Reviews & Analysis

The combination of perovskite-based thin materials and microcavities with tailored optical spin–orbit effects enable on-chip optical polarization functionalities at room temperature and over long propagations.

A technique has been developed for automatically discovering mechanical metamaterials with desired nonlinear dynamic responses.

Twist-angle control of spin–charge interconversion in a graphene/WSe₂ heterostructure is demonstrated.

A microscale kirigami metasheet shows electronically programmable shape morphing with a high degree of freedom and intricate locomotion.

A class of III–V semiconductors with memristive properties has been created by combining computational screening and experimental synthesis. The synthesized compounds have gate-tunable synaptic functions, and could be used to create energy-efficient, reprogrammable logic devices that are compatible with existing silicon technology.

Metastable pentagonal two-dimensional PtTe₂ is grown and stabilized on a Pt(100) surface through lattice-symmetry-driven epitaxy.

An oral immunotherapy consisting of an inulin-based gel loaded with an allergen successfully suppresses food allergy in mice.

A phase engineering strategy, using a device configuration consisting of 2D channel materials and patterned electrodes, has been demonstrated. It achieves various phase configurations of 2D materials and versatile functions that can be tailored in situ.

Ultrafast laser light can create emergent polar orders in specially designed thin-film heterostructures. A single-shot X-ray diffraction study, over a timescale of seven orders of magnitude, has revealed how one such polar supercrystal forms with lattice periodicities of tens of nanometres.

Increasing the electronic carrier density in the overdoped state of high-temperature superconductors enhances the critical current density due to higher efficiency of vortex pinning defects.

Precise stress control of thin films enables damage-free dry transfer printing onto flexible substrates.

Monolayers of metastable 1T′-phase transition metal dichalcogenides can be rapidly grown and stabilized on 4H-phase gold nanowires, providing a hybrid system for ultrasensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection.

A miniature hydrogel launcher inspired by the squirting cucumber achieves record-high jumping height through water evaporation and fracture-driven power amplification.

An electrochemical biosensor capable of detecting low levels of cancer biomarkers is reusable over 200 regeneration cycles without compromising device sensitivity and accuracy.

Second-order superlattices emerge from the interference between moiré superlattices of comparable periodicities. Direct real-space visualization reveals their rich structural diversity and extreme sensitivity to external parameters such as strain and twist angle.

The practical application of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) requires robust and scalable synthesis of these atomically thin materials and their heterostructures. This Review discusses the key challenges, current progress and opportunities in the controllable synthesis of TMD-based heterostructures, superlattices and moiré superlattices.

The realization of twisted ligand-free two-dimensional halide perovskite-based moiré superlattices enables twistronic control of exciton dynamics in these systems and brings stimulating implications towards the development of halide perovskite photonic devices.

Atom probe tomography unlocks the potential to precisely analyse the short-range ordering in a CoCrNi medium-entropy alloy.

The question of whether all materials can be put into glass form was raised half a century ago but has remained unanswered. Using picosecond pulsed laser ablation, the vitrification of gold — which has been notoriously difficult — and several other monatomic metals is demonstrated, indicating that vitrification is an intrinsic property of matter.