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Reply to: On anisotropy in cubic Cu2O photoelectrodes

Nature volume 646, pages E26–E27 (2025)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 29 October 2025

replying to: Y. Fu & D. J. Singh Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09628-1 (2025).

We appreciate that our article1 has sparked a discussion in the computational materials science community on the origin of the measured anisotropic mobility in Cu2O. In the accompanying Comment2, Fu and Singh present a theoretical analysis of Cu2O band structures to understand the anisotropic measured carrier mobility that we reported. In pristine bulk Cu2O, conductivity and mobility adhere to the cubic symmetry of the material, reflecting the absence of spontaneous symmetry breaking.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/V012932/1, H2CAT). S.D.S. acknowledges the Royal Society and Tata Group (UF150033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zhangjiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Linfeng Pan

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Linfeng Pan, Linjie Dai, Kyle Frohna, Terry Chien-Jen Yang & Samuel D. Stranks

  3. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Linfeng Pan, Linjie Dai, Virgil Andrei, Youcheng Zhang, Anna Abfalterer, Henning Sirringhaus & Samuel D. Stranks

  4. Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Linfeng Pan, Dan Ren, Wenzhe Niu, Meng Xia & Michael Grätzel

  5. Laboratory of Photomolecular Science, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Linfeng Pan & Anders Hagfeldt

  6. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Oliver J. Burton & Stephan Hofmann

  7. State Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science & Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Lu Chen

  8. Laboratory of Organometallic and Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Lu Chen & Paul J. Dyson

  9. Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Lu Chen, Virgil Andrei & Erwin Reisner

  10. Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials and Cells, Ministry of Education Engineering Research Centre of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology, Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Centre, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

    Jinshui Cheng, Linxiao Wu & Jingshan Luo

  11. Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anders Hagfeldt

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  2. Linjie Dai
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  22. Samuel D. Stranks
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Contributions

L.P., L.D., L.C., V.A., P.J.D., E.R., H.S., J.L., A.H., M.G. and S.D.S. contributed to discussions. L.P. and S.D.S. drafted the Reply. All authors contributed to the revision of the Reply.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jingshan Luo, Anders Hagfeldt, Michael Grätzel or Samuel D. Stranks.

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Pan, L., Dai, L., Burton, O.J. et al. Reply to: On anisotropy in cubic Cu2O photoelectrodes. Nature 646, E26–E27 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09629-0

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