Nature Materials - Laser patterning of liquid-crystal elastomers (2024)

A drop in the alien ocean

• Philip Ball

Nano-oxides boost aluminium heat resistance

Adding hom*ogeneously dispersed oxide nanoparticles to aluminium pushes its high-temperature strength up to 500 °C.

• Alexis Deschamps

Diving into interlayer confinement

Noble gas atoms sandwiched in bilayer graphene are directly visualized with scanning transmission electron microscopy, revealing solid and liquid-like dynamics of two-dimensional cluster structures at room temperature under encapsulation.

• Tao Xu
• Litao Sun

Sensitive proton-radiation detectors

Halide perovskite nanocrystal scintillators detect high-energy protons with sensitivity suitable for clinical applications.

• Matthew C. Beard

Etch A Sketch-like liquid-crystal phase patterning

Precision laser irradiation of liquid-crystal polymer networks with dynamic bonds enables reversible phase patterning to create multi-stimuli responsive materials towards wearable devices and information encryption.

• Elizabeth A. Recker
• Joy Zhou
• Zachariah A. Page

A mobile home for T cells

Lyophilized lymph nodes are a natural scaffold to deliver chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to tumour resection sites, where they serve as a natural T cell-supporting niche and enhance CAR T cell efficacy in reducing recurrence in preclinical tumour resection models.

• Kewen Lei
• Darrell J. Irvine

Synergistic work hardening by rapid multiplication of dislocations in a multi-principal-element alloy

In a multi-principal-element VCoNi alloy, premature necking during Lüders banding has been harnessed to produce rapid dislocation multiplication, leading to both forest hardening and hardening induced by regions of local chemical order. The result is ductility of 20% and a yield strength of 2 GPa, during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.

Perovskite solar cells that withstand photolysis and are stable under reverse bias

Photolysis and ion migration under electrical bias cause intrinsic instability in halide perovskite solar cells. By harnessing materials that both capture and confine iodide and polyiodide ions at the perovskite surface, the stability of devices under ultraviolet irradiation, thermal–light conditions or reverse bias can be greatly increased.

Exceptional electronic transport and quantum oscillations in thin bismuth crystals grown inside van der Waals materials

Ultrathin and flat crystals of bismuth are grown between the atomically flat layers of a van der Waals material. These crystals exhibit outstanding electronic properties, including gate-tunable quantum oscillations of the magnetoresistance.

• Laisi Chen
• Amy X. Wu
• Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi

Heat-resistant super-dispersed oxide strengthened aluminium alloys

An interface modification strategy has been developed to uniformly distribute high-density sub-10 nm coherent MgO particles in an Al matrix, resulting in high strength and creep resistance at temperatures up to 500 °C.

• Xiangren Bai
• Haonan Xie
• Chunnian He

Harnessing instability for work hardening in multi-principal element alloys

Harnessing premature necking produces a rapid multiplication of dislocations to interact with local chemical orders for work hardening in VCoNi alloy, achieving ductility of 20% and yield strength of 2 GPa during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.

• Bowen Xu
• Huichao Duan
• Xiaolei Wu

Two-dimensional few-atom noble gas clusters in a graphene sandwich

Direct observation of noble gas structures has been achieved at room temperature using electron microscopy. This was enabled by trapping them between two layers of graphene, where they form two-dimensional clusters.

• Manuel Längle
• Kenichiro Mizohata
• Jani Kotakoski

Field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization by two-dimensional PtTe2/WTe2 van der Waals heterostructures with high spin Hall conductivity

The authors demonstrate field-free magnetization switching in van der Waals heterostructures.

• Fei Wang
• Guoyi Shi
• Hyunsoo Yang

Evidence for d-wave superconductivity of infinite-layer nickelates from low-energy electrodynamics

The authors utilize both static and ultrafast terahertz conductivity spectroscopy to address the character of the superconducting state of infinite-layer nickelates.

• Bing Cheng
• Di Cheng
• Jigang Wang

Inverse chirality-induced spin selectivity effect in chiral assemblies of π-conjugated polymers

The authors report the inverse effect of chiral-induced spin selectivity in an organic material.

• Rui Sun
• Kyung Sun Park
• Dali Sun

Light-induced electronic polarization in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3

A light-induced polar electronic state is generated in Cr₂O₃; the symmetry reduction occurs on an ultrafast timescale, ruling out contributions from the lattice or spins.

• Xinshu Zhang
• Tyler Carbin
• Anshul Kogar

Terahertz parametric amplification as a reporter of exciton condensate dynamics

Employing nonlinear, time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to study condensate dynamics on Ta₂NiSe₅—a narrow-bandgap semiconductor and putative excitonic insulator—the authors reveal enhanced terahertz reflectivity upon photoexcitation and condensation-like temperature dependence below the structural transition critical temperature.

• Sheikh Rubaiat Ul Haque
• Marios H. Michael
• Richard D. Averitt

Real-time single-proton counting with transmissive perovskite nanocrystal scintillators

Current organic proton detectors have poor detection sensitivities due to low light yields and limited radiation toleration. Here the authors report a perovskite nanocrystal-based transmissive thin scintillator that can detect seven protons per second, enabled by radiative emission from biexcitons.

• Zhaohong Mi
• Hongyu Bian
• Xiaogang Liu

Mobile iodides capture for highly photolysis- and reverse-bias-stable perovskite solar cells

Iodide-related defects pose serious challenges to the irradiation, thermal, light or reverse-bias stabilities of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors find that by using the iodide/polyiodide capture and confine effects of perfluorodecyl iodide interfacing with perovskites, inverted perovskite solar cells achieve much improved stabilities.

• Xiaoxue Ren
• Jifei Wang
• Yongbo Yuan

Trapped O2 and the origin of voltage fade in layered Li-rich cathodes

Oxygen redox cathodes deliver higher energy densities than those based on transition metal redox but commonly exhibit voltage fade on extended cycling. The loss of O-redox capacity and voltage fade is shown to arise from a reduction in O²⁻/O₂ redox process reversibility and O₂ loss.

• John-Joseph Marie
• Robert A. House
• Peter G. Bruce

Phase segregation and nanoconfined fluid O2 in a lithium-rich oxide cathode

Lithium-rich oxygen-redox cathodes demonstrate high capacities, but lose energy density when cycled, showing cation disordering and formation of nanovoids and bulk molecular O₂. These structural changes are shown to be a consequence of a kinetically viable and thermodynamically favoured local phase segregation mechanism.

• Kit McColl
• Samuel W. Coles
• M. Saiful Islam

Phase patterning of liquid crystal elastomers by laser-induced dynamic crosslinking

Lack of local phase patterning in liquid crystal elastomers has hindered their broad implementation. The authors report a laser-induced dynamic crosslinking approach with allyl sulfide groups to achieve reconfigurable high-resolution patterning of multiple liquid crystalline phases in a single film.

• Seok Hwan Choi
• Ju Hee Kim
• Seung Hwan Ko

Lyophilized lymph nodes for improved delivery of chimeric antigen receptor T cells

Implants made from patient-derived lyophilized lymph nodes loaded with chimeric antigen receptor T cells improve T cell delivery and inhibit tumour recurrence.

• Jiaqi Shi
• Wei Wu
• Zhen Gu

An intelligent DNA nanodevice for precision thrombolysis

An intelligent DNA nanodevice, composed of DNA origami nanosheets and a thrombin-responsive DNA fastener, accurately delivers the appropriate dose of tissue plasminogen activator following activation by distinct thrombosis events.

• Jue Yin
• Siyu Wang
• Lianhui Wang

Author Correction: Topological Wannier cycles induced by sub-unit-cell artificial gauge flux in a sonic crystal

• Zhi-Kang Lin
• Ying Wu
• Jian-Hua Jiang

Author Correction: Local atomic stacking and symmetry in twisted graphene trilayers

• Isaac M. Craig
• Madeline Van Winkle
• D. Kwabena Bediako