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Photonic topological insulators guide light robustly, but not at multiple colors needed for applications like frequency doubling. The authors theoretically demonstrate a broadband nonlinear resonator array that overcomes this, hosting topological edge states for two colors to achieve efficient nonlinear light conversion and programmable chirality.

Nanostructured black silicon can be used as a photoelectrode for solar-driven water splitting, but its high surface area can increase charge recombination and accelerate corrosion. Here the authors show that a thin, conformal film of TiO₂ can increase both the photocurrent and the stability of black silicon.

Surface stimulated Raman scattering-based lasing is achieved using just a monolayer of molecules on silica optical microresonators.

Vocal communication requires both hearing external stimuli, and keeping track of one's own vocalizations during speech. In several species, including humans, auditory neurons are suppressed during vocalization, but the function of this was unclear. In marmosets, neurons in primary auditory cortex are more sensitive to perturbations in vocal feedback despite the general suppression, a possible mechanism for active monitoring of self-generated sounds.

Observation and control of spin-forbidden dark excitons is demonstrated in a hybrid heterostructure of WSe₂ monolayers and plasmonic nanocavities.

Exciton energy transfer in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides is limited to short distances. Here, Shi et al. fabricate a planar metal-oxide-semiconductor structure and show that exciton energy transfer can be extended to tens of microns, mediated by an exciton-surface-plasmon-polariton–exciton conversion mechanism.

Moiré patterns and flat bands usually occur in multilayer materials with a small interlayer twist angle, but this can cause detrimental lattice reconstruction. Now, flat bands are shown in a bilayer with large twist angle and structural rigidity.

Li, Li, Wu et al. use a proteomics approach, PhastID to identify protein components of nuclear condensates (NCs). They reveal crosstalk between NCs, the dynamics of condensate components and identify an NC formed by BUD13.

Evidence is shown for a skyrmion-like texture in the layer polarization of the electronic wavefunctions of a twisted two-dimensional material. This provides support for theories that link this spatial texture to the topological properties.

Antiferromagnets have a variety of attractive features for spintronic devices; they are inherently robust against external magnetic fields, and have fast, terahertz, dynamics. However, terahertz magnons are usually strongly damped. Here, Choe, Lujan and coauthors find that the zone boundary magnons in the AFM insulator CoTiO3 exhibit long lifetimes.

MnBi2Te4, referred to as MBT, is a van der Waals material combining topological electron bands with magnetic order. Here, Lujan et al study collective spin excitations in MBT, and show that magnetic fluctuations increase as samples reduce in thickness, implying less robust magnetic order.

The authors developed an optical imaging approach for mapping cortical functions through the intact skull in marmoset monkeys. Detailed functions and topographies were revealed in visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices at mesoscopic scales.

The recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass is the major limitation for the production of natural gas. Here the authors develop a catalytic-drive approach with Ni2Al3 alloy catalyst to enable nearly complete conversion of various agricultural and forestry residues into natural gas.

The authors demonstrate that the electrostatic potential originating on the surface of twisted bilayer and multilayer hexagonal boron nitride can be used to generate a moiré potential modulation on adjacent semiconductor layers, enabling the possibility of controlling the properties of this adjacent layer.

Ultra-high brightness green Micro-LEDs with 5 μm pixels were achieved using uniform GaN-on-Si epilayers, exceeding 10⁷ cd/m² brightness and enabling high-resolution Micro-LED displays with CMOS circuit integration.

Spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are potentially attractive MRI contrast agents, but their low transverse relaxivity has hindered their application. Here, the authors report size and shape control of octapod iron oxide nanoparticles with extremely high transverse relaxivity.

Precision measurement of the dynamical magnetoelectric coupling in an exfoliated van der Waals multiferroic shows a giant natural optical activity at terahertz frequencies.

Using a large multisite dataset of people with major depressive disorder and healthy controls, the authors show global brain connectivity alterations in the sensorimotor, visual, and default mode networks.

The authors show that bulk brittle semiconductors can be plastically manufactured like metals by warm metalworking into free-standing, metre-scale films with decent physical properties.

Using valley-resolved scanning tunnelling spectroscopy, twisted WSe₂ bilayers are studied, including incommensurate dodecagon quasicrystals at 30° and commensurate moiré crystals at 21.8° and 38.2°.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based protein sequencing usually relies on in-solution proteolytic digestion, which is time-consuming and inefficient for certain proteins. Here, the authors achieve full protein sequence coverage in less than 1 ms by subjecting protein-protease mixtures to electrosonic spray ionization-MS.

Lumped circuit elements provide a simple tool to design complex electronic systems; a similar approach has been proposed for nanophotonics. Here, the authors demonstrate the modularized design and assembly of photonic nanocircuits using metal and dielectric nanoparticles as the constituent lumped elements.

Here Zhaoet al. use twisted metamaterials to drastically enhance chiral responses through strong near-field interactions, and sense the chirality down to zeptomoles of molecules, orders of magnitude smaller than what is detectable with conventional circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Raman measurements of twisted bilayer MoS₂ as a function of twist angles, with theoretical support, reveal phonon renormalization in this moiré superlattice.

Sun et al. report human lifespan changes in the brain’s functional connectome in 33,250 individuals, which highlights critical growth milestones and distinct maturation patterns and offers a normative reference for development, aging and diseases.

Spatiotemporal dynamic of charge carriers is commonly studied with optical or photoconductivity measurements, yet these techniques come with their own limitations. To circumvent these limits, the authors probe the free-carrier diffusion dynamics of microsecond lifetimes via laser-illuminated microwave impedance microscopy.

Surface-grafting polymer brush (SPB) technique can be used to change the inherent physical/chemical properties of materials surface. Practical applications are paid more attention since SPB technique enables to decorate materials with diverse functions. This paper reviews the current grafting strategies to generate polymer brush layer on surface of solid materials with diverse geometric structures/sizes, and then systematically summarizes the recent research advances on application of polymer brushes-modified materials. Correspondingly, some key challenges of SPB technique with considering its real application in future are discussed. The aim to draft this paper is to tell the readers how to engineer functional materials by SPB technique.

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is foundational for spintronics. The authors quantitatively established the roles of orbital hybridization and interfacial spin-orbit coupling in the determination of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, offering orbital hybridization as a degree of freedom for the development of fast, dense spintronic memory and computing technologies.