Abdoulaye Ndao, Edwin B. Fohtung, Moussa N'Gom, Thomas A. Searles, Kimani Toussaint, Yanne K. Chembo
The convergence of metamaterials and quantum optics heralds a transformative era in photonic technologies, poised to revolutionize applications ranging from information processing and imaging to sensing and beyond. This review explores the synergistic integration of metasurfaces—engineered sub-wavelength planar structures—and quantum optics, which exploits quantum mechanical principles to manipulate light at the most granular level. We outline the design principles, fabrication processes, and computational challenges involved in creating quantum metasurfaces, discussing both forward and inverse design approaches. Advances in nanofabrication and intelligent optimization techniques, such as machine learning and topology optimization, have enabled the development of metasurfaces with unparalleled control over electromagnetic waves. We examine recent progress in using quantum metasurfaces for single-photon and multi-photon generation, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing, showcasing how these innovations achieve unprecedented precision and novel functionalities. Additionally, we highlight the integration of metasurfaces into quantum light manipulation, emphasizing their role in enhancing wavefront shaping and entanglement control. By providing a comprehensive survey of current advancements and future research directions, this review highlights the vast potential of metasurfaces and quantum optics at the crossroads, setting the stage for next-generation technological innovations that will define the forthcoming decade.
{"title":"Synergistic integration of metasurfaces and quantum photonics: Pathways to next-generation technologies","authors":"Abdoulaye Ndao, Edwin B. Fohtung, Moussa N'Gom, Thomas A. Searles, Kimani Toussaint, Yanne K. Chembo","doi":"10.1063/5.0226259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0226259","url":null,"abstract":"The convergence of metamaterials and quantum optics heralds a transformative era in photonic technologies, poised to revolutionize applications ranging from information processing and imaging to sensing and beyond. This review explores the synergistic integration of metasurfaces—engineered sub-wavelength planar structures—and quantum optics, which exploits quantum mechanical principles to manipulate light at the most granular level. We outline the design principles, fabrication processes, and computational challenges involved in creating quantum metasurfaces, discussing both forward and inverse design approaches. Advances in nanofabrication and intelligent optimization techniques, such as machine learning and topology optimization, have enabled the development of metasurfaces with unparalleled control over electromagnetic waves. We examine recent progress in using quantum metasurfaces for single-photon and multi-photon generation, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing, showcasing how these innovations achieve unprecedented precision and novel functionalities. Additionally, we highlight the integration of metasurfaces into quantum light manipulation, emphasizing their role in enhancing wavefront shaping and entanglement control. By providing a comprehensive survey of current advancements and future research directions, this review highlights the vast potential of metasurfaces and quantum optics at the crossroads, setting the stage for next-generation technological innovations that will define the forthcoming decade.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145532039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Guangtan Miao, Yao Dong, Zezhong Yin, Guoxia Liu, Fukai Shan
With the increasing demand for processing massive and unstructured data, computing systems based on the von Neumann architecture are facing challenges of low-speed and high-energy consumption. Neuromorphic devices with synaptic functions are gradually emerging, which provides hardware support for the construction of brain-like computing systems. As an important branch of neuromorphic devices, synaptic transistors have shown great potential in energy-efficient parallel computing. Among the various types of synaptic transistors, oxide-based synaptic transistors (OSTs) have attracted widespread attention due to their compatibility with silicon technology and operating stability. Herein, the basic functionalities and the latest developments of OSTs are introduced. According to different operating mechanisms, OSTs are classified as electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors, ferroelectric synaptic transistors, charge trapping synaptic transistors, and photoelectric synaptic transistors. The material selection, device configuration, and synaptic characteristics of various devices are discussed. The application scenarios of OSTs in various fields are summarized. Finally, the development prospects of OSTs that could be significant for constructing neuromorphic systems are outlined.
{"title":"Recent advances in oxide-based synaptic transistors for neuromorphic applications","authors":"Guangtan Miao, Yao Dong, Zezhong Yin, Guoxia Liu, Fukai Shan","doi":"10.1063/5.0295981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0295981","url":null,"abstract":"With the increasing demand for processing massive and unstructured data, computing systems based on the von Neumann architecture are facing challenges of low-speed and high-energy consumption. Neuromorphic devices with synaptic functions are gradually emerging, which provides hardware support for the construction of brain-like computing systems. As an important branch of neuromorphic devices, synaptic transistors have shown great potential in energy-efficient parallel computing. Among the various types of synaptic transistors, oxide-based synaptic transistors (OSTs) have attracted widespread attention due to their compatibility with silicon technology and operating stability. Herein, the basic functionalities and the latest developments of OSTs are introduced. According to different operating mechanisms, OSTs are classified as electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors, ferroelectric synaptic transistors, charge trapping synaptic transistors, and photoelectric synaptic transistors. The material selection, device configuration, and synaptic characteristics of various devices are discussed. The application scenarios of OSTs in various fields are summarized. Finally, the development prospects of OSTs that could be significant for constructing neuromorphic systems are outlined.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145508962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Do Wan Kim, Hadi Nugraha Cipta Dharma, Miseon Kim, Kayoung Kim, Jinho Lee, Yongmo Ha, Jaeyong Lee, Jae-Won Jang
The integration of MoS2 and TiO2 into heterojunction structures has gained significant attention for its potential in advancing photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems for hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction. TiO2, with its high stability and strong oxidation power, suffers from a wide bandgap that limits its visible-light absorption, whereas MoS2, a two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC), exhibits excellent catalytic properties and a narrow bandgap that enhances light absorption and charge transfer. The MoS2/TiO2 heterojunction effectively overcomes these limitations by facilitating charge separation, suppressing recombination losses, and expanding the light absorption range, making it a promising candidate for sustainable energy applications. Notably, MoS2/TiO2 heterojunctions have demonstrated versatility in PEC systems, functioning effectively as photoanodes and photocathodes. This review provides a detailed overview of MoS2/TiO2-based PEC architectures, including a comparative analysis of their anodic and cathodic roles. Furthermore, recent advances in synthesis strategies, interfacial engineering, charge transfer mechanisms, and performance enhancement techniques have been discussed comprehensively. Additionally, challenges such as interfacial charge recombination, stability issues, and scalable fabrication methods are addressed along with emerging strategies, including defect engineering, plasmonic enhancement, and multi-component heterostructures. By addressing these challenges, MoS2/TiO2 heterojunctions hold great promise for the future of solar-driven hydrogen production and carbon capture technologies, contributing to global efforts toward clean energy and environmental sustainability.
{"title":"Advances in MoS2/TiO2 heterojunctions for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction: A comprehensive review","authors":"Do Wan Kim, Hadi Nugraha Cipta Dharma, Miseon Kim, Kayoung Kim, Jinho Lee, Yongmo Ha, Jaeyong Lee, Jae-Won Jang","doi":"10.1063/5.0273872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0273872","url":null,"abstract":"The integration of MoS2 and TiO2 into heterojunction structures has gained significant attention for its potential in advancing photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems for hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction. TiO2, with its high stability and strong oxidation power, suffers from a wide bandgap that limits its visible-light absorption, whereas MoS2, a two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC), exhibits excellent catalytic properties and a narrow bandgap that enhances light absorption and charge transfer. The MoS2/TiO2 heterojunction effectively overcomes these limitations by facilitating charge separation, suppressing recombination losses, and expanding the light absorption range, making it a promising candidate for sustainable energy applications. Notably, MoS2/TiO2 heterojunctions have demonstrated versatility in PEC systems, functioning effectively as photoanodes and photocathodes. This review provides a detailed overview of MoS2/TiO2-based PEC architectures, including a comparative analysis of their anodic and cathodic roles. Furthermore, recent advances in synthesis strategies, interfacial engineering, charge transfer mechanisms, and performance enhancement techniques have been discussed comprehensively. Additionally, challenges such as interfacial charge recombination, stability issues, and scalable fabrication methods are addressed along with emerging strategies, including defect engineering, plasmonic enhancement, and multi-component heterostructures. By addressing these challenges, MoS2/TiO2 heterojunctions hold great promise for the future of solar-driven hydrogen production and carbon capture technologies, contributing to global efforts toward clean energy and environmental sustainability.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145484689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neurological disorders encompass a wide range of debilitating conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, and genetic disorders. By targeting underlying genetic factors, gene therapy has shown great potential to treat neurological disorders. However, successful implementation of gene therapy critically depends on the capacity of the gene delivery system to address the multifactorial challenges associated with brain-targeted gene delivery, encompassing biosafety, blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, transduction efficiency, cell-type specificity, payload capacity, and immunogenic potential. Currently, viral vectors are most widely used for clinical gene therapy applications due to their high BBB-crossing and cell transfection efficiencies. However, the safety concerns and strict gene packaging limit of viral vectors greatly restrict their future potential. Non-viral gene vectors, including exosomes, lipids, polymers, and inorganic structures, have been extensively studied in the recent decade, expecting as preferred vectors for gene delivery due to their better safety, higher gene loading efficiency, lower costs, and easier tailorability. In this review, we first discuss the potentials and challenges of gene therapeutics for brain diseases. Then we summarize the recent progress of non-viral brain-targeted gene delivery vectors and examine the key technical issues for high gene delivery efficacy. In particular, we will explore the current clinical prospects and challenges associated with translating these vehicles into effective treatments for neurological disorders. Finally, we will take a perspective on the future opportunities of non-viral delivery systems for clinical gene therapy of neurological disorders.
{"title":"Recent advances and clinical prospects of non-viral brain-targeted gene delivery systems","authors":"Shuyu Wang, Linlin Xu, Feihe Ma, Mengchen Xu, Guidong Chen, Dayuan Wang, Xiaohui Wu, Peng Wang, Jinpu Yu, Linqi Shi","doi":"10.1063/5.0255745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0255745","url":null,"abstract":"Neurological disorders encompass a wide range of debilitating conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, and genetic disorders. By targeting underlying genetic factors, gene therapy has shown great potential to treat neurological disorders. However, successful implementation of gene therapy critically depends on the capacity of the gene delivery system to address the multifactorial challenges associated with brain-targeted gene delivery, encompassing biosafety, blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, transduction efficiency, cell-type specificity, payload capacity, and immunogenic potential. Currently, viral vectors are most widely used for clinical gene therapy applications due to their high BBB-crossing and cell transfection efficiencies. However, the safety concerns and strict gene packaging limit of viral vectors greatly restrict their future potential. Non-viral gene vectors, including exosomes, lipids, polymers, and inorganic structures, have been extensively studied in the recent decade, expecting as preferred vectors for gene delivery due to their better safety, higher gene loading efficiency, lower costs, and easier tailorability. In this review, we first discuss the potentials and challenges of gene therapeutics for brain diseases. Then we summarize the recent progress of non-viral brain-targeted gene delivery vectors and examine the key technical issues for high gene delivery efficacy. In particular, we will explore the current clinical prospects and challenges associated with translating these vehicles into effective treatments for neurological disorders. Finally, we will take a perspective on the future opportunities of non-viral delivery systems for clinical gene therapy of neurological disorders.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145455647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biomolecular assemblies form via intramolecular interactions and serve important biological functions. The most characterized biomolecular assemblies are amyloid fibrils, which are associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Advances in microscopy techniques enabled characterization of the morphology of these assemblies, but so far, failed in detailed structural characterizations. Vibrational spectroscopic imaging presents unique advantages to studying biomolecular assemblies in their natural environment due to the sensitivity of vibrational spectra to protein structural changes, especially β-sheet enrichment in amyloid fibrils. High-resolution hyperspectral images originating from distinct vibrations of chemical bonds provide label-free characterizations of biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. In this review, we first briefly introduce infrared and Raman-based spectroscopy and their biological interpretation. We then review applications adopting Fourier transform Infrared-based, mid-infrared photothermal-based, and Raman-based approaches in tissue and cells, especially live cells. Finally, we discuss how these technologies are evolving to study biomolecular assemblies beyond amyloid fibrils.
{"title":"Feeling the vibes: Vibrational spectroscopic imaging of biomolecular assemblies in their natural environment","authors":"Zhongyue Guo, Giulio Chiesa, Ji-Xin Cheng","doi":"10.1063/5.0244025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0244025","url":null,"abstract":"Biomolecular assemblies form via intramolecular interactions and serve important biological functions. The most characterized biomolecular assemblies are amyloid fibrils, which are associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Advances in microscopy techniques enabled characterization of the morphology of these assemblies, but so far, failed in detailed structural characterizations. Vibrational spectroscopic imaging presents unique advantages to studying biomolecular assemblies in their natural environment due to the sensitivity of vibrational spectra to protein structural changes, especially β-sheet enrichment in amyloid fibrils. High-resolution hyperspectral images originating from distinct vibrations of chemical bonds provide label-free characterizations of biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. In this review, we first briefly introduce infrared and Raman-based spectroscopy and their biological interpretation. We then review applications adopting Fourier transform Infrared-based, mid-infrared photothermal-based, and Raman-based approaches in tissue and cells, especially live cells. Finally, we discuss how these technologies are evolving to study biomolecular assemblies beyond amyloid fibrils.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shaoqi Ding, Guoxiang Si, Yanji Zheng, Zhihao Wang, Cuicui Lu
Topological physics with artificial gauge fields has emerged as a pivotal frontier in condensed matter physics and quantum simulation, offering profound insights into quantum phenomena and materials science. Artificial gauge fields have been realized on a variety of electrically neutral platforms through methods such as Raman laser coupling, strain engineering, and Floquet modulation. These approaches facilitate the discovery and manipulation of exotic quantum phases, including the quantum Hall effect, topological insulating states, and Weyl semimetals. Such phenomena not only shed light on fundamental aspects of topology in quantum systems but also enable analog quantum simulations, thereby allowing the emulation of complex quantum behaviors in tunable laboratory settings. Considering the importance of the research field and to cover its fast development, we have reviewed the progress of this field. First, we examine the theoretical underpinnings of topological states and artificial gauge fields, introducing their mathematical frameworks, implementation strategies, and synergistic interplay. Next, we introduce different topological phenomena based on artificial gauge fields and their experimental platform. Finally, we summarize the application achievements in this field and outline prospects for future development. Our work systematically and comprehensively elucidates how to employ artificial gauge fields to investigate topological effects, offering a detailed reference for future advancements in this field.
{"title":"Progress in topological physics based on artificial gauge fields","authors":"Shaoqi Ding, Guoxiang Si, Yanji Zheng, Zhihao Wang, Cuicui Lu","doi":"10.1063/5.0295497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0295497","url":null,"abstract":"Topological physics with artificial gauge fields has emerged as a pivotal frontier in condensed matter physics and quantum simulation, offering profound insights into quantum phenomena and materials science. Artificial gauge fields have been realized on a variety of electrically neutral platforms through methods such as Raman laser coupling, strain engineering, and Floquet modulation. These approaches facilitate the discovery and manipulation of exotic quantum phases, including the quantum Hall effect, topological insulating states, and Weyl semimetals. Such phenomena not only shed light on fundamental aspects of topology in quantum systems but also enable analog quantum simulations, thereby allowing the emulation of complex quantum behaviors in tunable laboratory settings. Considering the importance of the research field and to cover its fast development, we have reviewed the progress of this field. First, we examine the theoretical underpinnings of topological states and artificial gauge fields, introducing their mathematical frameworks, implementation strategies, and synergistic interplay. Next, we introduce different topological phenomena based on artificial gauge fields and their experimental platform. Finally, we summarize the application achievements in this field and outline prospects for future development. Our work systematically and comprehensively elucidates how to employ artificial gauge fields to investigate topological effects, offering a detailed reference for future advancements in this field.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christian H. Schwalb, Afshin Alipour, Kerim T. Arat, Randy K. Dumas, Darshit Jangid, Md. Ashiqur Rahman Laskar, Srijan Chakrabarti, William K. Neils, Sanchari Sen, Stefano Spagna, Umberto Celano
The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and subsequent guidelines offered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology emphasize the role of advanced metrology capabilities to play a vital role in the manufacturing, characterization, and integration of new semiconductor materials and devices. As the complexity of the fabrication process increases and characteristic dimensions of devices decrease, the community is faced with the extraordinary challenge of probing at scale their thermal, electrical, mechanical, chemical, and optical properties. Accessing this information remains a key endeavor to enable validation and verification of a device's functionality, yield, and ultimately, its economic viability in future semiconductor industry innovations. Therefore, in recent years, the idea of correlating multiple analytical microscopy techniques, often termed correlative microscopy, has emerged as a promising approach for the characterization of novel materials and process module optimization. One important area of research to improve our metrology capabilities is the hybridization of multiple analysis techniques into a single platform. Here, we review the efforts in applying multiple microscopy methods to a single area of interest to achieve analysis across a broader range of magnifications than any single technique can provide. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy exemplify this synergistic approach, allowing researchers to explore mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties at the nanoscale. Such detailed insights are crucial for understanding nanoscale mechanisms like thermal dissipation, carrier mobility, and magnetic susceptibility, used to predict performance and fault tolerance thresholds in novel device applications. We demonstrate their impact on semiconductor materials research fields, such as the study of thin films, nanostructures, two-dimensional (2D) materials, and packaging for heterogeneous integration. This review will emphasize laboratory-based metrology research rather than in-line wafer-scale chip manufacturing, although some of the conclusions can be directly extended.
两党通过的《2022年芯片和科学法案》以及美国国家标准与技术研究院（National Institute of Standards and Technology）提供的后续指南强调了先进计量能力在新型半导体材料和器件的制造、表征和集成中发挥的重要作用。随着制造工艺的复杂性增加和器件特征尺寸的减小，该社区面临着大规模探测其热、电、机械、化学和光学特性的巨大挑战。获取这些信息仍然是一项关键的努力，可以验证和验证器件的功能、产量，并最终在未来半导体行业创新中实现其经济可行性。因此，近年来，关联多种分析显微镜技术的想法，通常被称为相关显微镜，已经成为表征新材料和工艺模块优化的一种有前途的方法。一个重要的研究领域，以提高我们的计量能力是多种分析技术的杂交到一个单一的平台。在这里，我们回顾了将多种显微镜方法应用于单个感兴趣的区域，以实现比任何单一技术可以提供的更广泛的放大范围内的分析。扫描电子显微镜和原子力显微镜是这种协同方法的例子，使研究人员能够在纳米尺度上探索机械、电气和化学性质。这种详细的见解对于理解纳米级机制（如散热、载流子迁移率和磁化率）至关重要，用于预测新型器件应用中的性能和容错阈值。我们展示了它们对半导体材料研究领域的影响，例如薄膜、纳米结构、二维（2D）材料和异质集成封装的研究。这篇综述将强调基于实验室的计量研究，而不是在线的晶圆级芯片制造，尽管一些结论可以直接延伸。
{"title":"Advances in correlative microscopy and next-generation devices toward the CHIPS Act","authors":"Christian H. Schwalb, Afshin Alipour, Kerim T. Arat, Randy K. Dumas, Darshit Jangid, Md. Ashiqur Rahman Laskar, Srijan Chakrabarti, William K. Neils, Sanchari Sen, Stefano Spagna, Umberto Celano","doi":"10.1063/5.0287947","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0287947","url":null,"abstract":"The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and subsequent guidelines offered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology emphasize the role of advanced metrology capabilities to play a vital role in the manufacturing, characterization, and integration of new semiconductor materials and devices. As the complexity of the fabrication process increases and characteristic dimensions of devices decrease, the community is faced with the extraordinary challenge of probing at scale their thermal, electrical, mechanical, chemical, and optical properties. Accessing this information remains a key endeavor to enable validation and verification of a device's functionality, yield, and ultimately, its economic viability in future semiconductor industry innovations. Therefore, in recent years, the idea of correlating multiple analytical microscopy techniques, often termed correlative microscopy, has emerged as a promising approach for the characterization of novel materials and process module optimization. One important area of research to improve our metrology capabilities is the hybridization of multiple analysis techniques into a single platform. Here, we review the efforts in applying multiple microscopy methods to a single area of interest to achieve analysis across a broader range of magnifications than any single technique can provide. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy exemplify this synergistic approach, allowing researchers to explore mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties at the nanoscale. Such detailed insights are crucial for understanding nanoscale mechanisms like thermal dissipation, carrier mobility, and magnetic susceptibility, used to predict performance and fault tolerance thresholds in novel device applications. We demonstrate their impact on semiconductor materials research fields, such as the study of thin films, nanostructures, two-dimensional (2D) materials, and packaging for heterogeneous integration. This review will emphasize laboratory-based metrology research rather than in-line wafer-scale chip manufacturing, although some of the conclusions can be directly extended.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yulin Wu, Yuhan Sun, Qingquan Liang, Hong Zhang, Lipeng Xia, Xiaochuan Xu, Yi Zou
Anti-parity-time (anti-PT) symmetric systems have emerged as promising tools in optical design, offering unique advantages over parity-time (PT) symmetric systems. These systems leverage symmetry-broken modes, which play a crucial role in enabling chiral mode switching—a key functionality for integrated photonic devices. However, achieving such switching typically requires maintaining low adiabaticity through slow parameter variation, often leading to larger device footprints. In this paper, we present a novel anti-PT symmetric system that introduces parameter evolution via loss and width variations in waveguides, offering an innovative design approach. Through theoretical analysis of the Hamiltonian parameter space, we evaluate the degree of adiabaticity and optimize parameter evolution along the boundary of the Reimann surface. This strategy achieves chiral mode switching while maintaining low adiabaticity. In addition, the simultaneous modulation of loss and width significantly reduces the device footprint to just 30 μm, which is less than half the length of conventional anti-PT symmetric systems. The proposed system not only facilitates efficient chiral mode switching via exceptional point (EP) encircling but also enhances device compactness, paving the way for higher integration density in photonic devices.
{"title":"Accelerated exceptional point encirclement in anti-parity-time symmetric systems for ultra-compact chiral mode switching","authors":"Yulin Wu, Yuhan Sun, Qingquan Liang, Hong Zhang, Lipeng Xia, Xiaochuan Xu, Yi Zou","doi":"10.1063/5.0257153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0257153","url":null,"abstract":"Anti-parity-time (anti-PT) symmetric systems have emerged as promising tools in optical design, offering unique advantages over parity-time (PT) symmetric systems. These systems leverage symmetry-broken modes, which play a crucial role in enabling chiral mode switching—a key functionality for integrated photonic devices. However, achieving such switching typically requires maintaining low adiabaticity through slow parameter variation, often leading to larger device footprints. In this paper, we present a novel anti-PT symmetric system that introduces parameter evolution via loss and width variations in waveguides, offering an innovative design approach. Through theoretical analysis of the Hamiltonian parameter space, we evaluate the degree of adiabaticity and optimize parameter evolution along the boundary of the Reimann surface. This strategy achieves chiral mode switching while maintaining low adiabaticity. In addition, the simultaneous modulation of loss and width significantly reduces the device footprint to just 30 μm, which is less than half the length of conventional anti-PT symmetric systems. The proposed system not only facilitates efficient chiral mode switching via exceptional point (EP) encircling but also enhances device compactness, paving the way for higher integration density in photonic devices.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"121 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vishal Chaudhary, Harsh Sable, Manish Kumar, Chander Prakash, Sonu Sonu
The growing global population is overwhelming the existing medical infrastructure, demanding a pressing need for the advancement of early-stage and point-of-care disease diagnostics. Conventional techniques are mostly invasive, time-consuming, expensive, sophisticated, and centered at urban facilities. Moreover, they are unable to address the biological complexities related to critical diseases, disorders, and pandemics, resulting in associated high morbidity and mortality. To address this gap, miniaturized fifth-generation sensing chips provide alternatives in terms of accessibility, affordability, and adaptability, being point-of-care and minimally invasive diagnostics. In this context, Breathomic chips based on nanoscale semiconductors have shown their potential for noninvasive, personalized, and on-site operation, offering the capability to identify volatile organic compounds/gases as disease biomarkers from exhaled breath and enabling early disease detection. However, the practical implementation of these sensors in real-time medical contexts remains challenging due to factors including the lack of clinical trials, dedicated data analysis, understanding of the complexities, public awareness, scalability, and accessibility. This comprehensive review critically summarizes the landscape of breath biomarkers detecting fifth-generation chemiresistive chips for human disease diagnosis, methodically outlining associated challenges, alternative strategies, and prospects for clinical implementations and commercial advancement. It details the biological origins of biomarkers, the diverse sensing modalities, and the underlying mechanisms pertaining to breathomic biomarker diagnosis. Furthermore, it highlights the integration of digital-age technologies, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and machine learning, for high-performance breathomic chips. These next-generation smart sensory chips have the potential to revolutionize medical healthcare facilities, improving patient outcomes, understanding prognosis, and aiding the UN's sustainable development goals.
{"title":"Dynamic landscape of chemiresistive breathomic nanosensors based on fifth-generation chips for complex disease diagnosis and healthcare monitoring","authors":"Vishal Chaudhary, Harsh Sable, Manish Kumar, Chander Prakash, Sonu Sonu","doi":"10.1063/5.0255483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0255483","url":null,"abstract":"The growing global population is overwhelming the existing medical infrastructure, demanding a pressing need for the advancement of early-stage and point-of-care disease diagnostics. Conventional techniques are mostly invasive, time-consuming, expensive, sophisticated, and centered at urban facilities. Moreover, they are unable to address the biological complexities related to critical diseases, disorders, and pandemics, resulting in associated high morbidity and mortality. To address this gap, miniaturized fifth-generation sensing chips provide alternatives in terms of accessibility, affordability, and adaptability, being point-of-care and minimally invasive diagnostics. In this context, Breathomic chips based on nanoscale semiconductors have shown their potential for noninvasive, personalized, and on-site operation, offering the capability to identify volatile organic compounds/gases as disease biomarkers from exhaled breath and enabling early disease detection. However, the practical implementation of these sensors in real-time medical contexts remains challenging due to factors including the lack of clinical trials, dedicated data analysis, understanding of the complexities, public awareness, scalability, and accessibility. This comprehensive review critically summarizes the landscape of breath biomarkers detecting fifth-generation chemiresistive chips for human disease diagnosis, methodically outlining associated challenges, alternative strategies, and prospects for clinical implementations and commercial advancement. It details the biological origins of biomarkers, the diverse sensing modalities, and the underlying mechanisms pertaining to breathomic biomarker diagnosis. Furthermore, it highlights the integration of digital-age technologies, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and machine learning, for high-performance breathomic chips. These next-generation smart sensory chips have the potential to revolutionize medical healthcare facilities, improving patient outcomes, understanding prognosis, and aiding the UN's sustainable development goals.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The breakthrough synthesis of cyclo[18]carbon (C18) has ignited considerable interest in its structural topology and technological potential. The molecule's fully conjugated electronic structure positions it as an exceptional candidate for functional molecular electronics, while its inherent chemical versatility enables the design of tailored derivatives. Using first-principles calculations combining density functional theory with non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we systematically investigate quantum transport in C18/C36-based molecular junctions interconnected via monatomic carbon chain electrodes. Our calculation results reveal distinct quantum transport behaviors across derivatives, including linear Ohmic conduction, pronounced negative differential resistance, and molecular switching characteristics. The mechanistic analysis demonstrates that the spatial delocalization and energy-level broadening of frontier molecular orbitals fundamentally dictate these transport regimes. This work establishes critical structure-transport correlations and provides a design framework for developing advanced all-carbon molecular devices based on topologically tailored cyclocarbon nanostructures.
{"title":"Enhanced quantum transport in all-carbon molecular junctions based on topologically tailored cyclocarbon nanostructures","authors":"Wenhui Fang, Lishu Zhang, Junnan Guo, Jian Huang, Jifeng Tang, Yanyan Jiang, Weikang Wu, Hui Li","doi":"10.1063/5.0284157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0284157","url":null,"abstract":"The breakthrough synthesis of cyclo[18]carbon (C18) has ignited considerable interest in its structural topology and technological potential. The molecule's fully conjugated electronic structure positions it as an exceptional candidate for functional molecular electronics, while its inherent chemical versatility enables the design of tailored derivatives. Using first-principles calculations combining density functional theory with non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we systematically investigate quantum transport in C18/C36-based molecular junctions interconnected via monatomic carbon chain electrodes. Our calculation results reveal distinct quantum transport behaviors across derivatives, including linear Ohmic conduction, pronounced negative differential resistance, and molecular switching characteristics. The mechanistic analysis demonstrates that the spatial delocalization and energy-level broadening of frontier molecular orbitals fundamentally dictate these transport regimes. This work establishes critical structure-transport correlations and provides a design framework for developing advanced all-carbon molecular devices based on topologically tailored cyclocarbon nanostructures.","PeriodicalId":8200,"journal":{"name":"Applied physics reviews","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145404514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：