Electronics, photonics and device physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Artificial photonic graphene, a honeycomb array of evanescently coupled waveguides, has proven to be a useful tool for investigating graphene physics in various optical settings. Here, Song et al.demonstrate pseudospin-mediated vortex generation and topological charge flipping in otherwise uniform optical beams.

    • Daohong Song
    • , Vassilis Paltoglou
    •  & Zhigang Chen

  • Article |

    Switches made from just a few atoms are the ultimate limit for reducing the size of electronic devices. Inami et al. now demonstrate a room-temperature switch in which the formation of a binary atom cluster on a semiconductor surface is altered using a scanning probe microscopy tip.

    • Eiichi Inami
    • , Ikutaro Hamada
    •  & Yoshiaki Sugimoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stimulated Brillouin scattering is a non-linear interaction that allows light to be stored as coherent acoustic waves. Here, the authors report on Brillouin scattering-induced transparency in an optical microresonator whose high quality allows for long-lifetime non-reciprocal light storage.

    • Chun-Hua Dong
    • , Zhen Shen
    •  & Guang-Can Guo

  • Article |

    Optical delay is essential to classical and quantum optical communication. Here, the authors realize prolonged optical delay with cascaded of electromagnetically induced transparency by integrating phonon–phonon and optomechanical coupling in a single on-chip device.

    • Linran Fan
    • , King Y. Fong
    •  & Hong X. Tang

  • Article |

    A thermal diode is the heat transfer analogue of an electrical diode: it favours the flow of energy carriers such as photons, phonons or electrons in one direction. Here, the authors demonstrate a photon thermal diode that uses pyramidal reflectors to asymmetrically scatter the photons.

    • Zhen Chen
    • , Carlaton Wong
    •  & Chris Dames

  • Article |

    The ability to measure extremely weak magnetic fields is important to many applications, from brain imaging to mineral prospecting. Luomahaara et al.demonstrate a sensor for measuring ultra-low magnetic fields that is simpler and has a wider dynamic range than conventional SQUID-based magnetometers.

    • Juho Luomahaara
    • , Visa Vesterinen
    •  & Juha Hassel

  • Article |

    Conventional flash memory devices are voltage driven and found to be unsafe for confidential data storage. Here, the authors propose a light driven, rewritable photonic flash memory device based on upconversion nanocrystals with a high ON/OFF ratio and long retention time.

    • Ye Zhou
    • , Su-Ting Han
    •  & V.A.L. Roy

  • Article |

    It is known that light can be used for the optical trapping of microparticles. Here, the authors demonstrate that the interplay between helicity of the light and chirality of the matter can be applied for using the photon spin angular momentum as a tool for selective trapping of chiral particles.

    • Georgiy Tkachenko
    •  & Etienne Brasselet

  • Article |

    Cavity optomechanics connects light to the mechanical degrees of freedom of a resonator and has great potential for sensing applications. Here, the authors realize a one-dimensional optomechanical crystal with a complete phononic bandgap containing high Q-factor modes and limited clamping losses.

    • J. Gomis-Bresco
    • , D. Navarro-Urrios
    •  & C.M. Sotomayor Torres

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers consist of an active medium in between two distributed Bragg reflectors. Czerniuk et al.show that the resonant mechanical modes of these periodic structures efficiently modulate the laser emission intensity with frequencies of up to 40 GHz.

    • T. Czerniuk
    • , C. Brüggemann
    •  & M. Bayer

  • Article |

    The integration of photonic components on silicon chips creates the challenge of achieving a uniform and efficient architecture. Here, the authors demonstrate on-chip light-emitters, photodetectors, photovoltaic power supply and optical data link, all based on InGaAs nanoresonators grown on silicon.

    • Roger Chen
    • , Kar Wei Ng
    •  & Connie Chang-Hasnain

  • Article |

    The cheapest way to add new power stations to a domestic power grid is by tree-like connections to the network. A numerical basin stability analysis of Menck et al.suggests that this undermines a grid’s stability against blackouts but can be fixed with extra transmission lines to these otherwise ‘dead ends’.

    • Peter J. Menck
    • , Jobst Heitzig
    •  & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A spin current is injected from a ferromagnet into a nonmagnetic metal at magnetic resonance. Here, the authors show that this current has both a direct-current and a much larger alternating-current component, indicating that these structures could be useful for high-frequency spintronics.

    • Dahai Wei
    • , Martin Obstbaum
    •  & Georg Woltersdorf

  • Article |

    Spin-waves offer the potential for devices with novel functionalities but controlling their propagation is proving challenging. Here, the authors use locally generated magnetic fields to show how spin-waves can be manipulated to realize a spin-wave multiplexer.

    • K. Vogt
    • , F.Y. Fradin
    •  & H. Schultheiss

  • Article |

    Chirality is commonly observed in nature and has been utilized in recent times for the manipulation of particles. Here, the authors perform a quantitative experimental and theoretical study of the forces and torque experienced by chiral microparticles during their optical trapping and rotation.

    • M. G. Donato
    • , J. Hernandez
    •  & G. Cipparrone

  • Article |

    Efficiently harvesting energy from ambient motion is important for realising cost-effective and clean electrical energy. Here, the authors report a planar-structured rotary triboelectric generator with 24% efficiency for obtaining power from light wind, body movement and water flow.

    • Guang Zhu
    • , Jun Chen
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article |

    Micro- and nano-scale oscillators are finding usage in novel sensors, but their performance is limited by their sensitivity to external perturbations. Here, the authors report an optomechanical technique to stabilize a nanomechanical beam to its thermodynamic limit.

    • Emanuel Gavartin
    • , Pierre Verlot
    •  & Tobias J. Kippenberg

  • Article |

    Controlling quantum systems requires measurements that do not blur their delicate quantum features. Vanner et al. use optical pulses to measure the position and reconstruct the state of a mechanical oscillator without back-action, paving the way to observing non-classical motional states.

    • M. R. Vanner
    • , J. Hofer
    •  & M. Aspelmeyer

  • Article |

    Investigation of the initial stages of the interaction of light with carriers in graphene is challenging. Here the authors probe the process with ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy and microscopic theory, and observe the role of collinear scattering, which gives rise to Auger processes, including carrier multiplication.

    • D. Brida
    • , A. Tomadin
    •  & M. Polini

  • Article |

    Light–sound interactions in microcavities are used for optomechanical excitation and cooling, but have previously only been shown in solid-state devices. Here, Bahl et al. generate acoustic oscillations in microfluidic resonators to enable novel optomechanical interactions with liquid-phase materials.

    • Gaurav Bahl
    • , Kyu Hyun Kim
    •  & Tal Carmon

  • Article |

    New printing techniques demand methods capable of spreading uniform liquid films efficiently across surfaces. McHale et al.show that applying external electric fields to non-charged liquids can achieve this goal without complicated surface modification or adding surfactants in the liquids.

    • G. McHale
    • , C. V. Brown
    •  & N. Sampara

  • Article |

    Electricity can be generated by moving wires in magnetic fields, but this is not the only method. Moon et al. develop an electrochemical device that produces an AC current in a controlled manner by mechanically modulating water bridges sandwiched between two conducting plates.

    • Jong Kyun Moon
    • , Jaeki Jeong
    •  & Hyuk Kyu Pak

  • Article |

    Signal modulation is a mechanism which embeds an information-carrying signal into a carrier wave to broadcast information and is essential for high-speed communication. Zhonget al. report a flexible, transparent all-graphene modulator circuit performing quaternary modulation schemes with only two transistors.

    • Seunghyun Lee
    • , Kyunghoon Lee
    •  & Zhaohui Zhong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The realization of wafer-scale graphene electronics is envisaged to open up the route to the use of graphene in mainstream electronics. Hertelet al.take a step in this direction by fabricating a transistor with a SiC channel and graphene electrodes, with excellent performance up to megahertz frequencies.

    • S. Hertel
    • , D. Waldmann
    •  & H.B. Weber

  • Article |

    Single electron pumps have been proposed as potential candidates for redefining the ampere. This study reports measurements of the quantized current flowing through a semiconductor electron pump with a precision that makes a substantial step towards establishing a direct metric for electrical currents.

    • S.P. Giblin
    • , M. Kataoka
    •  & D.A. Ritchie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene's remarkable properties make it ideal for optoelectronic devices, and its two-dimensional nature enables its integration with photonic structures. By combining a graphene transistor with a planar microcavity, Engelet al. control the spectrum of the photocurrent and the light emitted by the device.

    • Michael Engel
    • , Mathias Steiner
    •  & Ralph Krupke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetometers based on organic magnetoresistance are limited by narrow sensitivity ranges, degradation and temperature fluctuations. Bakeret al. demonstrate a magnetic resonance-based organic thin film magnetometer, which overcomes these drawbacks by exploiting the metrological nature of magnetic resonance.

    • W.J. Baker
    • , K. Ambal
    •  & C. Boehme

  • Article |

    Transistors based on ions, as opposed to electrons, offer the promise of bridging the gap between technological and biological systems. Tybrandtet al. present logic gates based on ion bipolar junction transistors that operate at concentrations compatible with biological systems.

    • Klas Tybrandt
    • , Robert Forchheimer
    •  & Magnus Berggren

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