Metasurface spectrometers beyond resolution-sensitivity constraints.

Conventional spectrometer designs necessitate a compromise between their resolution and sensitivity, especially as device and detector dimensions are scaled down. Here, we report on a miniaturizable spectrometer platform where light throughput onto the detector is instead enhanced as the resolution is increased. This planar, CMOS-compatible platform is based around metasurface encoders designed to exhibit photonic bound states in the continuum, where operational range can be altered or extended simply through adjusting geometric parameters.

Imperceptible augmentation of living systems with organic bioelectronic fibres.

The functional and sensory augmentation of living structures, such as human skin and plant epidermis, with electronics can be used to create platforms for health management and environmental monitoring. Ideally, such bioelectronic interfaces should not obstruct the inherent sensations and physiological changes of their hosts. The full life cycle of the interfaces should also be designed to minimize their environmental footprint.

Universal Murray's law for optimised fluid transport in synthetic structures.

Materials following Murray's law are of significant interest due to their unique porous structure and optimal mass transfer ability. However, it is challenging to construct such biomimetic hierarchical channels with perfectly cylindrical pores in synthetic systems following the existing theory. Achieving superior mass transport capacity revealed by Murray's law in nanostructured materials has thus far remained out of reach.

The first demonstration of entirely roll-to-roll fabricated perovskite solar cell modules under ambient room conditions.

The rapid development of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells has resulted in laboratory-scale devices having power conversion efficiencies that are competitive with commercialised technologies. However, hybrid perovskite solar cells are yet to make an impact beyond the research community, with translation to large-area devices fabricated by industry-relevant manufacturing methods remaining a critical challenge. Here we report the first demonstration of hybrid perovskite solar cell modules, comprising serially-interconnected cells, produced entirely using industrial roll-to-roll printing tools under ambient room conditions.

Broadband miniaturized spectrometers with a van der Waals tunnel diode.

Miniaturized spectrometers are of immense interest for various on-chip and implantable photonic and optoelectronic applications. State-of-the-art conventional spectrometer designs rely heavily on bulky dispersive components (such as gratings, photodetector arrays, and interferometric optics) to capture different input spectral components that increase their integration complexity. Here, we report a high-performance broadband spectrometer based on a simple and compact van der Waals heterostructure diode, leveraging a careful selection of active van der Waals materials- molybdenum disulfide and black phosphorus, their electrically tunable photoresponse, and advanced computational algorithms for spectral reconstruction.

Sustainable electronic textiles towards scalable commercialization.

Textiles represent a fundamental material format that is extensively integrated into our everyday lives. The quest for more versatile and body-compatible wearable electronics has led to the rise of electronic textiles (e-textiles). By enhancing textiles with electronic functionalities, e-textiles define a new frontier of wearable platforms for human augmentation.

Printable Perovskite Diodes for Broad-Spectrum Multienergy X-Ray Detection.

Multienergy X-ray detection is critical to effectively differentiate materials in a variety of diagnostic radiology and nondestructive testing applications. Silicon and selenium X-ray detectors are the most common for multienergy detection; however, these present poor energy discrimination across the broad X-ray spectrum and exhibit limited spatial resolution due to the high thicknesses required for radiation attenuation. Here, an X-ray detector based on solution-processed thin-film metal halide perovskite that overcomes these challenges is introduced.

Electro-mechano responsive elastomers with self-tunable conductivity and stiffness.

Materials with programmable conductivity and stiffness offer new design opportunities for next-generation engineered systems in soft robotics and electronic devices. However, existing approaches fail to harness variable electrical and mechanical properties synergistically and lack the ability to self-respond to environmental changes. We report an electro-mechano responsive Field's metal hybrid elastomer exhibiting variable and tunable conductivity, strain sensitivity, and stiffness.

Chirality logic gates.

The ever-growing demand for faster and more efficient data transfer and processing has brought optical computation strategies to the forefront of research in next-generation computing. Here, we report a universal computing approach with the chirality degree of freedom. By exploiting the crystal symmetry-enabled well-known chiral selection rules, we demonstrate the viability of the concept in bulk silica crystals and atomically thin semiconductors and create ultrafast (<100-fs) all-optical chirality logic gates (XNOR, NOR, AND, XOR, OR, and NAND) and a half adder.

Pulsed transistor operation enables miniaturization of electrochemical aptamer-based sensors.

By simultaneously transducing and amplifying, transistors offer advantages over simpler, electrode-based transducers in electrochemical biosensors. However, transistor-based biosensors typically use static (i.e.

Miniaturized spectrometers with a tunable van der Waals junction.

Miniaturized computational spectrometers, which can obtain incident spectra using a combination of device spectral responses and reconstruction algorithms, are essential for on-chip and implantable applications. Highly sensitive spectral measurement using a single detector allows the footprints of such spectrometers to be scaled down while achieving spectral resolution approaching that of benchtop systems. We report a high-performance computational spectrometer based on a single van der Waals junction with an electrically tunable transport-mediated spectral response.

Single-Transistor Neuron with Excitatory-Inhibitory Spatiotemporal Dynamics Applied for Neuronal Oscillations.

Brain-inspired neuromorphic computing systems with the potential to drive the next wave of artificial intelligence demand a spectrum of critical components beyond simple characteristics. An emerging research trend is to achieve advanced functions with ultracompact neuromorphic devices. In this work, a single-transistor neuron is demonstrated that implements excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) spatiotemporal integration and a series of essential neuron behaviors.

Unprecedented strong and reversible atomic orbital hybridization enables a highly stable Li-S battery.

The shuttle effect and excessive volume change of the sulfur cathode severely impede the industrial implementation of Li-S batteries. It is still highly challenging to find an efficient way to suppress the shuttle effect and volume expansion. Here, we report, for the first time, an innovative atomic orbital hybridization concept to construct the hierarchical hollow sandwiched sulfur nanospheres with double-polyaniline layers as the cathode material for large-scale high-performance Li-S batteries.

Coexistence of Contact Electrification and Dynamic p-n Junction Modulation Effects in Triboelectrification.

The triboelectric effect occurs when two dissimilar materials are in physical contact, attributed to the combination of contact electrification (CE) and electrostatic induction. It has been extensively explored for the development of high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). In this paper, we report on, besides the CE-related charge generation, an additional charge generation phenomenon associated with the modulation of the p-n junction when two semiconductor materials [methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)] are put in contact and separated dynamically.

Giant All-Optical Modulation of Second-Harmonic Generation Mediated by Dark Excitons.

All-optical control of nonlinear photonic processes in nanomaterials is of significant interest from a fundamental viewpoint and with regard to applications ranging from ultrafast data processing to spectroscopy and quantum technology. However, these applications rely on a high degree of control over the nonlinear response, which still remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate giant and broadband all-optical ultrafast modulation of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides mediated by the modified excitonic oscillation strength produced upon optical pumping.

Printed aerogels: chemistry, processing, and applications.

As an extraordinarily lightweight and porous functional nanomaterial family, aerogels have attracted considerable interest in academia and industry in recent decades. Despite the application scopes, the modest mechanical durability of aerogels makes their processing and operation challenging, in particular, for situations demanding intricate physical structures. "Bottom-up" additive manufacturing technology has the potential to address this drawback.

Miniaturization of optical spectrometers.

Spectroscopic analysis is one of the most widely used analytical tools in scientific research and industry. Although laboratory benchtop spectrometer systems offer superlative resolution and spectral range, their miniaturization is crucial for applications where portability is paramount or where in situ measurements must be made. Advancement in this field over the past three decades is now yielding microspectrometers with performance and footprint near those viable for lab-on-a-chip systems, smartphones, and other consumer technologies.

Sub-150 fs dispersion-managed soliton generation from an all-fiber Tm-doped laser with BP-SA.

We demonstrate an all-fiber, thulium-doped, mode-locked laser using a black phosphorus (BP) saturable absorber (SA). The BP-SA, exhibiting strong nonlinear response, is fabricated by inkjet printing. The oscillator generates self-starting 139 fs dispersion-managed soliton pulses centered at 1859nm with 55.

Hexagonal Boron Nitride-Enhanced Optically Transparent Polymer Dielectric Inks for Printable Electronics.

Solution-processable thin-film dielectrics represent an important material family for large-area, fully-printed electronics. Yet, in recent years, it has seen only limited development, and has mostly remained confined to pure polymers. Although it is possible to achieve excellent printability, these polymers have low (≈2-5) dielectric constants (ε ).

Unprecedented and highly stable lithium storage capacity of (001) faceted nanosheet-constructed hierarchically porous TiO/rGO hybrid architecture for high-performance Li-ion batteries.

Active crystal facets can generate special properties for various applications. Herein, we report a (001) faceted nanosheet-constructed hierarchically porous TiO/rGO hybrid architecture with unprecedented and highly stable lithium storage performance. Density functional theory calculations show that the (001) faceted TiO nanosheets enable enhanced reaction kinetics by reinforcing their contact with the electrolyte and shortening the path length of Li diffusion and insertion-extraction.

Single-cell yolk-shell nanoencapsulation for long-term viability with size-dependent permeability and molecular recognition.

Like nanomaterials, bacteria have been unknowingly used for centuries. They hold significant economic potential for fuel and medicinal compound production. Their full exploitation, however, is impeded by low biological activity and stability in industrial reactors.

Broad bandwidth dual-wavelength fiber laser simultaneously delivering stretched pulse and dissipative soliton.

We numerically and experimentally demonstrate the generation of broad bandwidth mode-locked dual-wavelength pulses with diverse-pattern from a dispersion managed erbium-doped (Er-doped) fiber laser. The two-peak gain profile of the Er-doped fiber is shown to have advantages in achieving broadband dual-wavelength pulses compared to a comb filter in our cavity. Our obtained bandwidths of 24 nm and 11.