Reviews & Analysis

Condensed-matter physicists are steadily closing in on exotic excitations known as Majorana modes that could advance both fundamental science and quantum computing.

Artificial honeycomb lattices offer a tunable platform for studying massless Dirac quasiparticles, and their topological and correlated phases.

The conductance of an electronic nanodevice can be switched by an applied current between two well-defined values, which correspond to atomic configurations that differ as a result of the rearrangement of a single atom.

A combination of self-assembly and jet printing can be used to create block copolymer films with complex structures and tunable periodicities across a large substrate.

The local curvature of dumbbell-shaped nanoparticles can be used to control the ionization state of a molecular layer adsorbed on their surfaces and the self-assembly patterns of the particles.

Experiments on Bi-doped silicon demonstrate the existence of atomic clock transitions that can be used to enhance the coherence of solid-state qubits.

A technique combining direct nanotube transfer with scanning probe microscopy can be used to create ultraclean one-dimensional electron systems in suspended carbon nanotubes.

Macromolecular crowding affects the performance and robustness of gene expression in synthetic cellular systems.

Cascade reactions can be used to carry out logic operations on the surface of cells and identify the presence of particular collections of cell surface markers.

Plasmons have been excited on the surface states of the topological insulator Bi₂Se₃.

This Progress Article examines the characteristic features of low-frequency electronic noise in graphene, and discusses the implications and potential applications of such noise in graphene-based electronic devices.

Lattice surface plasmons enable large-area unidirectional emission of coherent light generated at deep subwavelength scales.

The response of bacteria to antibiotics can be quickly assessed by monitoring the fluctuations of cantilevers coated with the bacteria.

Ultrasensitive nanomechanical transducers based on carbon nanotubes can be fabricated using a bottom-up assembly method.

Magnetic domain walls in ultrathin films have a handedness that makes them move at high speeds when an electrical current is applied.

The combination of a plasmonic nanoantenna and a nanoaperture has merged fluorescence enhancement and spatial confinement to enable single-molecule detection at biologically relevant concentrations.

Experiments with triple quantum dot devices show that distant qubits can be directly coupled and suggest a potential route to the development of fast, complex quantum circuits.

Microcavity polaritons can be used to create optical switches, which could serve as the basic component of optical logic circuits.

Spontaneously formed natural nanostructures are responsible for a glass-like thermal conductivity in a perfectly crystalline semiconductor.