News & Views in 2014

Interference effects in semiconductor quantum structures provide an elegant way to electrically map the strength and direction of spin–orbit fields.

Van der Waals heterostructures consisting of a single MoS₂ monolayer and a single WSe₂ monolayer can be used to form p–n junctions.

The speed and direction of myosin and kinesin motors can be optically controlled by adding a protein domain that changes conformation in response to blue light.

Ultrafast, coherent spin dynamics in semiconductor heterostructures can be measured with a scanning tunnelling microscope by using femtosecond pulses of circularly polarized light.

A polymer–lipid nanoparticle with a low molecular weight can preferentially deliver small interfering RNA to endothelial cells, offering an opportunity to treat many diseases.

Massless electrons in graphene exhibit a mass when considered as collective excitations known as plasmons.

Naphthalocyanine nanoparticles offer intense photoacoustic signals for mapping the gastrointestinal tract.

Electrical signals can be used to assemble and tune enzymes, resulting in controlled levels of optically, electrochemically and biologically active products.

A half-cell lithium metal battery can cycle with good efficiency at relatively high current density by engineering a nanostructured surface between the negative electrode and the electrolyte.

Spin waves generated by a spin-torque nano-oscillator can be propagated in a magnonic nanowaveguide fabricated next to the oscillator.

A layer of disordered proteins can selectively control the diffusion of particles along a surface.

Spin–orbit torques can switch the magnetization in perpendicularly magnetized films without the need for an external magnetic field.

Moving individual atoms on a surface with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope now enables the production of artificial atoms and molecules with precisely engineered molecular orbital energy-level diagrams.

The surface temperature of a hot levitating nanoparticle in a rarified gas can be determined from its non-equilibrium Brownian motion.

Subnanometre metallic wires can be engineered from semiconducting sheets of transition-metal dichalcogenides by means of a focused electron beam.

When the thickness of a LaNiO₃ film is reduced to only two unit cells, the material undergoes an abrupt metal-to-insulator transition.

Bulky calixarene ligands can create nanoscale environments on iridium cluster catalysts that can control the bonding and activation of reactants.

The propagation direction of low-loss electromagnetic surface waves can be tuned over tens of degrees by small changes in the dielectric environment.

Electronic control of optical Anderson localization can be achieved in optical waveguides with embedded diodes.

Transistor devices can be fabricated from exfoliated layers of black phosphorus.