acoustic-based methods are of great interest in this context since they provide a nondestructive

Metamaterials, a kind of novel materials with artificial design, have exhibited extraordinary properties that cannot be found in nature. In the past decade, remarkable achievements have been made in the field of metamaterial-based photodetectors. However, there is hardly any systematic and thorough review of the metamaterials' recent development in photodetection devices. Herein, we summarized recent

Discovering light dosimeters that can function effectively from liquid nitrogen temperature to 700 K presents significant challenges. Such dosimeters facilitate a range of cutting-edge applications, including anti-counterfeiting measures at low temperature for cryo-preservation. To facilitate such discovery, stacked vacuum referred binding energy diagrams for the LiYGeO4 cluster of crystals have been

In conventional metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics, the logic state of a device is set by a gate voltage (VG). The superconducting equivalent of such effect had remained unknown until it was recently shown that a VG can tune the superconducting current (supercurrent) flowing through a nanoconstriction in a superconductor. This gate-controlled supercurrent (GCS) can lead to superconducting

Developing single-pixel full-color liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that do not require orientation layers and color filters is highly desirable since this would allow to better optimize their image resolution and light utilization efficiency while considerably reducing fabrication cost. However, so far, organic polymers have shown only limited color modulation range and inorganic materials have mostly

Superlattices are materials created by the alternating growth of two chemically different materials. The direct consequence of creating a superlattice is the folding of the Brillouin zone, which gives rise to additional electronic bands and phonon modes. This phenomenon has been successfully exploited to achieve new transport and optical properties in semiconductor superlattices. Here, we show that

Molecular-scale junctions (MSJs) have been considered the ideal testbed for probing physical and chemical processes at the molecular scale. Due to nanometric confinement, charge and energy transport in MSJs are governed by quantum mechanically dictated energy profiles, which can be tuned chemically or physically with atomic precision, offering rich possibilities beyond conventional semiconductor devices

Reduction of phonon mediated thermal transport properties, i.e., lattice thermal conductivity (κL), of semiconductors can strongly affect the performance of thermoelectrics and optoelectronics. Although extrinsic routes to reduce κL have been achieved through selective scattering of phonons via doping, alloying, and hierarchical nano-structuring, semiconductors with intrinsically low κL have recently

Third-generation photovoltaic materials, including metal halide perovskites (MHPs), colloidal quantum dots (QDs), copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS), and organic semiconductors, among others, have become attractive in the past two decades. Unlike their first- and second-generation counterparts, these advanced materials boast properties beyond mere photovoltaic performance, such as mechanical flexibility

Flexible electrode is crucial for wearable electronic devices. To prevent performance degradation due to bending or stretching, the development of highly flexible and durable materials is imperative. Here, we address this challenge by selecting stainless-steel electrodes with excellent stability and flexibility. Through an anodization process on the stainless steel, we created an integrated flexible

Maintaining an acceptable quality of life worldwide increasingly depends on the availability of clean and cost-effective energy, with power consumption expected to double by 2050. Therefore, the need for sustainable and affordable green energy has spurred innovative electrocatalysis research with the goal to develop materials and processes that are capable of producing environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral

High-responsivity and energy-saving ultraviolet photodetectors become crucial components for modern optoelectronic information sensing and communication systems. This study presents an advanced self-powered MXene/GaN Schottky ultraviolet photodetector that features a high-quality van der Waals interface to enhance photoresponsivity. The photodetector exhibits a high responsivity of 681.6 mA W−1 and

Spin-torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) have emerged as an intriguing category of spintronic devices based on spin transfer torque to excite magnetic moment dynamics. The ultra-wide frequency tuning range, nanoscale size, and rich nonlinear dynamics have positioned STNOs at the forefront of advanced technologies, holding substantial promise in wireless communication, and neuromorphic computing. This review

A novel tapered quartz tuning fork (QTF) was designed to enhance its stress magnitude and charge distribution in QTF-based laser spectroscopy, which had a low resonant frequency of 7.83 kHz and a wide fork gap for long energy accumulation time and easy optical alignment. Compared to the reported rectangular QTF, this tapered QTF transfers the maximum stress position from the root to the middle to improve

Anti-ferroelectric thin films are renowned for their signature double hysteresis loops and sheds light on the distinguished energy storage capabilities of dielectric capacitors in modern electronic devices. However, anti-ferroelectric capacitors are still facing the dual challenges of low energy density and efficiency to achieve state-of-the-art performance. Their large hysteresis and sharp first-order

Time-resolved x-ray microscopy is used in a low-alpha synchrotron operation mode to image spin dynamics at an unprecedented combination of temporal and spatial resolution. Thereby, nanoscale spin waves with wavelengths down to 70 nm and frequencies up to 30 GHz are directly observed in ferromagnetic thin film microelements with spin vortex ground states. In an antiparallel ferromagnetic bilayer system

Field-effect transistors are crucial components for modern electronics, generating significant research and profitable interest. Metal halide perovskites have recently emerged as a pioneering active material in solar cells, generating interest in their potential use in other electronic and (opto)electronic devices, including field-effect transistors and phototransistors. However, before they can be

Recently, several experimental works have appeared in the literature where induced magnetism in single- and few-layer graphene (SL-gr and FL-gr) interfaced with layered van der Waals materials was investigated via the application of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE). In most of these works, it is suggested that the observation of the AHE in such systems can be explained by a magnetic exchange interaction

The demand for efficient solvers of complicated combinatorial optimization problems, especially those classified as NP-complete or NP-hard, has recently led to increased exploration of novel computing architectures. One prominent collective state computing paradigm embodied in the so-called Ising machines has recently attracted considerable research attention due to its ability to optimize complex

Ferromagnetic insulators and plasmons have attracted a lot of interest due to their rich fundamental science and applications. Recent research efforts have been made to find dopant-free ferromagnetic insulators and unconventional plasmons independently both in strongly correlated electron systems. However, our understanding of them is still lacking. Existing dopant-free ferromagnetic insulator materials

Vacancy-ordered perovskite oxides are attracting attention due to their diverse functions such as resistive switching, electrocatalytic activity, oxygen diffusivity, and ferroelectricity. It is important to clarify the chemical lattice strains arising from compositional changes and the associated vacancy order–disorder phase transitions at the atomic scale. Here, we elucidate the intermediate process

Synaptic transistors, which emulate the behavior of biological synapses, play a vital role in information processing and storage in neuromorphic systems. However, the occurrence of excessive current spikes during the updating of synaptic weight poses challenges to the stability, accuracy, and power consumption of synaptic transistors. In this work, we experimentally investigate the main factors for

Exchange bias (EB) is normally created by the interfacial exchange coupling at a ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AFM) interface. FM/AFM interfaces have also been proved to perform enhanced spin angular momentum transfer efficiency in spin pumping (SP), compared with typical FM/nonmagnetic interfaces. Here, we report an unexpected EB and enhanced SP between a ferromagnet and semiconductor. Considerable

This study presents an in-depth analysis of ferro-resistive switching (FRS) behaviors in a TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2(HZO)/WOx/W ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) device, with a particular focus on the role of the tungsten oxide (WOx) interface layer (IL). Structural examinations confirm the presence of the WOx IL, which significantly influences the FRS properties of the device. Electrical measurements indicate

Significant efforts have been dedicated to hydrogen production through photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) over the past five decades. However, achieving commercially viable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency in PWS systems remains elusive. These systems face intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, such as inadequate light absorption, insufficient charge separation, limited redox active sites, low

In vivo bioprinting, fabricating tissue-engineered implants directly in a patient, was recently developed to overcome the logistical and clinical limitations of traditional bioprinting. In vivo printing reduces the time to treatment, allows for real-time reconstructive adjustments, minimizes transportation challenges, improves adhesion to remnant tissue and ensuing tissue integration, and utilizes

Relaxation processes play a crucial role in glassy materials. However, current dielectric or mechanical spectroscopy typically reaches a lower limit of around 10−1 or 10−2 Hz, which restricts the exploration of long-time dynamics and stability. Here, we propose a mechanical protocol that enables the probing of relaxation processes down to 10−5 Hz, extending the lower limit by ∼3–4 orders of magnitude

Perovskite solar cells have made significant progress in achieving high power conversion efficiency (>26%) in the past decade. However, achieving long-term stability comparable to established silicon solar cells is still a significant challenge, requiring further investigation into degradation mechanisms and continued exploration of interface engineering strategies. Here we review stability at the

Knowing material behavior is crucial for successful design, especially given the growing number of next-generation energy, defense, and manufacturing systems operating in extreme environments. Specific applications for materials in extreme environments include fusion energy, semiconductor manufacturing, metal additive manufacturing, and aerospace. With increased applications, awareness of foundational

In the era of artificial intelligence and smart automated systems, the quest for efficient data processing has driven exploration into neuromorphic systems, aiming to replicate brain functionality and complex cognitive actions. This review assesses, based on recent literature, the challenges and progress in developing basic neuromorphic systems, focusing on “material-neuron” concepts, that integrate

The physiology and pathogenesis of biological cells have drawn enormous research interest. Benefiting from the rapid development of microfabrication and microelectronics, miniaturized robots with a tool size below micrometers have widely been studied for manipulating biological cells in vitro and in vivo. Traditionally, the complex physiological environment and biological fragility require human labor