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A nano-optical probe of the Purcell effect in a van der Waals waveguide is demonstrated, exploiting its highly confined infrared waveguide modes and the capacity for infrared emission in the monolayer limit of atomically layered van der Waals materials.

The van der Waals MA₂Z₄ materials are a rapidly growing class of 2D materials with diverse electronic phases. This Review explores the structure, synthesis, properties and diverse applications of the emerging MA₂Z₄ family, highlighting their potential across electronics, catalysis and energy storage.

Electron density in TiS₂ is determined by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, which reveals significant differences between experimental data and theory for interlayer van der Waals interactions.

Existing Moiré materials are mostly van der Waals heterostructures. Here the authors show that hydrogen-bond adaptability allows spontaneous formation of twisted bilayer ice at magic angles in 2D confinement, establishing a new class of Moiré materials.

Heterostructures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride have great potential for high-mobility electronics, yet little is known about the electronic interaction between these two atomically thin materials. Here, the authors perform angle-resolved reflected-electron spectroscopy to unveil their interplay.

Conventional bulk infrared detectors usually operate at cryogenic temperatures, leading to high power consumption. Here, the authors report high-performance polarization-sensitive photodetectors based on MoSe₂/PdSe₂ heterostructures, operating from the near- to the long-wave infrared band at room temperature.

Molecules trapped between the layers of two-dimensional materials are thought to experience high pressure. Here, the authors report measurements of this interfacial pressure by capturing pressure-sensitive molecules and studying their structural changes, and show that it can also induce chemical reaction.

Accurate quantum mechanical benchmarks modeling ligand interactions with protein pockets are key in drug design. Here, such a large dimers dataset is created, analyzed, and probed with many methods

CrI3 is a van der Waals material which exhibits magnetic ordering down to the monolayer limit. Here, using ultrafast optical spectroscopy, Padmanabhan and Buessen et al. investigate the coupling between the magnetically ordered spins and lattice distortions, finding a coherent spin-coupled phonon mode.

Many-body van-der-Waals interaction in multilayer structures has long been predicted but is difficult to be observed experimentally. Here the authors verify it in a tip graphene-substrate system benefiting from atomically thin intermediate graphene.

Artificial stacking of van der Waals materials is an effective method to design and investigate emergent physical properties in condensed matter systems. Here, the authors characterize the natural twisted layer structure of CrI₃, showing its dependence on the sample fabrication process and its implications for the magnetic properties of the material.

Halide perovskite/2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) heterostructures hold promise for photonic/optoelectronic applications, but their bottom-up growth remains challenging. Here, the authors report a van der Waals heteroepitaxy strategy to synthesize various halide perovskite/TMD heterostructures with enhanced lasing performance.

Principal optical axes define light-matter interactions in crystals and they are usually assumed to be stationary. Here, the authors report the observation of wavelength-dependent principal optical axes in ternary van der Waals crystals (ReS₂ and ReSe₂), leading to wavelength-switchable propagation directions of their waveguide modes.

Hyperbolic exciton polaritons (HEPs) are anisotropic light-matter excitations with promising applications, but their steady-state observation is challenging. Here, the authors report experimental evidence of HEPs in a van der Waals magnet, CrSBr, via cryogenic infrared near-field microscopy.

The combination of strong light-matter interactions and controllable magnetic properties make magnetic semiconductors attractive for both fundamental physics and the development of devices. Here, Hendriks et al show how the optically driven magnetization dynamics in Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ can be controlled via electrostatic gating.

In isotropic two dimensional systems, long range ferromagnetic order is supressed by thermal fluctuations, and it is due to magnetic anisotropy that van der Waals magnetic materials can have ferromagnetic ordering at finite temperatures. Usually this magnetic anisotropy is relatively small, but in this manuscript Zhang et al make a two dimensional van der Waals material with exceptionally large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and ferromagnetic ordering that exits up to 350 K.

Natural hyperbolic materials retain the peculiar optical properties of traditional metamaterials whilst not requiring artificial structuring. Here, the authors perform a theoretical screening of a large class of natural materials with hyperbolic dispersion among the family of layered transition metal dichalcogenides.

Polaritons formed by moiré excitons in heterobilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit strong nonlinearity owing to quantum confinement by the tunable moiré lattice potential.

Excitons, quasi-particles of bound electron-hole pairs, are at the core of the optoelectronic properties of layered transition metal dichalcogenides. Here, the authors unveil the presence of interlayer excitons in bulk van der Waals semiconductors, arising from strong localization and spin-valley coupling of charge carriers.

A family of single-atom catalysts synthesized by intercalating metal single atoms into the van der Waals gap of two-dimensional SnS₂ is reported. The materials are applied as hydrogen evolving catalysts with good durability and overpotential.

One-dimensional van der Waals (1D vdW) materials derive interesting behaviour from dimensional confinement. Here the authors study a 1D vdW semiconductor, fibrous red phosphorous, and observe exceptional optical properties of large optical anisotropy and high photoluminescence.

Many of the most sensitive X-ray detectors are based on toxic elements such as lead, limiting their safe applications. Here, the authors report the realization of sensitive X-ray detectors based on solution-grown thick BiI/BiI3/BiI van der Waals heterostructures, showing a detection limit down to 34 nGy s⁻¹ and high stability.

Exciton-polaritons result from the strong coupling of excitons and photons, exhibiting strong nonlinearity. Here, Zhao et al demonstrate room-temperature optical polariton spin-switching in a tungsten disulfide superlattice.

The spontaneous topological Hall effect, combining non-coplanar antiferromagnetic order with finite scalar spin chirality in the absence of a magnetic field, is now experimentally demonstrated for the triangular lattice compounds CoTa₃S₆ and CoNb₃S₆.

We present comprehensive thermodynamic and spectroscopic evidence for an antiferromagnetically ordered heavy-fermion ground state in the van der Waals metal CeSiI.

The Gauge factor (GF) enhancement in strain sensors remains a key challenge. Here the authors leverage the piezoelectric and photoelectric effects in a class of van der Waals materials to tune the GF, and obtain a record GF up to 3933 for a SnS₂-based strain sensor.

Researchers use spin-charge coupling and FePS₃ crystals to induce large in-plane optical anisotropy and near-unity linear dichroism in the visible–near-infrared range.

Exploring the magnetism in the van der Waals materials facilitates two dimensional spintronic devices. Here the authors demonstrate the evolution of magnetic behavior, strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and existence of magnetic coupling between atomic layers in Fe₃GeTe₂ nanoflakes by varying the layer thickness.

The limited scalability of 1D semiconductors has restricted their large-area optoelectronic applications so far. Here, the authors report the low-temperature synthesis of wafer-scale van der Waals nanomeshes composed of self-welding Te nanowires on various substrates, showing improved transport and photoelectric properties.

Transcription factors must retain specificity despite recognising a variety of DNA sequences. Here, the authors find that the transcription factor AflR does this by using its structured and disordered regions together to recognise DNA sequences.

During carrier multiplication, high-energy free carriers in a given material relax by generation of additional electron-hole pairs. Here, the authors report evidence of carrier multiplication in multilayer MoTe₂ and WSe₂ films with up to 99% conversation efficiency.

Van der Waals magnetic materials (vdWs) have allowed for the exploration of the two dimensional limit of magnetism, however, most vdWs are only magnetic at low temperature. Herein, the authors overcome this limitation, observing room temperature magnetic ordering in Cobalt doped graphene-like Zinc-Oxide.

Designing high-performance and energy efficient neural network hardware remains a challenge. Here, the authors develop a van der Waals hybrid synaptic device that features linear and symmetric conductance-update characteristics and demonstrate the feasibility for hardware neural network performing acoustic pattern recognition.

The authors investigate the optical properties of a heterostructure formed by a metallic substrate and a nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenide multilayer by measuring the reflectance spectrum at different multilayer thicknesses, filling factors and grating periods. The spectra show strong dispersion and avoided crossing of excitons, plasmons and cavity photons along with excitonic mode suppression at the anti-crossing point.

Material interfaces are highly crucial to improve device performances. Here, the authors report interfacial reconstruction at the Au {001} substrate surface and the top MoS₂ and WS₂ monolayers due to the formation of a metastable interfacial Au₄S₄ phase. The reconstructed interface results in a p-type Schottky contact with reduced barrier height.

The use of light in driving the magnetization of materials has great technological potential, as well as allowing for insights into the fast dynamics of magnetic systems. Here, the authors combine CrI₃, a van der Waals magnet, with WSe₂, and demonstrate all optical switching of the resulting heterostructure.

A new non-van der Waals 2D material hematene, exfoliated from natural iron ore hematite, shows ferromagnetic ordering and enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Mechanisms for generating spin-polarized currents may be helpful for applications. Now one such mechanism that uses the unusual Landau-level spectrum of WSe₂ under a strong magnetic field is demonstrated.

Andreev reflection occurs at the interface of a metal and a superconductor when an incident electron in the metal gets ‘reflected’ as a hole travelling on the same path. Replace the metal with graphene and specular reflection may instead take place.

Here, a combined experiment-theory framework based on different nano-imaging techniques and first-principle calculations is used to analyse the shapes of moiré patterns in twisted van der Waals structures, enabling an accurate description of the coupling between the atomically thin layers.

Layered materials are held together by weak van der Waals forces facilitating layer-by-layer cleavage. Here, the authors demonstrate mechanical exfoliation of a naturally occurring franckeite mineral heterostructure, possessing p-type conductivity and remarkable electrochemical properties.

Square-centimetre scale, multilayer superlattice structures based on atomically thin two-dimensional chalcogenide monolayers enable the realization of excitonic metamaterials.

A one-dimensional Dirac-like band is observed in a layer van der Waals material, expanding the arsenal of 2D systems.

Debio 1453, a FabI inhibitor, shows potent activity against antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, rapidly killing bacteria in vitro and clearing infection in mice, supporting its potential for treating drug-resistant gonorrhoea.