@article{21726, abstract = {Quantum control of the many-body wavefunction is a central challenge in quantum materials research, as it could yield a precise control knob to manipulate emergent phenomena. Floquet engineering, the coherent dressing of quantum states with periodic non-resonant optical fields, has become an important strategy for quantum control. Most applications to solid-state systems have targeted weakly interacting or single-ion states, leaving the manipulation of many-body wavefunctions largely unexplored. Here we use Floquet engineering to achieve quantum control of a strongly correlated Hubbard exciton in the one-dimensional Mott insulator Sr2CuO3. A non-resonant mid-infrared optical field coherently dresses the exciton wavefunction, driving its rotation between bright and dark states. We use resonant third-harmonic generation to quantify ultrafast π/2 rotations on the Bloch sphere spanned by these exciton states. Our work advances the quest towards programmable control of correlated states and exciton-based quantum sensing.}, author = {Baykusheva, Denitsa Rangelova and Carmichael, Deven and Weber, Clara S. and Lu, I. Te and Glerean, Filippo and Meng, Tepie and De Oliveira, Pedro B.M. and Homes, Christopher C. and Zaliznyak, Igor A. and Gu, G. D. and Dean, Mark P.M. and Rubio, Angel and Kennes, Dante M. and Claassen, Martin and Mitrano, Matteo}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Quantum control of Hubbard excitons}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-026-02517-6}, year = {2026}, } @article{12085, abstract = {Molecular catch bonds are ubiquitous in biology and essential for processes like leucocyte extravasion1 and cellular mechanosensing2. Unlike normal (slip) bonds, catch bonds strengthen under tension. The current paradigm is that this feature provides ‘strength on demand3’, thus enabling cells to increase rigidity under stress1,4,5,6. However, catch bonds are often weaker than slip bonds because they have cryptic binding sites that are usually buried7,8. Here we show that catch bonds render reconstituted cytoskeletal actin networks stronger than slip bonds, even though the individual bonds are weaker. Simulations show that slip bonds remain trapped in stress-free areas, whereas weak binding allows catch bonds to mitigate crack initiation by moving to high-tension areas. This ‘dissociation on demand’ explains how cells combine mechanical strength with the adaptability required for shape change, and is relevant to diseases where catch bonding is compromised7,9, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis10 caused by the α-actinin-4 mutant studied here. We surmise that catch bonds are the key to create life-like materials.}, author = {Mulla, Yuval and Avellaneda Sarrió, Mario and Roland, Antoine and Baldauf, Lucia and Jung, Wonyeong and Kim, Taeyoon and Tans, Sander J. and Koenderink, Gijsje H.}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {9}, pages = {1019--1023}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Weak catch bonds make strong networks}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-022-01288-0}, volume = {21}, year = {2022}, } @article{8909, abstract = {Spin qubits are considered to be among the most promising candidates for building a quantum processor. Group IV hole spin qubits have moved into the focus of interest due to the ease of operation and compatibility with Si technology. In addition, Ge offers the option for monolithic superconductor-semiconductor integration. Here we demonstrate a hole spin qubit operating at fields below 10 mT, the critical field of Al, by exploiting the large out-of-plane hole g-factors in planar Ge and by encoding the qubit into the singlet-triplet states of a double quantum dot. We observe electrically controlled X and Z-rotations with tunable frequencies exceeding 100 MHz and dephasing times of 1μs which we extend beyond 15μs with echo techniques. These results show that Ge hole singlet triplet qubits outperform their electronic Si and GaAs based counterparts in speed and coherence, respectively. In addition, they are on par with Ge single spin qubits, but can be operated at much lower fields underlining their potential for on chip integration with superconducting technologies.}, author = {Jirovec, Daniel and Hofmann, Andrea C and Ballabio, Andrea and Mutter, Philipp M. and Tavani, Giulio and Botifoll, Marc and Crippa, Alessandro and Kukucka, Josip and Sagi, Oliver and Martins, Frederico and Saez Mollejo, Jaime and Prieto Gonzalez, Ivan and Borovkov, Maksim and Arbiol, Jordi and Chrastina, Daniel and Isella, Giovanni and Katsaros, Georgios}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {8}, pages = {1106–1112}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A singlet triplet hole spin qubit in planar Ge}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-021-01022-2}, volume = {20}, year = {2021}, } @article{7792, abstract = {Phonon polaritons—light coupled to lattice vibrations—in polar van der Waals crystals are promising candidates for controlling the flow of energy on the nanoscale due to their strong field confinement, anisotropic propagation and ultra-long lifetime in the picosecond range1,2,3,4,5. However, the lack of tunability of their narrow and material-specific spectral range—the Reststrahlen band—severely limits their technological implementation. Here, we demonstrate that intercalation of Na atoms in the van der Waals semiconductor α-V2O5 enables a broad spectral shift of Reststrahlen bands, and that the phonon polaritons excited show ultra-low losses (lifetime of 4 ± 1 ps), similar to phonon polaritons in a non-intercalated crystal (lifetime of 6 ± 1 ps). We expect our intercalation method to be applicable to other van der Waals crystals, opening the door for the use of phonon polaritons in broad spectral bands in the mid-infrared domain.}, author = {Taboada-Gutiérrez, Javier and Álvarez-Pérez, Gonzalo and Duan, Jiahua and Ma, Weiliang and Crowley, Kyle and Prieto Gonzalez, Ivan and Bylinkin, Andrei and Autore, Marta and Volkova, Halyna and Kimura, Kenta and Kimura, Tsuyoshi and Berger, M. H. and Li, Shaojuan and Bao, Qiaoliang and Gao, Xuan P.A. and Errea, Ion and Nikitin, Alexey Y. and Hillenbrand, Rainer and Martín-Sánchez, Javier and Alonso-González, Pablo}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, pages = {964–968}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Broad spectral tuning of ultra-low-loss polaritons in a van der Waals crystal by intercalation}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-020-0665-0}, volume = {19}, year = {2020}, } @article{7283, abstract = {Potassium–air batteries, which suffer from oxygen cathode and potassium metal anode degradation, can be cycled thousands of times when an organic anode replaces the metal.}, author = {Petit, Yann K. and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander}, issn = {1476-1122}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {4}, pages = {301--302}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Thousands of cycles}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-019-0313-8}, volume = {18}, year = {2019}, } @article{19806, abstract = {Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are renowned for their rich and varied bulk properties, while their single-layer variants have become one of the most prominent examples of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene. Their disparate ground states largely depend on transition metal d-electron-derived electronic states, on which the vast majority of attention has been concentrated to date. Here, we focus on the chalcogen-derived states. From density-functional theory calculations together with spin- and angle-resolved photoemission, we find that these generically host a co-existence of type-I and type-II three-dimensional bulk Dirac fermions as well as ladders of topological surface states and surface resonances. We demonstrate how these naturally arise within a single p-orbital manifold as a general consequence of a trigonal crystal field, and as such can be expected across a large number of compounds. Already, we demonstrate their existence in six separate TMDs, opening routes to tune, and ultimately exploit, their topological physics.}, author = {Bahramy, M. S. and Clark, O. J. and Yang, B.-J. and Feng, J. and Bawden, L. and Riley, J. M. and Marković, I. and Mazzola, F. and Sunko, Veronika and Biswas, D. and Cooil, S. P. and Jorge, M. and Wells, J. W. and Leandersson, M. and Balasubramanian, T. and Fujii, J. and Vobornik, I. and Rault, J. E. and Kim, T. K. and Hoesch, M. and Okawa, K. and Asakawa, M. and Sasagawa, T. and Eknapakul, T. and Meevasana, W. and King, P. D. C.}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, pages = {21--28}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Ubiquitous formation of bulk Dirac cones and topological surface states from a single orbital manifold in transition-metal dichalcogenides}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat5031}, volume = {17}, year = {2018}, } @article{18197, abstract = {Controlling matter to simultaneously support coupled properties is of fundamental and technological importance1 (for example, in multiferroics2,3,4,5 or high-temperature superconductors6,7,8,9). However, determining the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the simultaneous presence of different orders is difficult, making it hard to predict material phenomenology10,11 or modify properties12,13,14,15,16. Here, using a quantum gas to engineer an adjustable interaction at the microscopic level, we demonstrate scenarios of competition, coexistence and mutual enhancement of two orders. For the enhancement scenario, the presence of one order lowers the critical point of the other. Our system is realized by a Bose–Einstein condensate that can undergo self-organization phase transitions in two optical resonators17, resulting in two distinct crystalline density orders. We characterize the coupling between these orders by measuring the composite order parameter and the elementary excitations and explain our results with a mean-field free-energy model derived from a microscopic Hamiltonian. Our system is ideally suited to explore quantum tricritical points18 and can be extended to study the interplay of spin and density orders19 as a function of temperature20.}, author = {Morales, Andrea and Zupancic, Philip and Leonard, Julian and Esslinger, Tilman and Donner, Tobias}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {8}, pages = {686--690}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Coupling two order parameters in a quantum gas}}, doi = {10.1038/s41563-018-0118-1}, volume = {17}, year = {2018}, } @article{14309, abstract = {Establishing precise control over the shape and the interactions of the microscopic building blocks is essential for design of macroscopic soft materials with novel structural, optical and mechanical properties. Here, we demonstrate robust assembly of DNA origami filaments into cholesteric liquid crystals, one-dimensional supramolecular twisted ribbons and two-dimensional colloidal membranes. The exquisite control afforded by the DNA origami technology establishes a quantitative relationship between the microscopic filament structure and the macroscopic cholesteric pitch. Furthermore, it also enables robust assembly of one-dimensional twisted ribbons, which behave as effective supramolecular polymers whose structure and elastic properties can be precisely tuned by controlling the geometry of the elemental building blocks. Our results demonstrate the potential synergy between DNA origami technology and colloidal science, in which the former allows for rapid and robust synthesis of complex particles, and the latter can be used to assemble such particles into bulk materials.}, author = {Siavashpouri, M and Wachauf, CH and Zakhary, MJ and Praetorius, Florian M and Dietz, H and Dogic, Z}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {8}, pages = {849--856}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Molecular engineering of chiral colloidal liquid crystals using DNA origami}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat4909}, volume = {16}, year = {2017}, } @article{7279, abstract = {Kinetics of electrochemical reactions are several orders of magnitude slower in solids than in liquids as a result of the much lower ion diffusivity. Yet, the solid state maximizes the density of redox species, which is at least two orders of magnitude lower in liquids because of solubility limitations. With regard to electrochemical energy storage devices, this leads to high-energy batteries with limited power and high-power supercapacitors with a well-known energy deficiency. For such devices the ideal system should endow the liquid state with a density of redox species close to the solid state. Here we report an approach based on biredox ionic liquids to achieve bulk-like redox density at liquid-like fast kinetics. The cation and anion of these biredox ionic liquids bear moieties that undergo very fast reversible redox reactions. As a first demonstration of their potential for high-capacity/high-rate charge storage, we used them in redox supercapacitors. These ionic liquids are able to decouple charge storage from an ion-accessible electrode surface, by storing significant charge in the pores of the electrodes, to minimize self-discharge and leakage current as a result of retaining the redox species in the pores, and to raise working voltage due to their wide electrochemical window.}, author = {Mourad, Eléonore and Coustan, Laura and Lannelongue, Pierre and Zigah, Dodzi and Mehdi, Ahmad and Vioux, André and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Favier, Frédéric and Fontaine, Olivier}, issn = {1476-1122}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {4}, pages = {446--453}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Biredox ionic liquids with solid-like redox density in the liquid state for high-energy supercapacitors}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat4808}, volume = {16}, year = {2016}, } @article{7306, abstract = {Rechargeable lithium–air (O2) batteries are receiving intense interest because their high theoretical specific energy exceeds that of lithium-ion batteries. If the Li–O2 battery is ever to succeed, highly reversible formation/decomposition of Li2O2 must take place at the cathode on cycling. However, carbon, used ubiquitously as the basis of the cathode, decomposes during Li2O2 oxidation on charge and actively promotes electrolyte decomposition on cycling. Replacing carbon with a nanoporous gold cathode, when in contact with a dimethyl sulphoxide-based electrolyte, does seem to demonstrate better stability. However, nanoporous gold is not a suitable cathode; its high mass destroys the key advantage of Li–O2 over Li ion (specific energy), it is too expensive and too difficult to fabricate. Identifying a suitable cathode material for the Li–O2 cell is one of the greatest challenges at present. Here we show that a TiC-based cathode reduces greatly side reactions (arising from the electrolyte and electrode degradation) compared with carbon and exhibits better reversible formation/decomposition of Li2O2 even than nanoporous gold (>98% capacity retention after 100 cycles, compared with 95% for nanoporous gold); it is also four times lighter, of lower cost and easier to fabricate. The stability may originate from the presence of TiO2 (along with some TiOC) on the surface of TiC. In contrast to carbon or nanoporous gold, TiC seems to represent a more viable, stable, cathode for aprotic Li–O2 cells.}, author = {Ottakam Thotiyl, Muhammed M. and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Peng, Zhangquan and Chen, Yuhui and Liu, Zheng and Bruce, Peter G.}, issn = {1476-1122}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {11}, pages = {1050--1056}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A stable cathode for the aprotic Li–O2 battery}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat3737}, volume = {12}, year = {2013}, } @article{18013, abstract = {Van der Waals (vdW) interaction, and its subtle interplay with chemically specific interactions and surface roughness at metal/organic interfaces, is critical to the understanding of structure–function relations in diverse areas, including catalysis, molecular electronics and self-assembly1,2,3. However, vdW interactions remain challenging to characterize directly at the fundamental, single-molecule level both in experiments and in first principles calculations with accurate treatment of the non-local, London dispersion interactions. In particular, for metal/organic interfaces, efforts so far have largely focused on model systems consisting of adsorbed molecules on flat metallic surfaces with minimal specific chemical interaction4,5,6,7,8,9. Here we show, through measurements of single-molecule mechanics, that pyridine derivatives10,11 can bind to nanostructured Au electrodes through an additional binding mechanism beyond the chemically specific N–Au donor–acceptor bond. Using density functional theory simulations we show that vdW interactions between the pyridine ring and Au electrodes can play a key role in the junction mechanics. These measurements thus provide a quantitative characterization of vdW interactions at metal/organic interfaces at the single-molecule level.}, author = {Aradhya, Sriharsha V. and Frei, Michael and Hybertsen, Mark S. and Venkataraman, Latha}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {10}, pages = {872--876}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Van der Waals interactions at metal/organic interfaces at the single-molecule level}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat3403}, volume = {11}, year = {2012}, } @article{7313, abstract = {Li-ion batteries have transformed portable electronics and will play a key role in the electrification of transport. However, the highest energy storage possible for Li-ion batteries is insufficient for the long-term needs of society, for example, extended-range electric vehicles. To go beyond the horizon of Li-ion batteries is a formidable challenge; there are few options. Here we consider two: Li–air (O2) and Li–S. The energy that can be stored in Li–air (based on aqueous or non-aqueous electrolytes) and Li–S cells is compared with Li-ion; the operation of the cells is discussed, as are the significant hurdles that will have to be overcome if such batteries are to succeed. Fundamental scientific advances in understanding the reactions occurring in the cells as well as new materials are key to overcoming these obstacles. The potential benefits of Li–air and Li–S justify the continued research effort that will be needed.}, author = {Bruce, Peter G. and Freunberger, Stefan Alexander and Hardwick, Laurence J. and Tarascon, Jean-Marie}, issn = {1476-1122}, journal = {Nature Materials}, number = {1}, pages = {19--29}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Li–O2 and Li–S batteries with high energy storage}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat3191}, volume = {11}, year = {2011}, } @article{13435, abstract = {Micropatterning of surfaces with several chemicals at different spatial locations usually requires multiple stamping and registration steps. Here, we describe an experimental method based on reaction–diffusion phenomena that allows for simultaneous micropatterning of a substrate with several coloured chemicals. In this method, called wet stamping (WETS), aqueous solutions of two or more inorganic salts are delivered onto a film of dry, ionically doped gelatin from an agarose stamp patterned in bas relief. Once in conformal contact, these salts diffuse into the gelatin, where they react to give deeply coloured precipitates. Separation of colours in the plane of the surface is the consequence of the differences in the diffusion coefficients, the solubility products, and the amounts of different salts delivered from the stamp, and is faithfully reproduced by a theoretical model based on a system of reaction–diffusion partial differential equations. The multicolour micropatterns are useful as non-binary optical elements, and could potentially form the basis of new applications in microseparations and in controlled delivery.}, author = {Klajn, Rafal and Fialkowski, Marcin and Bensemann, Igor T. and Bitner, Agnieszka and Campbell, C. J. and Bishop, Kyle and Smoukov, Stoyan and Grzybowski, Bartosz A.}, issn = {1476-4660}, journal = {Nature Materials}, keywords = {Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics of Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, General Materials Science, General Chemistry}, pages = {729--735}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Multicolour micropatterning of thin films of dry gels}}, doi = {10.1038/nmat1231}, volume = {3}, year = {2004}, }