Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extreme magnetoresistance is characterized by a large and non-saturating magnetoresistance. Typically, it is observed in materials with compensated bandstructures, however, here, Christensen et al demonstrate a large and non-saturating magnetoresistance in a γAl2O3/SrTiO3 heterostructure, which is related to disorder, rather than the materials bandstructure.

    • D. V. Christensen
    • , T. S. Steegemans
    •  & N. Pryds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control of correlated excitonic states is a key goal of modern optoelectronic physics. Here, the authors demonstrate filling- and field-tunable exciton valley-pseudospin orders in a moiré heterostructure.

    • Richen Xiong
    • , Samuel L. Brantly
    •  & Chenhao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring new mechanics regime, researchers created centimeter-long, nanometer-thin resonators, achieving unmatched room temperature mechanical isolation via cutting edge nanoengineering and machine learning design; rivaling cryogenic counterparts.

    • Andrea Cupertino
    • , Dongil Shin
    •  & Richard A. Norte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors observe multiferroicity in a single-layer non van der Waals material, CuCrSe2. The coexistence of room-temperature ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism up to 120 K is corroborated by a set of comprehensive experimental techniques.

    • Zhenyu Sun
    • , Yueqi Su
    •  & Baojie Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dielectric elastomer actuators require high driving electric fields to achieve high performances for soft robots due to their low dielectric constant and high stiffness. Here, the authors introduce polar fluorinated groups and nanodomains aggregated by long alkyl side chains into the dielectric elastomer design to overcome these issues and develop fast soft robots.

    • Wenwen Feng
    • , Lin Sun
    •  & Chao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The band topology of twisted 2D systems is a key factor behind their fascinating physics. Here, the authors demonstrate the role of polarization in driving the band topology evolution in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers.

    • Xiao-Wei Zhang
    • , Chong Wang
    •  & Di Xiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing proposals of axion insulators are limited to spin-1/2 systems. Here the authors put forward a concept of a high spin axion insulator with several peculiar properties, such as the absence of gapless surface states and tunability of the axion field by an external magnetic field.

    • Shuai Li
    • , Ming Gong
    •  & X. C. Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At the quantum limit, vacuum fluctuations determine the precision with which a signal can be measured. In this work the authors use a technique known as squeezing to greatly reduce the vacuum fluctuation noise present at microwave frequencies.

    • Arjen Vaartjes
    • , Anders Kringhøj
    •  & Jarryd J. Pla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Asymmetric mechanical transducers are pivotal in various applications; however, conventional methods demand continuous energy and intricate fabrication. Here, the authors demonstrate a droplet-based mechanical transducer utilizing wettability-patterned surfaces, enabling precise control of droplet dynamics.

    • Luanluan Xue
    • , An Li
    •  & Yanlin Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interface engineering by local polarization is becoming increasingly important for tunable electronics. Here, authors demonstrate an electric pulse-tuned piezotronic effect in Ag/HfO2/n-ZnO junction, enabling reversible and accurate regulation of barrier height and piezotronic modification range.

    • Qiuhong Yu
    • , Rui Ge
    •  & Yong Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors introduce Photoacoustic Tomography with Temporal Encoding Reconstruction (PATTERN) - a high-speed, non-destructive photoacoustic brain imaging technique that constructs 3D fluorescent maps of the brain and improves upon some of the limitations associated with traditional whole-brain optical imaging techniques.

    • Yuwen Chen
    • , Haoyu Yang
    •  & Bo Lei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methionine plays an essential role in various biological and cell regulatory processes, making its chemoproteomic profiling necessary to understand its function. Here, the authors present Copper(I)-Nitrene Platform (CuNiP) for robust and selective labelling of methionine to generate highly stable sulfonyl sulfimide conjugates under physiological conditions.

    • Samrat Sahu
    • , Benjamin Emenike
    •  & Monika Raj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Targeted drug delivery in vivo is a complex challenge, and understanding the characteristics that define the behavior of delivery vehicles in vivo is vital for advancing delivery vehicle design. Here the authors use a library of polymeric delivery vehicles and high-throughput tools to study the structure-function relationships guiding the physiological fate of nanomedicines.

    • Alexandra S. Piotrowski-Daspit
    • , Laura G. Bracaglia
    •  & W. Mark Saltzman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate a laser system that can directly output soliton microcombs, with high power efficiency and reconfigurability, paving the way for communication, computing, and metrology based on integrated photonics.

    • Jingwei Ling
    • , Zhengdong Gao
    •  & Qiang Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the importance of dynamic phosphorylation in biology, enzyme-free, synthetic systems that use dynamic phosphorylation to regulate supramolecular processes are unexplored. Here, the authors report an enzyme-free chemical reaction cycle that can dynamically phosphorylate amino acids and peptides using simple phosphorylating agents and regulate supramolecular functions.

    • Simone M. Poprawa
    • , Michele Stasi
    •  & Job Boekhoven

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct radical C–H amination strategies have exhibited innovation, but challenges remain with C–H amination of electron-poor nitroarenes due to the essence of the electron-deficient nitrogen radical. Herein, the authors report a transition metal-free dehydrogenative C(sp2)-H/N-H cross-coupling between electron-poor nitroarenes and amines.

    • Zhen Zhang
    • , Shusheng Yue
    •  & Hu Cai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The limited durability of metal-nitrogen-carbon electrocatalysts hinders their use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells for the oxygen reduction reaction. Here the authors transform active sites from FeN4 to stable monosymmetric FeN2 + N’2 via chemical vapor modification, resulting in enhanced improving the durability of the catalyst.

    • Jingsen Bai
    • , Tuo Zhao
    •  & Wei Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stark spectroscopy of molecules in liquid solutions was once challenging due to orientation effects, solved by freezing but limiting ambient studies. Now, THz Stark spectroscopy with intense terahertz pulses enables dynamic analysis of molecules in both non-polar and polar solvents at any temperature, advancing conventional methods.

    • Bong Joo Kang
    • , Egmont J. Rohwer
    •  & Thomas Feurer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Currently, precious metal recovery from e-waste water is usually performed by liquid extraction or sorbent processes. Here, the authors show the untapped potential of dielectric insulators as catalysts for the 1-step selective recovery of gold in aqueous solutions by contact-electrocatalysis.

    • Yusen Su
    • , Andy Berbille
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is significant interest in developing electronic units that can perform sensing, signal processing, and actuation functions independently, similar to biological systems. Lyu et al. develop electronic units based on liquid crystal oligomer networks that exhibit adaptive behavior in response to environmental stimuli such as light and heat.

    • Pengrong Lyu
    • , Dirk J. Broer
    •  & Danqing Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modelling of acidic zeolites, one of the key industrial catalysts, under realistic operating conditions is currently limited to specific cases. Here, the authors report a machine learning framework allowing for accurate high-throughput modelling.

    • Andreas Erlebach
    • , Martin Šípka
    •  & Lukáš Grajciar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Universality of critical behaviour of O(N) field theories on regular homogeneous lattices is established, but open questions remain for more complex lattices. Bighin et al. study universality on a non-homogeneous graph showing that its scaling theory is controlled by a single parameter, the spectral dimension.

    • Giacomo Bighin
    • , Tilman Enss
    •  & Nicolò Defenu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers mimic protein interface helices by stapling peptide side chains, or replacing hydrogen bonds with covalent ones, and synthetic helical mimics are heavily biased towards stapling. Here the authors describe bioinformatic discovery of hydrophobic triangles at helix N-termini, and rigid, bicyclic synthetic mimics of them.

    • Tianxiong Mi
    • , Duyen Nguyen
    •  & Kevin Burgess

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rhombohedral-stacked (R-stacked) transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers exhibit remarkable properties, but their large-area epitaxial growth remains challenging. Here, the authors report the remote epitaxy of centimetre-scale single-crystal R-stacked WS2 bilayer films on sapphire substrates.

    • Chao Chang
    • , Xiaowen Zhang
    •  & Xiaozhi Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The principle of Le Chatelier is a fundamental concept in textbooks, serving as a guiding principle for controlling chemical and catalytic systems. In this study, the authors present an oxygen electroreduction system based on a single zinc vacancy catalyst, which operates in a manner that extends “beyond” Le Chatelier’s principle.

    • Qi Huang
    • , Baokai Xia
    •  & Sheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Standard ways of characterising quantum states incur exponential overhead. Here, the authors consider the task of reconstructing density matrices of multimode continuous variable systems, and demonstrate a method which scales polynomially with the system size, provided the state lies in a polynomial dimensional subspace.

    • Kevin He
    • , Ming Yuan
    •  & David I. Schuster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrated an unprecedented level of polarization squeezing of light generated by an atomic ensemble, and a new regime of continuous quantum measurements on a macroscopic material oscillator.

    • Christian Bærentsen
    • , Sergey A. Fedorov
    •  & Eugene S. Polzik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Performance of triboelectric nanogenerators is limited by electrostatic breakdown. Here, the spontaneously established reverse electric field is introduced to restrict the side-discharge problem caused by electrostatic breakdown, leading to a high Coulombic efficiency and enhanced output power.

    • Yikui Gao
    • , Lixia He
    •  & Jie Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metals often suffer from reduced strength and ductility after hydrogenation. Here, the authors show hydrogenation can lead to enhancement in strength and ductility accompanied by a large change in magnetic entropy, overcoming the bottlenecks of using amorphous alloys for magnetic refrigerants.

    • Liliang Shao
    • , Qiang Luo
    •  & Weihua Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Infarted myocardium hampers the synchronous electroactivity of the cardiac tissue. Here, the authors showcase a battery-free conductive cardiac patch made of reduced graphene and its therapeutic efficacy for cardiac repair.

    • Renjie Qiu
    • , Xingying Zhang
    •  & Leyu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional methods to incorporate polycrystalline thin film into flexible systems are often complicated and limited by their sizes. Here, the authors introduce flexible amorphous thin film energy harvester, based on perovskite oxides, on a plastic substrate for electromechanical energy harvesting.

    • Ju Han
    • , Sung Hyun Park
    •  & Yong Soo Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The regeneration of critical-size bone defects, especially those with irregular shapes, remains a clinical challenge. Here, the authors report a shape-memory, tailorable, self-adaptive and bioactive silk fibroin/magnesium composite scaffold that can quickly match irregular defects by simple trimming and lead to good interface integration.

    • Zhinan Mao
    • , Xuewei Bi
    •  & Yufeng Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining the different cell types that contribute to a mixture of DNA is key for research and diagnostic applications. Here, authors comprehensively benchmark DNA methylation-based deconvolution methods, evaluating their performance and robustness to technical bias.

    • Kobe De Ridder
    • , Huiwen Che
    •  & Bernard Thienpont

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Physical sciences across other nature.com journals