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Mixed-dimensional transistors enable high-performance multifunctional electronic devices

The downscaling of electronic devices, such as transistors, has reached a plateau, posing challenges for semiconductor fabrication. However, a research team led by materials scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently discovered a new strategy for developing highly versatile electronics with outstanding performance using transistors made of mixed-dimensional nanowires and nanoflakes.

This innovation paves the way for simplified chip circuit design, offering versatility and low power dissipation in future electronics. The findings, titled “Multifunctional anti-ambipolar electronics enabled by mixed-dimensional 1D GaAsSb/2D MoS2 heterotransistors,” were published in the journal Device.

In recent decades, as the continuous scaling of transistors and integrated circuits has started to reach physical and economic limits, fabricating in a controllable and cost-effective manner has become challenging. Further scaling of transistor size increases current leakage and thus power dissipation. Complex wiring networks also have an adverse impact on power consumption.

Synergy palladium single atoms and twinned nanoparticles for efficient CO₂ photoreduction

The challenge of regulating the electronic structures of metal single-atoms (M-SAs) with metal nanoparticles (M-NPs) lies in the synthesis of a definite architecture. Such a structure has strong electronic metal-support interactions and maintains electron transport channels to facilitate carbon dioxide photoreduction (CO2PR).

In a study published in Advanced Powder Materials, a group of researchers from Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang A&F University and Dalian University of Technology, revealed the engineering of the of Pd single atoms with twinned Pd nanoparticles assisted by strong electronic interaction of the atomic metal with the support and unveiled the underlying mechanism for expedited CO2PR.

“As one of the most promising CO2PR semiconductors, polymeric graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) featured with sp2 π-conjugated lamellar structures can offer electronegative nitrogen atoms to anchor M-SAs, forming active metal-nitrogen moieties (M–Nx),” explained Lei Li, lead author of the study. “However, stable M–Nx configurations forbid tunability of electronic structures of M-SA sites.”

Study shows that similarly charged particles can sometimes attract, rather than repel

‘Opposites charges attract; like charges repel’ is a fundamental principle of basic physics. But a new study from Oxford University, published in Nature Nanotechnology (“A charge-dependent long-ranged force drives tailored assembly of matter in solution”), has demonstrated that similarly charged particles in solution can, in fact, attract each other over long distances. Just as surprisingly, the team found that the effect is different for positively and negatively charged particles, depending on the solvent.

The study found that negatively charged silica microparticles suspended in water attracted each other to form hexagonally arranged clusters. (Image: Zhang Kang)

Besides overturning long-held beliefs, these results have immediate implications for a range of processes that involve interparticle and intermolecular interactions across various length-scales, including self-assembly, crystallisation, and phase separation.

Researchers demonstrate 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity

The most popular words of 2023 were recently released, with AI Large Language Model (LLM) unquestionably topping the list. As a front-runner, ChatGPT also emerged as one of the international buzzwords of the year. These disruptive innovations in AI owe much to big data, which has played a pivotal role. Yet, AI has simultaneously presented new opportunities and challenges to the development of big data.

High-capacity data storage is indispensable in today’s digital economy. However, major storage devices like and semiconductor flash devices face limitations in terms of cost-effectiveness, durability, and longevity.

Optical data storage offers a promising green solution for cost-effective and long-term data storage. Nonetheless, optical data storage encounters a fundamental limitation in the spacing of adjacent recorded features, owing to the optical diffraction limit. This physical constraint not only impedes the further development of direct laser writing machines but also affects and storage technology.

Scientists create dancing nanoparticles to explore quantum limitations

Enhancing quantum features compensates for environmental losses, amplifying particle interactions, achieving entanglement at higher scales.

One of the oldest topics of contemporary science is where to draw the line between classical and quantum physics.


Abstract

The ability to engineer cavity-mediated interactions has emerged as a powerful tool for the generation of non-local correlations and the investigation of non-equilibrium phenomena in many-body systems. Levitated optomechanical systems have recently entered the multi-particle regime, with promise for using arrays of massive strongly coupled oscillators for exploring complex interacting systems and sensing. Here, by combining advances in multi-particle optical levitation and cavity-based quantum control, we demonstrate, for the first time, programmable cavity-mediated interactions between nanoparticles in a vacuum. The interaction is mediated by photons scattered by spatially separated particles in a cavity, resulting in strong coupling (Gzz/Ωz = 0.238 ± 0.005) that does not decay with distance within the cavity mode volume. We investigate the scaling of the interaction strength with cavity detuning and inter-particle separation and demonstrate the tunability of interactions between different mechanical modes. Our work paves the way towards exploring many-body effects in nanoparticle arrays with programmable cavity-mediated interactions, generating entanglement of motion, and using interacting particle arrays for optomechanical sensing.

Fabrication of mechanochromic gallium nanostructures by capillary interactions

A process that leverages capillary interactions between oligomers in an elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane substrate and deposited Ga enables the formation of Ga nanodroplets with nanoscale gaps in a single step. Gap-plasmon resonances excited within the nanogaps give rise to structural colours that can be tuned by changing the oligomer content in the substrate or by mechanical stretching.

In vivo biomolecule corona and the transformation of a foe into an ally for nanomedicine

Nanoparticles (NPs) administered in the human body will undergo rapid surface modification upon contact with biological fluids driven by their interfacial interaction with a diverse range of biomolecules. Such spontaneous self-assembly and adsorption of proteins and other biomolecules onto the NP surface constitute what is commonly known as the protein or biomolecule corona. This surface biotransformation of the NPs modulates their biological interactions and impact on physiological systems and can influence their overall pharmacological profile. Here, we comment on how the initially considered ‘nuisance’ of the in vivo corona formation can now be considered a nanoparticle engineering tool for biomedical use, such as in endogenous tissue targeting, personalized biomarker discovery and immunomodulation.