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A detailed understanding of defects in kesterite solar cells is still lacking. Shi et al. identify a key defect and its formation mechanism and use alloying to suppress it, achieving solar cells with 14.2% certified efficiency.

How electron correlation interplays with topological states remains rarely explored. Here, the authors report flat band arising due to electron correlations in magnetic Weyl semimetal Co₃Sn₂S₂ from a combined optical-spectroscopy and simulation study.

Active species such as hydrogen and oxygen are commonly introduced into reactors to control the growth of two-dimensional materials. Now, the presence of fluorine—released by the decomposition of a metal fluoride sheet—has also been shown to modulate the growth kinetics of graphene, h-BN and WS₂.

A hydrated lunar mineral, (NH₄)MgCl₃·6H₂O, is found in Chang’e-5 samples. The presence of abundant water and ammonium molecules on the Moon provides insight into the lunar degassing history and a potential resource for lunar habitation.

Moderate disorder can induce topologically nontrivial phases. Liu et al. report the experimental observations of the competition and interplay between Thouless pumping and disorder on a 41-qubit superconducting quantum processor.

Varying growth temperatures enables the tuning of the degree of disorder, which is fully described by the absence/presence of medium-range order and temperature-dependent densities of nanocrystallites, and electrical conductivity in amorphous monolayer carbon films.

Applications of edge states are rare. Here the authors utilize asymmetric edge states in the topological material Ta₂Pd₃Te₅ to achieve the interfering Josephson diode effect, exhibiting high efficiency with ultra-low switching power at very small magnetic fields.

The controlled fabrication and microscopic understanding of quantum emitters in 2D materials remain challenging. Here, the authors report the production and characterization of defects in monolayer WS₂ via cathodoluminescence electron microscopy, identifying sulfur vacancy pairs as bright and stable emitters at 660 nm.

The impact of the charge density wave (CDW) state to the electronic structure in the Kagome superconductors AV₃Sb₅ remains unclear. Here, the authors observe CDW-induced Fermi surface reconstruction with a strongly anisotropic CDW gap and signatures of the electron-phonon coupling for all V-derived bands.

Ion–ion interactions are crucial to the functioning of biological and artificial ion channels. Here the authors reveal that hydrated alkali metal ions can form one-dimensional closely packed chain structures at charged surfaces to facilitate ion transport.

Quantum devices offer the potential to simulate quantum phenomena, which are otherwise computationally intractable. Here, Shi, Sun, Wang and coauthors use a superconducting quantum simulator to study spin-transport at infinite temperature.

The authors report a wet-chemistry-based method to fabricate amorphous, transferable high-k copper calcium titanate thin films as dielectrics for two-dimensional electronic devices.

This study reports that incorporating non-polar nanodomains into antiferroelectrics greatly enhanced the energy density and efficiency.

Measurements of the electronic structure of a trilayer cuprate superconductor suggest that its high critical temperature is explained by the different doping levels of the layers. The combination of underdoped inner layer and overdoped outer layers supports superconductivity.

How do cells regulate their migration speed and direction? Here, authors discover that keratocyte cells can reversibly switch between different migration modes, by changing the 3D lamellipodium shape and intracellular diffusion.

It has been predicted that entanglement phase diagrams of Haar-measure random states can show interesting phenomenology, including entanglement phase transitions. Here, the authors confirm these predictions using up to 15 qubits in a fully-connected superconducting quantum processor.

The authors report experimental evidence of phonon Stark effect in 2H-MoS₂ bilayers. A Stark phonon appears as the interlayer excitons are tuned to resonate with the LA phonon emission line, and shows a linear energy shift upon application of an out-of-plane electric field.

According to conventional wisdom, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) can only measure the magnitude of the superconducting gap but not its phase. Here, the authors propose a new method to directly detect the superconducting gap phase using ARPES and validate this technique on a cuprate superconductor.

Polyene is a segment of polyacetylene, a conductive polymer. Here, the authors measured the conductance of single molecular chain of trans-polyene and found a high conductivity and low decay constant, attributed to the alignment of the energy levels.

Recently, superconductivity near 80 K was observed in La3Ni2O7 under high pressure, but the mechanism is debated. Here the authors report angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements under ambient pressure, revealing flat bands with strong electronic correlations that could be linked to superconductivity.

Low current densities can be used modulate the magnetism of Co₃Sn₂S₂—a magnetic Weyl semimetal—via spin-transfer-torque-assisted domain wall motion.

The magnetic exchange interaction of MnBi₂Te₄—an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator—can be tuned by intercalating ferromagnetic layers of MnTe.

The microscopic origin and valley physics of quantum emitters (QEs) in 2D semiconductors are still not fully understood. Here, the authors report an anomalous magneto-optical behaviour of QEs in WSe₂ monolayers coupled to chiral plasmonic nanocavities, suggesting the absence of intrinsic valley symmetry of the emitters.

Superconductivity can emerge from a strange-metal state, but the exact relationship between them is unknown. Now, quantitative measurements reveal the dependence of resistivity in the strange metal on the superconducting transition temperature.

Deep-strong coupling in hybrid magnonic systems is yet to be explored. Here, the authors unveil unconventional coupling properties in synthetic antiferromagnets. The systems’ high degree of freedom enables a near-realization of deep-strong coupling.

Magnetic type-II Weyl semimetals host a variety of intriguing physical phenomena due to the combination of magnetic ordering and the electronic properties of the Weyl nodes. Herein, the authors explore the ultrafast spin dynamics of the magnetic Weyl semimetal, Co₃Sn₂S₂, observing a transient enhanced magnetization as a result of laser excitation.

Here, the authors report chemical vapor deposition growth of metallic 1T-CrTe₂ ultrathin crystals with controlled thickness and long-range ferromagnetic ordering, and observe a monotonic increase of the Curie temperature with decreasing thickness.

Symmetry is an essential ingredient that governs numerous physical phenomena, including spin transport. Following this principle, spin current sources with a highly symmetric cubic structure are not expected to support anisotropic spin currents. Here, the authors demonstrate an anomalous spin current anisotropy in a cubic noncollinear antiferromagnet Mn₃Pt by exploiting the combination of conventional and magnetic spin-hall effects.

High-precision photoemission measurements determine that the superconducting pairing symmetry in KFe₂As₂ is the same as in other types of iron-based superconductors, despite having different features in the band structure.

Heavy-fermion materials are mostly rare-earth or actinide intermetallics with very few exceptions in d-electron systems whose underlying physical mechanism remains unclear. The authors propose a symmetry-prohibition mechanism that may enforce heavy-fermion physics in d-electron systems, thus providing a useful pathway for designing new heavy-fermion compounds.

The authors study transport in the superconducting state of infinite-layer nickelate Nd_0.8Sr_0.2NiO₂ films using a Corbino-disk configuration, finding that the magnetoresistance changes from isotropic to four-fold anisotropic with increasing magnetic field. At even higher field, an additional two-fold component emerges, which coincides with an anomalous upturn of the critical field.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

Large-area single-crystal high-index copper and nickel foils with several types of facet are fabricated using mild pre-oxidation of the metal foil surface followed by annealing in a reducing atmosphere.

Molecular sieving is important for proton exchange fuel cells, water desalination and gas separation, but achieving optimal proton conductivity and selectivity is difficult. Here the authors use theory to show that a graphdiyne membrane is promising for proton transport in aqueous media at room temperature.

Real-space imaging of the edge structures and growth of a two-dimensional ice on a gold substrate is achieved using noncontact atomic-force microscopy with a carbon monoxide tip.

Tracking the formation of cubic ice (ice Ic) using transmission electron microscopy and low-dose imaging shows preferential nucleation of ice Ic at low-temperature interfaces and two types of stacking disorder.

Quantum simulations of topological matter with superconducting qubits have been attracting attention recently. Xiang et al. realize 2D and bilayer Chern insulators with synthetic dimensions on a programmable 30-qubit-ladder superconducting processor, showing bulk-boundary correspondence.

Kagome superconductors host a panoply of condensed matter phenomena, some of which are mediated by band topology. Here, authors use ARPES and DFT to identify type-II and type-III Dirac nodal lines, flat bands and topological surface states in the kagome metal CsTi₃Bi₅.

Recently, the theory of Hawking radiation of a black hole has been tested in several analogue platforms. Shi et al. report a fermionic-lattice model realization of an analogue black hole using a chain of superconducting transmon qubits with tuneable couplers and show the stimulated Hawking radiation.

Superconducting interfaces involving KTaO3 have recently attracted attention due to their relatively high transition temperature. Here, the authors study amorphous-YAlO₃/KTaO₃ interfaces and find two-fold symmetry in the superconducting regime, possibly due to a mixed-parity superconducting state.

Single-particle band theory is facing limitations in describing the physics of ultrathin topological insulator films. Here, the authors investigate the coupling between top and bottom surfaces of a topological insulator and analyse their interaction in the framework of screened Coulomb interactions.

Mapping local phonon dispersion in individual nanostructures reveals their thermal, optical, and mechanical properties but requires high detection sensitivity. Here, the authors present position-dependent phonon dispersion measurements in individual boron nitride nanotubes.

Precise quantitative scaling laws are observed between the normalized T-linear coefficient and T_c among copper oxides, pnictides and a class of organic superconductors, suggesting a common underlying physics at work in these unconventional superconductors.

The large-area growth of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) requires a precise control of metal and chalcogen precursors. Here, the authors implement a strategy using active chalcogen monomer supply to grow monolayer TMDs and their alloys, showing low defect density and improved optoelectronic properties.

Magnons in antiferromagnets hold potential for chirality-based spintronics, but a practical platform remains absent. Here, the authors demonstrate possible magnon chirality switching, reading and modulation in an artificial ferrimagnet Py/Gd/Py/Gd/Py/Pt multilayer, manifesting the chirality as an independent degree of freedom.

Most work on nonreciprocal transport is limited to cryogenic temperatures due to the low Rashba spin splitting energy. Here, the authors report a nonreciprocal charge transport behavior up to room temperature in semiconductor α-GeTe with coexisting the surface and bulk Rashba states.

How a Mott insulating state evolves into a conducting or superconducting state is a central issue in doping a Mott insulator and important to understand the physics in high temperature cuprate superconductors. Here, the authors visualize the electronic structure evolution of a Mott insulator within the full Mott gap region and address the fundamental issues.

Structures of human vesicular monoamine transporter 2 in complexes with serotonin and three clinical drugs provide insights into the structural basis for serotonin transport and inhibition of transporter activity by the drugs.

Controlling topological polar vortices promises to open up new applications for ferroelectric materials. Here, the authors proposed a method to mechanically manipulate polar vortices and monitored the transition between vortex and ferroelectric phase by in-situ scanning transmission electron microscopy.