Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding loss mechanisms in superconducting circuits is crucial for improving qubit coherence. Here the authors use a multimode resonator to study loss mechanisms in thin-film superconducting circuits and demonstrate on-chip quantum memories with lifetimes exceeding 1ms, using Ta thin-films and high-temperature substrate annealing

    • Suhas Ganjam
    • , Yanhao Wang
    •  & Robert J. Schoelkopf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon-integrated graphene photodetectors exhibit promising bandwidths at telecom wavelengths, but their responsivity is usually limited. Here, the authors report the wafer-scale fabrication of waveguide-integrated detectors based on twisted bilayer graphene, showing responsivities up to 0.65 A/W and 3-dB bandwidths >65 GHz.

    • Qinci Wu
    • , Jun Qian
    •  & Hailin Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing an efficient method for the stereocontrolled synthesis of all stereoisomers of chiral hindered ethers is highly desirable but challenging. Here, the authors report an asymmetric cascade reaction catalyzed by a bimetallic catalytic system with control over the configuration of the stereocenters of tetra-aryl substituted ethers.

    • Xiangfeng Lin
    • , Xia Mu
    •  & Can Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic tunnel junctions consist of two magnetic layers, separated by a thin insulator. The simplicity belies the industrial importance: magnetic tunnel junctions have a very wide variety of applications in contemporary society. Here, Fu et al present a magnetic tunnel junction composed of single van der Waals magnetic insulator, CrI3, exhibiting remarkably low power consumption.

    • ZhuangEn Fu
    • , Piumi I. Samarawickrama
    •  & Jifa Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiplexed spiking data coding schemes could enable artificial visual neurons to emulate the human visual system in a more biologically plausible way. Here, Li et al. present an artificial neuron device capable of encoding visual analog signals into spike trains using multiplexed rate and temporal fusion coding. Reviewer recognition:

    • Fanfan Li
    • , Dingwei Li
    •  & Bowen Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Redox reactions exhibit different thermodynamics and kinetics in water microdroplets compared to the bulk. Here, the authors use reactive molecular dynamics to show the importance of charged reactive species in explaining reactivity under confinement.

    • Joseph P. Heindel
    • , R. Allen LaCour
    •  & Teresa Head-Gordon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to the electrophilic nature of arynes, it is very challenging to control chemoselectivity, when substrates possess multiple competing reaction sites. Here, the authors demonstrate that chemoselective control between two major types of benzyne transformation is accomplished by varying the 3-substituent on aryne intermediate.

    • Hongcheng Tan
    • , Shuxin Yu
    •  & Yang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plastic pollution severely threatens the resilience of nature. Here, the authors utilize the spore-forming, polymer-degrading bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, as a living filler to develop biocomposite thermoplastic polyurethane with improved mechanical properties and biodegradation.

    • Han Sol Kim
    • , Myung Hyun Noh
    •  & Jonathan K. Pokorski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic mechanoluminescent materials have potential in a range of applications, but it can be challenging to achieve long-lived emission. Here, the authors report isostructural doping as a strategy to achieve multicolour and high efficiency organic mechanoluminescence, applied in stress sensing.

    • Zongliang Xie
    • , Yufeng Xue
    •  & Bin Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies of the effects of strain on charge density waves have mostly focused on uniaxial strain. Here the authors use a biaxial-strain device to demonstrate switching of the charge density wave orientation, as well as a strong linear increase of the transition temperature while the gap seems to saturate.

    • A. Gallo–Frantz
    • , V. L. R. Jacques
    •  & D. Le Bolloc’h

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ising machines have been usually applied to predefined combinatorial problems due to their distinct physical properties. The authors introduce an approach that utilizes equilibrium propagation for the training of Ising machines and achieves high accuracy performance on classification tasks.

    • Jérémie Laydevant
    • , Danijela Marković
    •  & Julie Grollier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The study of defects and boundaries in the context of conformal field theory is important but challenging in dimensions higher than two. Here the authors use the recently developed fuzzy sphere regularization approach to perform non-perturbative analysis of defect conformal field theory in 3D

    • Liangdong Hu
    • , Yin-Chen He
    •  & W. Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of synthetic systems that can sense chemical gradients and respond with directional motility and chemical activity is of interest. Here, the authors realize and control such behaviors in a synthetic system by tailoring multivalent interactions of adenosine nucleotides with catalytic microbeads.

    • Ekta Shandilya
    • , Bhargav Rallabandi
    •  & Subhabrata Maiti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic time crystal refers to a material whose dielectric properties oscillate in time. Here the authors theoretically show such behaviour in the excitonic insulator candidate Ta2NiSe5 under optical excitation and use it to explain the enhanced THz reflectivity recently observed in pump-probe experiments

    • Marios H. Michael
    • , Sheikh Rubaiat Ul Haque
    •  & Eugene Demler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers report a sustainable nanofluidic osmotic energy harvester made from natural montmorillonite clay nanosheets and recycled cellulose. Scaled-up films of 700 cm2 show power output of 8 W m−2 with stability over 30 days

    • Jiadong Tang
    • , Yun Wang
    •  & Tieyong Zuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compared to well-developed catalytic 1,2-diazidation of alkenes, the corresponding catalytic 1,1-diazidation of alkenes has not been realized. Here, the authors report an efficient approach for catalytic 1,1-diazidation of alkenes by redox-active selenium catalysis.

    • Wangzhen Qiu
    • , Lihao Liao
    •  & Xiaodan Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nucleoside-processing enzymes exhibit strict regioselectivity for glycosylation of purine nucleobases at N9. Here, the authors report an exception and show that wild type nucleoside phosphorylases also furnish N7-xanthosine, a non-native ribosylation regioisomer of xanthosine.

    • Sarah Westarp
    • , Felix Brandt
    •  & Felix Kaspar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The practical application of electrosynthesis of propylene oxide is hindered by limited performance. Here, the authors report a spatial decoupling strategy by utilizing the bromide mediator to link propylene and anode within separated reactors, realizing high-performance electrosynthesis of propylene oxide.

    • Mingfang Chi
    • , Jingwen Ke
    •  & Jie Zeng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystals are known to have a range of responses to light, but multiple responses in the same material are rare. Here, the authors report different mechanical effects in response to light across three polymorphs as a result of a dimerization reaction.

    • Jiawei Lin
    • , Jianmin Zhou
    •  & Junbo Gong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the ledge-guided epitaxial growth of high-density 2D Bi2O2Se fin arrays and their application for the realization of 2D multi-channel fin field-effect transistors, showing improved on-state currents as the number of integrated channels is increased.

    • Mengshi Yu
    • , Congwei Tan
    •  & Hailin Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stability of non-noble catalysts is key for their use in proton exchange membrane water electrolysers. Here, authors study activity-stability relationships of MoSx allotropes for H2 production, reporting allotrope-dependent stabilities and dissolution pathways, and propose operation guidelines.

    • Daniel Escalera-López
    • , Christian Iffelsberger
    •  & Serhiy Cherevko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a scalable on-chip parallel intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) data transmission system. This system offers an aggregate line rate of 1.68 Tbit/s over a 20-km-long SMF. For the chromatic dispersion compensation of 40-km-SMFs, the energy consumption is ~0.3 pJ/bit, much less than the commercial 400G-ZR coherent transceivers counterparts.

    • Yuanbin Liu
    • , Hongyi Zhang
    •  & Andrew W. Poon

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Evolutionary and rational design approaches are commonly used to engineer biological systems but are typically seen at odds with each other. In this perspective the authors argue for the concept of an evolutionary design spectrum to help unify and compare these design methodologies to support more effective biological engineering.

    • Simeon D. Castle
    • , Michiel Stock
    •  & Thomas E. Gorochowski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Skin substitutes generated by tissue engineering have limited properties. Here, authors established niche encroachment method. Cell competition enabled skin organogenesis from allogeneic and xenogeneic stem cells on p63 knockout embryos, resulting in a complete skin graft on dermis with hair.

    • Hisato Nagano
    • , Naoaki Mizuno
    •  & Hiromitsu Nakauchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When studying nematic ordering of cells in a monolayer, it is commonly assumed that the principal stress and cell shape axes are tightly coupled. Here, the authors measure cell shape and cell-generated contractile stresses and show that cells in monolayers form correlated, dynamic domains in which the stresses are systematically misaligned with the cell bodies.

    • Mehrana R. Nejad
    • , Liam J. Ruske
    •  & Julia M. Yeomans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In most materials, the hall conductivity has a scaling to the longitudinal resistance that varies between linear and quadratic. Here, Zhang et al demonstrate a hall conductivity proportional to the fifth power of the longitudinal conductivity in Mn3Si2Te6, which they attribute to enhanced force on charge carriers due to chiral orbital currents.

    • Yu Zhang
    • , Yifei Ni
    •  & Gang Cao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetostatic wave filters have a wide working frequency range, small size and high Q-factor, however, they are hampered by the need for a large external electromagnet to provide a bias magnetic field. Here, Du et al demonstrate an extremely small and low power external magnetic bias assembly with zero static power consumption, removing the need for bulky and energy intensive electromagnets.

    • Xingyu Du
    • , Mohamad Hossein Idjadi
    •  & Roy H. Olsson III

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many cyclic dipeptide natural products can be modified by cyclodipeptide oxidase enzymes. Here, the authors report the structural characterization of the cyclodipeptide oxidase AlbAB and show that it assembles into heterooligomeric enzyme filaments.

    • Michael P. Andreas
    •  & Tobias W. Giessen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electronic correlation-driven Mott metal-insulator transition has been predicted in a 2D metal-organic framework with a kagome structure. Here the authors synthesize such a system in experiment and demonstrate an electrostatically controlled Mott transition.

    • Benjamin Lowe
    • , Bernard Field
    •  & Agustin Schiffrin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tuning the physical interactions and structures to govern the viscoelastic properties in hydrogels without altering the chemistry is challenging. Here the authors design a complexation gel composite and utilize the physical principle of topologically frustrated dynamical state to tune the correlated structures between the guest polycation chains and negatively charged host gels.

    • Gui Kang Wang
    • , Yi Ming Yang
    •  & Di Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Confining atoms to lattices can modify their interaction and collision. Here the authors show suppression of dipolar relaxation in the form of reduced decay rate of dysprosium atoms in quasi-2D regime.

    • Pierre Barral
    • , Michael Cantara
    •  & Wolfgang Ketterle

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