Physical sciences Article 28 October 2022 | Open Access Oxygen mediated oxidative couplings of flavones in alkaline water Catalysed oxidative C-C bond formation reactions are important in the synthesis of natural products, but poorly… show more Xin Yang, Sophie Hui Min Lim & Dejian Huang Article 28 October 2022 | Open Access Phonon downconversion to suppress correlated errors in superconducting qubits High-energy particle impacts due to background or cosmic radiation have been identified as sources of correlated… show more V. Iaia, J. Ku & B. L. T. Plourde Article 28 October 2022 | Open Access Laboratory evidence of magnetic reconnection hampered in obliquely interacting flux tubes Magnetic reconnection acts as energy transfer process in plasma and induces processes like plasma heating,… show more Simon Bolaños, Andrey Sladkov & Julien Fuchs Article 28 October 2022 | Open Access Light activation of Orange Carotenoid Protein reveals bicycle-pedal single-bond isomerization Orange Carotenoid protein (OCP) is the only photoreceptor with a carotenoid for sensing. Here, the authors report… show more Volha U. Chukhutsina, James M. Baxter & Jasper J. van Thor Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Strongly enhanced THz generation enabled by a graphene hot-carrier fast lane THz imaging and spectroscopy always request even more efficient components. Here the authors, thanks to a… show more Dehui Zhang, Zhen Xu & Zhaohui Zhong Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Synthesized spatiotemporal mode-locking and photonic flywheel in multimode mesoresonators Here the authors demonstrate spatiotemporal mode-locked dissipative Kerr soliton and enhanced photonic flywheel… show more Mingming Nie, Kunpeng Jia & Shu-Wei Huang Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Field-induced ultrafast modulation of Rashba coupling at room temperature in ferroelectric α-GeTe(111) The ferroelectric material α-GeTe(111) is an excellent playground for spin-to charge conversion due to its strong… show more Geoffroy Kremer, Julian Maklar & Claude Monney Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Regulating the scaling relationship for high catalytic kinetics and selectivity of the oxygen reduction reaction Improving kinetics for electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction is relevant to important sustainable energy… show more Wanlin Zhou, Hui Su & Qinghua Liu Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Emergent helical edge states in a hybridized three-dimensional topological insulator As the thickness of a three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator (TI) becomes comparable to the penetration… show more Su Kong Chong, Lizhe Liu & Vikram V. Deshpande Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Spin-orbital Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in single Kondo molecular magnet Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states result from the exchange coupling between a localized magnetic moment and a… show more Hui-Nan Xia, Emi Minamitani & Ying-Shuang Fu Article 27 October 2022 | Open Access Sliding nanomechanical resonators The motion of a vibrating object is set by the way it is held. Here, the authors show a nanomechanical resonator… show more Yue Ying, Zhuo-Zhi Zhang & Guo-Ping Guo Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Discovery of conjoined charge density waves in the kagome superconductor CsV3Sb5 The nature of unconventional charge density wave in kagome metals is currently under intense debate. Here the… show more Haoxiang Li, G. Fabbris & H. Miao Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Dual interfacial engineering of a Chevrel phase electrode material for stable hydrogen evolution at 2500 mA cm−2 Stable electrodes which operate at large current density are essential for industrial water electrolysis. Here, a… show more Heming Liu, Ruikuan Xie & Bilu Liu Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Monolithically integrated, broadband, high-efficiency silicon nitride-on-silicon waveguide photodetectors in a visible-light integrated photonics platform Efficient and broadband visible-light photodetectors will bring great advantages in applications such as… show more Yiding Lin, Zheng Yong & Joyce K. S. Poon Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Revealing the role of ionic liquids in promoting fuel cell catalysts reactivity and durability Fundamental understanding of the role of ionic liquids in complex catalyst layers in practically relevant… show more Arezoo Avid, Jesus López Ochoa & Iryna V. Zenyuk Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Aqueous hybrid electrochemical capacitors with ultra-high energy density approaching for thousand-volts alternating current line filtering Filtering capacitors are essential to smooth high voltage alternating current lines but are typically limited to… show more Zhou Li, Xiaopeng Wang & Liangti Qu Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Evaporated nanometer chalcogenide films for scalable high-performance complementary electronics The growth of stable and high-mobility semiconductors using industry-compatible methods still attracts interest… show more Ao Liu, Huihui Zhu & Yong-Young Noh Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Optoelectronic properties and ultrafast carrier dynamics of copper iodide thin films Deep understanding of defect physics, excitonic properties and the ultrafast carrier dynamics in the high… show more Zhan Hua Li, Jia Xing He & Chao Ping Liu Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Electrically regulating nonlinear optical limiting of metal-organic framework film Nonlinear optical properties of metal-organic framework can be tuned for potential optical applications. Here the… show more Zhi-Zhou Ma, Qiao-Hong Li & Jian Zhang Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access A robot-assisted acoustofluidic end effector Lab-on-a-chip systems have been widely used in microscale liquid manipulation and greatly benefit from… show more Jan Durrer, Prajwal Agrawal & Daniel Ahmed Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Feature-based volumetric defect classification in metal additive manufacturing Additively manufactured materials contain different types of volumetric defects. Here, the authors utilize the… show more Arun Poudel, Mohammad Salman Yasin & Nima Shamsaei Article 26 October 2022 | Open Access Ultrafast one-minute electronic detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection by 3CLpro enzymatic activity in untreated saliva samples Methods for the detection of active viral infection are desirable. Here, the authors report an electrochemical… show more Ella Borberg, Eran Granot & Fernando Patolsky Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Synthetic Pseudo-Spin-Hall effect in acoustic metamaterials Controlling emission and propagation of acoustic waves offers new design opportunities for acoustic devices. Here… show more Matthew Weiner, Xiang Ni & Alexander B. Khanikaev Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Deciphering the atomic-scale structural origin for large dynamic electromechanical response in lead-free Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based relaxor ferroelectrics For relaxor ferroelectrics, correlating their properties and local structures is challenging. Here, the authors… show more Jie Yin, Xiaoming Shi & Jiagang Wu Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Highly nonlinear dipolar exciton-polaritons in bilayer MoS2 Dipolar excitons enable large nonlinear interaction but are usually hampered by their weak oscillator strength.… show more Biswajit Datta, Mandeep Khatoniar & Vinod M. Menon Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Electric-field control of the nucleation and motion of isolated three-fold polar vertices Despite various known topological polar structures, the dynamic property of isolated ones is still poorly… show more Mingqiang Li, Tiannan Yang & Peng Gao Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Common evolutionary origin of acoustic communication in choanate vertebrates Here, the authors record acoustic communication in 53 species commonly considered non-vocal and reconstruct… show more Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, Simon William Townsend & Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra Article 25 October 2022 | Open Access Cell-specific bioorthogonal tagging of glycoproteins Changes in glycoprotein expression are correlates of disease, but secreted glycoproteins cannot be accurately… show more Anna Cioce, Beatriz Calle & Benjamin Schumann Article 24 October 2022 | Open Access On the nanoscale structural evolution of solid discharge products in lithium-sulfur batteries using operando scattering Understanding lithium sulfide’s electrodeposition and stripping is key to developing practical Li-S batteries.… show more Christian Prehal, Jean-Marc von Mentlen & Vanessa Wood Article 24 October 2022 | Open Access Direct synthesis of cyanate anion from dinitrogen catalysed by molybdenum complexes bearing pincer-type ligand Direct conversion of dinitrogen to organonitrogen compounds is a challenging goal in nitrogen fixation chemistry.… show more Takayuki Itabashi, Kazuya Arashiba & Yoshiaki Nishibayashi Article 23 October 2022 | Open Access Dimensional reduction and incommensurate dynamic correlations in the S=12 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Ca3ReO5Cl2 Frustration-induced dimensional reduction is manifested in lower dimensionality of magnetic correlations compared… show more S. A. Zvyagin, A. N. Ponomaryov & K. Kindo Article 23 October 2022 | Open Access Observation of room temperature excitons in an atomically thin topological insulator Here, the authors report the observation of room temperature excitons in a single layer of bismuth atoms… show more Marcin Syperek, Raul Stühler & Christian Schneider Article 23 October 2022 | Open Access Constitutional isomerism of the linkages in donor–acceptor covalent organic frameworks and its impact on photocatalysis Systematic investigation of isomerism in covalent organic frameworks (COFs) can provide key insights into their… show more Jin Yang, Samrat Ghosh & Arne Thomas Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Mirror-induced reflection in the frequency domain We show frequency domain mirrors that provide reflections of optical mode propagation in the frequency domain. We… show more Yaowen Hu, Mengjie Yu & Marko Lončar Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Divergent regioselective Heck-type reaction of unactivated alkenes and N-fluoro-sulfonamides The control of regioselectivity in Heck-type reactions of unactivated alkenes is challenging. Here, the authors… show more Chunyang Zhao, Yang Li & Junkai Fu Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Atomically precise control of rotational dynamics in charged rare-earth complexes on a metal surface Rare-earth elements are vital to advanced technological applications ranging from spintronic devices to quantum… show more Tolulope Michael Ajayi, Vijay Singh & Saw Wai Hla Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Construction of conducting bimetallic organic metal chalcogenides via selective metal metathesis and oxidation transformation Organic metal chalcogenides (OMCs) are organic-inorganic hybrid materials with continuous M-X (X = S, Se, Te)… show more Yigang Jin, Yuhui Fang & Wei Xu Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Ectopic expression of sericin enables efficient production of ancient silk with structural changes in silkworm Transgenic modification of silkworms has the potential to engineer new silks with a wider range of properties.… show more Xuedong Chen, Yongfeng Wang & Shiqing Xu Article 22 October 2022 | Open Access Resolving puzzles of the phase-transformation-based mechanism of the strong deep-focus earthquake The developed theory for coupled deformation, plastic strain-induced phase transformation, transformation-induced… show more Valery I. Levitas Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Baby skyrmions in Chern ferromagnets and topological mechanism for spin-polaron formation in twisted bilayer graphene In conventional materials, charge carriers are electron-like quasiparticles, but topological bands allow for more… show more Eslam Khalaf & Ashvin Vishwanath Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Tunable metasurfaces via the humidity responsive swelling of single-step imprinted polyvinyl alcohol nanostructures PVA is a hydrogel that has attractive swelling properties for use in tunable photonic applications. Here, the… show more Byoungsu Ko, Trevon Badloe & Junsuk Rho Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Interfacial water engineering boosts neutral water reduction Understanding the slow kinetics of hydrogen evolution reaction in neutral media is of fundamental importance for… show more Kaian Sun, Xueyan Wu & Chen Chen Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Single-shot quantum error correction with the three-dimensional subsystem toric code Topological quantum error correction is a promising approach towards fault-tolerant quantum computing, but… show more Aleksander Kubica & Michael Vasmer Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution It remains a great challenge to achieve large-scale fabrication of single atom-anchored heterostructured… show more Fucong Lyu, Shanshan Zeng & Jian Lu Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Spheroplasts preparation boosts the catalytic potential of a squalene-hopene cyclase Squalene-hopene cyclase are membrane-bound enzymes used to produce bioactive compounds at industrial scale. Here,… show more Ana I. Benítez-Mateos, Andreas Schneider & Francesca Paradisi Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Nanometer-scale photon confinement in topology-optimized dielectric cavities Here, the authors integrate measured fabrication constraints in topology optimization to design a highly… show more Marcus Albrechtsen, Babak Vosoughi Lahijani & Søren Stobbe Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Temporally programmed polymer – solvent interactions using a chemical reaction network Out of equilibrium operation of chemical reaction networks. (CRNs) enables materials to autonomously respond to… show more Benjamin Klemm, Reece W. Lewis & Rienk Eelkema Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Reduced rotational flows enable the translation of surface-rolling microrobots in confined spaces The effect of geometrical confinement on the locomotion of microrobots is crucial to operating them in real-world… show more Ugur Bozuyuk, Amirreza Aghakhani & Metin Sitti Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Probing the ultrafast dynamics of excitons in single semiconducting carbon nanotubes Excitonic states govern the optical response of low-dimensional nanomaterials and are key for a wide range of… show more Konrad Birkmeier, Tobias Hertel & Achim Hartschuh Article 21 October 2022 | Open Access Lactose azocalixarene drug delivery system for the treatment of multidrug-resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa infected diabetic ulcer Infection is a major issue in chronic diabetic wounds. Here, the authors report on a hypoxia triggered drug… show more Juan-Juan Li, Yuqing Hu & Dong-Sheng Guo