Search

Lattice mismatch in 2D van der Waals heterostructures induces lattice reconstruction to optimize the stacking. Here, the authors show how this introduces curving of different heterobilayers from deep-learning-assisted molecular dynamics simulations.

Sliding ferroelectricity with finite conductance can yield ferroelectric hysteresis with concomitant Coulomb screening in monolayer graphene containing van der Waals heterostructures of various compositions.

Strong magnetic interfacial coupling in van der Waals heterostructures provides a new platform for discovering novel physics and effects. Here, the authors report the formation of skyrmion lattice in the WTe₂/Fe₃GeTe₂ van der Waals heterostructure and a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction with a large energy density of 1.0 mJm⁻².

Researchers demonstrate all-collinear antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions achieving up to 75% magnetoresistance through van der Waals interface effects, enabling spintronics with layer-tunable volatile or non-volatile behavior.

Spontaneous scrolling in two-dimensional polar van der Waals materials, driven by intrinsic out-of-plane electric polarization, enables the scalable production of nanoscrolls and their heterostructures.

Spherical polar topological structures are of interest as they could enable high-density memory applications; however, such texture formation requires superlattices with delicately balanced boundary conditions to form. Here it is found that these textures can form in free-standing CuInP₂S₆, and that mechanical force can generate high-density domains.

There are now several van der Waals magnets that have been shown to host skyrmions, however, these are typically hampered by a low Curie temperature, restricting the temperature at which the skyrmions can exist. Here, Zhang, Jiang, Jiang and coauthors find a skyrmion lattice in the van der Waals magnet Fe3 − xGaTe2 above room temperature and demonstrate the critical role of symmetry breaking in crystal lattice in the origin of these skyrmions.

Domain walls in van der Waals layered ferrielectric CuInP₂Se₆ exhibit piezoelectric response. This striking departure from traditional ferroelectric behavior is ascribed to a partially polarized antiferroelectric state, where the domain wall separates coexisting regions of ferrielectric and antiferroelectric phases.

Two-dimensional materials offer potential for coherent light sources but face challenges with integration in silicon photonics. Here, the authors demonstrate a high-performance on-chip photonic circuit based entirely on a van der Waals heterostructure for coherent light generation, guiding and modulation.

One advantage of van der Waals materials is the ability to combine different materials in layers to form new heterostructures. Here, the authors investigate heterostructures of CrBr₃ and MoSe₂, and find that the ferromagnetism of CrBr₃ enhances the valley dependent optical response of the MoSe₂.

Strong bulk van der Waals materials are fabricated by the compressive moulding of two-dimensional nanosheets near room temperature through water-mediated densification, providing an energy-efficient way for synthesizing various van der Waals materials and a potential for tailoring compositions.

The authors observe out-of-plane ferroelectric polarization induced by interlayer sliding in a multiferroic van der Waals semiconductor. The switching voltage scales down to 0.3 V at room temperature, which promises low-power device applications.

The authors propose vertical tunneling ferroelectric field-effect transistors based on asymmetric MoS₂/h-BN/metal tunnel junction as channel. The Fermi level of MoS₂ is bipolarly tuned by ferroelectric domains and detected by the quantum tunneling strength across the junction.

The layered structure of van der Waals materials leads to highly anisotropic thermal conductivity, due to the van der Waals gap between the layers. Here, Da̧browski et al show how this anisotropic heat transport can be harnessed for ultrafast, optically-induced control of magnetism in Cr₂Ge₂Te₆.

Fe₃GeTe₂, known as FGT, is a van der Waals magnetic material that was recently shown to host magnetic skyrmions. Here, Birch et al using both X-ray and electron microscopy to study the stability of skyrmions in FGT, revealing how the sample history can influence skyrmion formation

The possibility of tuning the shape of the Weyl nodes in topological magnets could open an avenue towards engineering their electrical behaviour. Here, the authors report the tuning of Weyl nodes and associated magnetotransport in MnSb₂Te₄ by diffusion-controlled ionic hydrogen insertion.

Spin-pumping experimental technique where a DC or AC spin current is generated, and typically transferred to a heavy metal layer where it can be detected via electrical measurements. While well established in conventional materials, coherent spin-pumping in van der Waals magnetic materials is challenging due to the low damping and high-quality interface requirements. Here, Xu et al demonstrate coherent spin pumping in the van der Waals magnet Cr2Ge2Te6.

The avalanche or carrier-multiplication effect has the potential to improve the performance of photodetectors and solar cells, but usually requires high threshold energies. Here, the authors report stepwise WSe₂ homojunctions exhibiting threshold energies approaching the semiconductor bandgap at room temperature.

Authors uncover room-temperature skyrmions in 2D van der Waals material, attributing their presence to Fe-deficiency-induced symmetry breaking, enabling topological Hall effect and small Néel-type skyrmions with femtosecond laser writability.

van der Waals magnetic materials, which retain magnetism down to a single two-dimensional layer of atoms, have great technological potential for spin-based information processing, however, typical approaches to measure their spin dynamics are often hampered by the small number of spins in a single atomic layer compared to three dimensional materials. Here, Zollitsch et al present a methodology for the detection of spin dynamics in van der Waals magnets via photon-magnon coupling between it and a superconducting resonator, with potential to resolve spin dynamics down to a single monolayer.

Van der Waals magnetic materials, which maintain their magnetic ordering down to a monolayer have been found to host a variety of spin textures, including topological spin textures such as skyrmions. Here, Khela et al. demonstrate laser induced topological switching, between skyrmions, anti-skyrmions and stripe domains in CrGeTe₃.

The first sample of farside lunar soil, collected by Chang’e-6, is strongly cohesive. The high cohesion stems from its fine particle size with intricate shape, probably a result of the high plagioclase abundance and intense meteorite impacts at the sampling site.

The recent discovery of magnetism in van der Waals materials down to the monolayer seemed to challenge a long-established theoretical result, the Mermin-Wagner theorem, which states that long-range magnetic order does not exist in two dimensions with short-range interactions. Here, using state of the art computational methods, the authors show that for sample sizes usually used in experiments, the exchange interactions at the finite size is enough to stabilize magnetic order without any magnetic anisotropy.

CrPS₄, a 2D van der Waals A-type antiferromagnet, is shown to exhibit ideal characteristics of Stoner–Wohlfarth antiferromagnets, such as ferromagnet-like binary switching rather than layer-by-layer flipping as in other 2D A-type antiferromagnets.

Streptococcal S protein activates a peptidoglycan cell wall repair and modification complex to promote resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae to lysozyme and LL-37, and increase virulence during infection.

Scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy unveils super-moiré spin textures emerging in twisted double-bilayer CrI₃ and provides real-space evidence of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells.

Here, the authors present cryoEM structures of AftB, a key mycobacterial enzyme that adds terminal arabinose residues to the cell wall. In concert with functional assays and MD simulations, mechanistic insights are presented.

A quasi-melting transfer technique enables clean, sequential transfer of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride monolayers from germanium substrates under vacuum conditions. Controlled lattice alignment yields atomically precise, wrinkle-free superlattices with tunable stacking and twist angles, enabling scalable fabrication of high-quality 2D heterostructures for advanced electronics.

Atomically thin walls-ubiquitous in modern nanotechnologies-exhibit transparency to intermolecular forces, profoundly altering wetting, fluid confinement, and interfacial processes like capacitive energy storage and electron transfer. Using classical density functional theory, this study uncovers how van der Waals interactions across transparent walls can transform wetting behavior and capillarity in porous materials.

Cobalt-based catalysts are regarded as a potentially cheaper alternative to platinum and chromium systems for the non-oxidative dehydrogenation of propane, although they often feature lower performance. Now mixed-valence Co^0/IIO_x clusters supported on silicalite-1 are identified as a competitive system for this reaction.

Three-dimensional nanofabrication allows for the precise tailoring of curvature of magnetic nanowires, and therefore the local symmetry breaking. Here, Ruiz-Gomez et al use this control to study the interaction of domain walls with local curvature, engineering potential wells and shift registers.

This Review discusses the state of the art of interface optics—including refractive optics, meta-optics and moiré engineering—for the control of van der Waals polaritons.

In most ferroelectric materials, the domain walls are of neutral type due to the high electrostatic energy cost for charged domain walls. Here, the authors observe abundant charged 180° domain walls in elemental ferroelectric Bi monolayer.

Van der Waals (vdW) magnets have allowed researchers to explore the two dimensional limit of magnetisation; however experimental challenges have hindered analysis of magnetic domains. Here, using an NV centre based probe, the authors analyse the nature of magnetic domains in the vdW magnet, CrBr₃.

Wafer bonding has allowed the synthesis of twisted interfaces which support polar discontinuities in ferroelectric lithium niobate. Two-dimensional sheet conductivity arises but is suppressed when twist angles lead to interfacial lattice aperiodicity.

Wall teichoic acids glycosylation is critical for bacterial virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Here, the authors characterized RmlT, a critical rhamnosyltransferase in Listeria monocytogenes, revealing its structure, catalytic mechanism, and potential as a target for anti-virulence therapies.

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials enable control of atomic-scale magnetic spin textures for spintronic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate an electric-field-driven, reversible transition between skyrmions and bimerons in a MoTeI/In₂Se₃ heterostructure, stable under static and dynamic conditions without magnetic fields, enabling efficient spintronics.

In this work, authors demonstrate programmable nanostructures using two-dimensional materials for nanoscale liquid manipulation. The nanoswitches and capsules can hold zeptoliter liquid volumes, enabling active nanofluidics circuits and confined reactors.

Imaging of ferroelectric domain walls and their polarity is achieved through scanning stress microscopy. Twin boundaries are found to allow nanoscale gating of the two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface.

GpsB is a cytosolic protein that modulates bacterial cell wall synthesis by interacting with cytoplasmic domains of peptidoglycan synthases. Here, Cleverley et al. describe structural features that are important for these interactions, and identify new interacting partners of GpsB in three bacterial species.

A scanning single-electron transistor is used to probe the strain dependence of moiré and supermoiré domains. It is observed that these can be considered nearly independent of each other.

A single-element ferroelectric state is observed in a black phosphorus-like bismuth layer, in which the ordered charge transfer and the regular atom distortion between sublattices happen simultaneously and ferroelectric switching is further visualized experimentally.

We demonstrate that double-wall or multi-wall WS₂ nanotubes can exhibit unexpectedly efficient bulk photovoltaic effect owing to its unique inter-wall charge-shifting excitations.

RAS-driven cancers depend on SHOC2–PP1C. Here, the authors reveal that KRAS forms a low-affinity SHOC2–PP1C complex with fewer contacts than MRAS and show that dual inhibition of KRAS- and MRAS-dependent assemblies strengthens SHOC2 suppression and may overcome resistance.