Pub Date : 2026-02-24DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02065-1
Ti Xie, Qinqin Wang, Hongrui Zhang, Khimananda Acharya, Ju Chen, Chen Liu, Zhihao Song, Samuel August Deitemyer, Hasitha Suriya Arachchige, Qishuo Tan, Andrew F. May, Seng Huat Lee, Michael A. Susner, Zhiqiang Mao, Michael A. McGuire, Xi Ling, David Mandrus, Xixiang Zhang, Shi-Jing Gong, Tula R. Paudel, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Cheng Gong
{"title":"Tailorable multiferroic tunnel junctions from all-van der Waals multilayer stacking","authors":"Ti Xie, Qinqin Wang, Hongrui Zhang, Khimananda Acharya, Ju Chen, Chen Liu, Zhihao Song, Samuel August Deitemyer, Hasitha Suriya Arachchige, Qishuo Tan, Andrew F. May, Seng Huat Lee, Michael A. Susner, Zhiqiang Mao, Michael A. McGuire, Xi Ling, David Mandrus, Xixiang Zhang, Shi-Jing Gong, Tula R. Paudel, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Cheng Gong","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02065-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02065-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147278858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-18DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02110-z
Dominik Weintz, Martin Werres, Birger Horstmann, Rachid Amine, Chi-Cheung Su, Xinlin Li, Yaobin Xu, Ridwan A. Ahmed, Wu Xu, Chongmin Wang, Bastian von Holtum, Simon Wiemers-Meyer, Dongliang Chen, Jianwei Lai, Feifei Shi, Sascha Berg, Egbert Figgemeier, Christian O. Plaza-Rivera, Daniel Wang, Yang Shao-Horn, Aravind Unni, Ulrike Krewer, Stephen Scoggins, Perla B. Balbuena, Jorge M. Seminario, Asia Sarycheva, Ziyuan Lyu, Dominic Bresser, Florian Hausen, Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Khalil Amine, Arnulf Latz, Robert Kostecki, Martin Winter, Isidora Cekic-Laskovic
{"title":"Nanoengineering of non-aqueous liquid electrolyte solutions for future lithium metal batteries","authors":"Dominik Weintz, Martin Werres, Birger Horstmann, Rachid Amine, Chi-Cheung Su, Xinlin Li, Yaobin Xu, Ridwan A. Ahmed, Wu Xu, Chongmin Wang, Bastian von Holtum, Simon Wiemers-Meyer, Dongliang Chen, Jianwei Lai, Feifei Shi, Sascha Berg, Egbert Figgemeier, Christian O. Plaza-Rivera, Daniel Wang, Yang Shao-Horn, Aravind Unni, Ulrike Krewer, Stephen Scoggins, Perla B. Balbuena, Jorge M. Seminario, Asia Sarycheva, Ziyuan Lyu, Dominic Bresser, Florian Hausen, Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Khalil Amine, Arnulf Latz, Robert Kostecki, Martin Winter, Isidora Cekic-Laskovic","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02110-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02110-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"96 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146210331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-11DOI: 10.1038/s41565-026-02132-1
Yan Chen, Xudong Wang, Jin Li, Rongbin Su, Kaili Xiong, Xueshi Li, Ying Yu, Tao Zhang, Kexun Wu, Xiao Li, Zhanling Wang, Hui Jing, Jiawei Wang, Jiaxiang Zhang, Jin Liu, Tian Jiang
Exceptional points (EPs) are singularities in non-Hermitian systems where at least two eigenstates coalesce. They provide additional control over light–matter interactions and can, for example, enhance radiation from ensembles of photonic emitters. Advanced control over the characteristics of single quantum emitters via EPs remains, however, elusive. Here we engineer the quantum vacuum, the lowest energy state of the electromagnetic field, via a chiral EP to shape the spontaneous emission of a single quantum emitter. We develop a heterogeneously integrated lithium niobate-GaAs photonic circuit comprising high-quality quantum emitters, low-loss photonic circuits, electro-optic modulators and piezoelectric actuators. We dynamically tune the clockwise–counterclockwise mode coupling to access EPs, thereby inducing anomalous spontaneous emission dynamics with a sevenfold lifetime modulation (120–850 ps) and tunable chirality. Furthermore, we shape the emission spectra at the single-photon level via an EP-controlled local density of states, generating squared-Lorentzian, Fano-asymmetric and EP-induced transparency emissions. The latter manifests as a suppression of photon emission at zero detuning, arising from the non-Lorentzian optical response characteristics inherent to EP systems. This work unveils uncommon cavity quantum electrodynamics unique to EPs and exemplifies how the concept of non-Hermitian quantum photonics may contribute towards high-performance topological quantum light sources.
{"title":"On-chip non-Hermitian cavity quantum electrodynamics","authors":"Yan Chen, Xudong Wang, Jin Li, Rongbin Su, Kaili Xiong, Xueshi Li, Ying Yu, Tao Zhang, Kexun Wu, Xiao Li, Zhanling Wang, Hui Jing, Jiawei Wang, Jiaxiang Zhang, Jin Liu, Tian Jiang","doi":"10.1038/s41565-026-02132-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-026-02132-1","url":null,"abstract":"Exceptional points (EPs) are singularities in non-Hermitian systems where at least two eigenstates coalesce. They provide additional control over light–matter interactions and can, for example, enhance radiation from ensembles of photonic emitters. Advanced control over the characteristics of single quantum emitters via EPs remains, however, elusive. Here we engineer the quantum vacuum, the lowest energy state of the electromagnetic field, via a chiral EP to shape the spontaneous emission of a single quantum emitter. We develop a heterogeneously integrated lithium niobate-GaAs photonic circuit comprising high-quality quantum emitters, low-loss photonic circuits, electro-optic modulators and piezoelectric actuators. We dynamically tune the clockwise–counterclockwise mode coupling to access EPs, thereby inducing anomalous spontaneous emission dynamics with a sevenfold lifetime modulation (120–850 ps) and tunable chirality. Furthermore, we shape the emission spectra at the single-photon level via an EP-controlled local density of states, generating squared-Lorentzian, Fano-asymmetric and EP-induced transparency emissions. The latter manifests as a suppression of photon emission at zero detuning, arising from the non-Lorentzian optical response characteristics inherent to EP systems. This work unveils uncommon cavity quantum electrodynamics unique to EPs and exemplifies how the concept of non-Hermitian quantum photonics may contribute towards high-performance topological quantum light sources.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-04DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02117-6
Michael Filippi, Wen Ju, Tim Möller, Liang Liang, Xingli Wang, Peter Strasser
This Review provides a perspective on tandem catalysis schemes applied to the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2). We define and classify microscopic and macroscopic site and cell tandem concepts pursued so far and provide a critical assessment and performance comparison against non-tandem systems. Our analysis demonstrates that tandem approaches generally seem to improve the selectivity for oxygenates compared with CO2-fed copper-based or non-tandem systems. However, tandem approaches are typically inferior in terms of ethylene production compared with non-tandem approaches. The tandem electrolyser concept seems to be the most promising tandem concept owing to the reduced materials complexity and possibility of individual tuning of microenvironments for the CO-producing and CO-CO-coupling catalytic phases. We conclude our Review by addressing key remaining challenges and promising future research directions in the field of tandem CO2 electrocatalysis.
{"title":"Tandem architectures for electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> reduction: from coupled atomic sites to tandem electrolysers.","authors":"Michael Filippi, Wen Ju, Tim Möller, Liang Liang, Xingli Wang, Peter Strasser","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02117-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02117-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This Review provides a perspective on tandem catalysis schemes applied to the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>). We define and classify microscopic and macroscopic site and cell tandem concepts pursued so far and provide a critical assessment and performance comparison against non-tandem systems. Our analysis demonstrates that tandem approaches generally seem to improve the selectivity for oxygenates compared with CO<sub>2</sub>-fed copper-based or non-tandem systems. However, tandem approaches are typically inferior in terms of ethylene production compared with non-tandem approaches. The tandem electrolyser concept seems to be the most promising tandem concept owing to the reduced materials complexity and possibility of individual tuning of microenvironments for the CO-producing and CO-CO-coupling catalytic phases. We conclude our Review by addressing key remaining challenges and promising future research directions in the field of tandem CO<sub>2</sub> electrocatalysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":34.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146119493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-02DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z
Mahsa Jalali, Tamer AbdElFatah, Carolina del Real Mata, Imman I. Hosseini, Sripadh Guptha Yedire, Geoffrey A. McKay, Rachel Corsini, Roozbeh Siavash Moakhar, Hamed Shieh, Grace Reszetnik, Seyed Vahid Hamidi, Cedric P. Yansouni, Dao Nguyen, Sara Mahshid
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies that rapidly identify pathogenic bacteria and their resistance phenotypes are critical in addressing the antimicrobial resistance crisis, enabling timely and precise antibiotic treatment decisions. We present a modular automated platform based on nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for parallel bacterial identification and phenotypic profiling of AST (QolorPhAST), achieving an eightfold enhancement in detection rapidity. QolorPhAST reduces drug susceptibility profiling times in direct specimens from days to minutes, bypassing overnight cultures and pathogen isolation typically required in standard clinical AST workflows. The approach was validated with a broad range of microbial pathogens, spanning 10 bacterial species and 34 strains across various antibiotic concentrations to identify pathogens and antibiotic minimal inhibitory concentrations in a multiplexed fashion. In a proof-of-concept clinical study, QolorPhAST was tested with a cohort of blinded patient samples suspected of urinary tract infections, achieving 100% accuracy in species identification, an average categorical agreement of 91.81% and an average essential agreement of 86.4%, with a turnaround time of 36 min from specimen introduction to result. The study suggests that QolorPhAST, with its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, can be a transformative solution to address the antimicrobial resistance burden. A modular, point-of-care device combining hemispheric plasmonic nanoarrays and automated microfluidics enables nucleic acid amplification and metabolic cell viability assay for rapid bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing.
{"title":"Ultra-rapid nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from specimens","authors":"Mahsa Jalali, Tamer AbdElFatah, Carolina del Real Mata, Imman I. Hosseini, Sripadh Guptha Yedire, Geoffrey A. McKay, Rachel Corsini, Roozbeh Siavash Moakhar, Hamed Shieh, Grace Reszetnik, Seyed Vahid Hamidi, Cedric P. Yansouni, Dao Nguyen, Sara Mahshid","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z","url":null,"abstract":"Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies that rapidly identify pathogenic bacteria and their resistance phenotypes are critical in addressing the antimicrobial resistance crisis, enabling timely and precise antibiotic treatment decisions. We present a modular automated platform based on nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for parallel bacterial identification and phenotypic profiling of AST (QolorPhAST), achieving an eightfold enhancement in detection rapidity. QolorPhAST reduces drug susceptibility profiling times in direct specimens from days to minutes, bypassing overnight cultures and pathogen isolation typically required in standard clinical AST workflows. The approach was validated with a broad range of microbial pathogens, spanning 10 bacterial species and 34 strains across various antibiotic concentrations to identify pathogens and antibiotic minimal inhibitory concentrations in a multiplexed fashion. In a proof-of-concept clinical study, QolorPhAST was tested with a cohort of blinded patient samples suspected of urinary tract infections, achieving 100% accuracy in species identification, an average categorical agreement of 91.81% and an average essential agreement of 86.4%, with a turnaround time of 36 min from specimen introduction to result. The study suggests that QolorPhAST, with its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, can be a transformative solution to address the antimicrobial resistance burden. A modular, point-of-care device combining hemispheric plasmonic nanoarrays and automated microfluidics enables nucleic acid amplification and metabolic cell viability assay for rapid bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"21 2","pages":"288-299"},"PeriodicalIF":34.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146106313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Superconducting diodes promise low-dissipation rectification for superconducting electronics and low-temperature applications. Generating a quantized d.c. voltage from radio-frequency (rf) irradiation without external bias could enable self-powered cryogenic devices but are challenging to realize. Here we use the kagome superconductor CsV3Sb5 to demonstrate quantized rf rectification at zero magnetic field. We fabricate transport devices from mechanically exfoliated single-crystal nanobeams with a thickness of 100-200 nm and a width of 1 μm contacted by gold electrodes. These devices exhibit Josephson effects, probably originating from intrinsic weak links within the material, and show Josephson diode effects even at zero external magnetic field. Under rf irradiation without a current bias, a d.c. voltage emerges and scales linearly with the microwave frequency f as V d.c. = hf / 2 e , where h is Planck's constant and e is the electron charge. At constant frequency, the voltage increases in quantized steps with increasing rf power, consistent with the emergence of Shapiro steps. Our work establishes CsV3Sb5 as a potential platform for cryogenic-temperature wireless power sources and self-powered voltage standards.
超导二极管为超导电子和低温应用提供了低耗散整流的前景。从射频（rf）照射产生无外部偏置的量子化直流电压可以实现自供电的低温设备，但实现起来具有挑战性。在这里，我们使用kagome超导体CsV3Sb5来演示零磁场下的量化射频整流。我们利用机械剥离的单晶纳米梁制造传输器件，其厚度为100-200 nm，宽度为1 μm，并与金电极接触。这些器件表现出约瑟夫森效应，可能源于材料内部的固有薄弱环节，并且即使在零外磁场下也表现出约瑟夫森二极管效应。在无电流偏置的射频照射下，直流电压出现，并与微波频率f成线性关系，为V dc = hf / 2e，其中h为普朗克常数，e为电子电荷。在恒定频率下，电压随射频功率的增加呈量化阶跃增加，与夏皮罗阶跃的出现一致。我们的工作确立了CsV3Sb5作为低温无线电源和自供电电压标准的潜在平台。
{"title":"Quantized radio-frequency rectification in a kagome superconductor Josephson diode.","authors":"Han-Xin Lou,Jing-Jing Chen,Xing-Guo Ye,Zhen-Bing Tan,An-Qi Wang,Qing Yin,Xin Liao,Jing-Zhi Fang,Xing-Yu Liu,Yi-Lin He,Zhen-Tao Zhang,Chuan Li,Zhong-Ming Wei,Xiu-Mei Ma,Da-Peng Yu,Zhi-Min Liao","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02120-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02120-x","url":null,"abstract":"Superconducting diodes promise low-dissipation rectification for superconducting electronics and low-temperature applications. Generating a quantized d.c. voltage from radio-frequency (rf) irradiation without external bias could enable self-powered cryogenic devices but are challenging to realize. Here we use the kagome superconductor CsV3Sb5 to demonstrate quantized rf rectification at zero magnetic field. We fabricate transport devices from mechanically exfoliated single-crystal nanobeams with a thickness of 100-200 nm and a width of 1 μm contacted by gold electrodes. These devices exhibit Josephson effects, probably originating from intrinsic weak links within the material, and show Josephson diode effects even at zero external magnetic field. Under rf irradiation without a current bias, a d.c. voltage emerges and scales linearly with the microwave frequency f as V d.c. = hf / 2 e , where h is Planck's constant and e is the electron charge. At constant frequency, the voltage increases in quantized steps with increasing rf power, consistent with the emergence of Shapiro steps. Our work establishes CsV3Sb5 as a potential platform for cryogenic-temperature wireless power sources and self-powered voltage standards.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-28DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02085-x
Jean-Jacques Greffet, Aurelian Loirette-Pelous
The emission of electromagnetic waves from solids encompasses a wide range of processes, including incandescence, fluorescence, electroluminescence, scintillation, cathodoluminescence and light emission from inelastic tunnelling. Different models can be used to describe them; for example, thermal emission from hot bodies is computed using statistical physics, photon emission from an excited electron is treated with quantum mechanics and emission from a current in an antenna is quantitatively described by Maxwell’s equations. However, most emitting systems involve statistical ensembles of excited electrons interacting with complex electromagnetic environments, so a blend of the three approaches is needed. The purpose of this Review is to provide a unified framework that combines recent theoretical works that have been developed to quantitatively account for light emission processes in solids. We begin with an overview of the electrodynamics approach used to model incandescence. This framework is then extended to describe light emission from optically or electrically pumped semiconductors. Finally, we generalize the procedure to strongly non-equilibrium systems and illustrate its application through several examples. This Review extends fluctuational electrodynamics, introduced originally to deal with radiation due to thermal fluctuations, to provide a unified quantitative theoretical framework that accounts for light emission processes in solids.
{"title":"A unified model for light emission from solids","authors":"Jean-Jacques Greffet, Aurelian Loirette-Pelous","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02085-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41565-025-02085-x","url":null,"abstract":"The emission of electromagnetic waves from solids encompasses a wide range of processes, including incandescence, fluorescence, electroluminescence, scintillation, cathodoluminescence and light emission from inelastic tunnelling. Different models can be used to describe them; for example, thermal emission from hot bodies is computed using statistical physics, photon emission from an excited electron is treated with quantum mechanics and emission from a current in an antenna is quantitatively described by Maxwell’s equations. However, most emitting systems involve statistical ensembles of excited electrons interacting with complex electromagnetic environments, so a blend of the three approaches is needed. The purpose of this Review is to provide a unified framework that combines recent theoretical works that have been developed to quantitatively account for light emission processes in solids. We begin with an overview of the electrodynamics approach used to model incandescence. This framework is then extended to describe light emission from optically or electrically pumped semiconductors. Finally, we generalize the procedure to strongly non-equilibrium systems and illustrate its application through several examples. This Review extends fluctuational electrodynamics, introduced originally to deal with radiation due to thermal fluctuations, to provide a unified quantitative theoretical framework that accounts for light emission processes in solids.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"21 2","pages":"184-197"},"PeriodicalIF":34.9,"publicationDate":"2026-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146070113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-28DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02121-w
Nirmal Roy, Pengua Ying, Simon Salleh Atri, Yoav Sharaby, Noam Raab, Youngki Yeo, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Michael Urbakh, Oded Hod, Moshe Ben Shalom
Graphitic polytypes—commensurate stacking variants of graphene layers—exhibit pronounced stacking-dependent properties, including intrinsic polarization, orbital magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. Previous attempts to switch between these polytypes required micrometre-scale domains and micronewton loading forces, severely limiting practical multi-ferroic functionality. Here we demonstrate fully reversible transformations of Bernal tetralayers to rhombohedral crystals down to 30-nanometre-scale dimensions, using <1 nanonewton lateral shear forces and an energy of <1 femtojoule per switching event. We achieve this by inserting an intentionally misaligned spacer, patterned by nanometre-scale cavities, between a pair of aligned bilayers. Within each cavity, the active bilayers sag to form stable single-domain polytypes, whereas outside the cavities, the layers slide freely over superlubric, incommensurate interfaces with ultralow friction. Conducting-probe force-microscopy experiments, supported by force-field calculations, reveal edge-nucleated boundary solitons that slide spontaneously to switch the commensurate domains, indicating ultralow pinning and long-range strain relaxations extending tens of nanometres beyond the islands. By engineering cavity geometries, we program elastic coupling between neighbouring islands and tune switching thresholds and trajectories. This reconfigurable slidetronic control establishes a robust route to multi-ferroic response and elastically coupled switching among distinct stacking states.
{"title":"Switching graphitic polytypes in elastically coupled cavities","authors":"Nirmal Roy, Pengua Ying, Simon Salleh Atri, Yoav Sharaby, Noam Raab, Youngki Yeo, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Michael Urbakh, Oded Hod, Moshe Ben Shalom","doi":"10.1038/s41565-025-02121-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02121-w","url":null,"abstract":"Graphitic polytypes—commensurate stacking variants of graphene layers—exhibit pronounced stacking-dependent properties, including intrinsic polarization, orbital magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. Previous attempts to switch between these polytypes required micrometre-scale domains and micronewton loading forces, severely limiting practical multi-ferroic functionality. Here we demonstrate fully reversible transformations of Bernal tetralayers to rhombohedral crystals down to 30-nanometre-scale dimensions, using <1 nanonewton lateral shear forces and an energy of <1 femtojoule per switching event. We achieve this by inserting an intentionally misaligned spacer, patterned by nanometre-scale cavities, between a pair of aligned bilayers. Within each cavity, the active bilayers sag to form stable single-domain polytypes, whereas outside the cavities, the layers slide freely over superlubric, incommensurate interfaces with ultralow friction. Conducting-probe force-microscopy experiments, supported by force-field calculations, reveal edge-nucleated boundary solitons that slide spontaneously to switch the commensurate domains, indicating ultralow pinning and long-range strain relaxations extending tens of nanometres beyond the islands. By engineering cavity geometries, we program elastic coupling between neighbouring islands and tune switching thresholds and trajectories. This reconfigurable slidetronic control establishes a robust route to multi-ferroic response and elastically coupled switching among distinct stacking states.","PeriodicalId":18915,"journal":{"name":"Nature nanotechnology","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146057186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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