Nature Materials

Magnon confinement in epitaxial antiferromagnetic oxide heterostructures - Nature Materials Magnon transport is confined to a plane by sandwiching BiFeO3 between layers of non-polar antiferromagnetic LaFeO3, resulting in efficient magnon transport and a higher voltage output through spin–cha...

Magnon confinement in epitaxial antiferromagnetic oxide heterostructures

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The cover of the 2026 March issue of Nature Materials is an electron microscopy image of lipid-like vesicles made by DNA origami.

Our March issue is now live! Featuring a Focus on heterogeneous materials and research on DNA origami, phase-changing materials, inflatable porous organic crystals and more. 👇

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Dynamical stability by spin transfer in nearly isotropic magnets - Nature Materials Spin torques generated via the spin-Hall effect in CoFeB/W/MgO are found to stabilize magnetization in a high-energy anti-parallel state relative to an applied magnetic field. This observation serves ...

Dynamical stability by spin transfer in nearly isotropic magnets

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In situ-generated vaccine-like pyroptosome for personalized cancer immunotherapy - Nature Materials An injectable pH-sensitive nanoadjuvant is shown to induce effective pyroptosis of tumours, which, combined with the in situ photoactivable release of TLR agonists, generates a strong vaccine-like res...

In situ-generated vaccine-like pyroptosome for personalized cancer immunotherapy

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Texture-dependent all-optical switching in ferromagnetic films via stochastic nucleation of nanoscale domains - Nature Materials Faraday microscopy and magnetic force microscopy with circularly polarized picosecond optical pulses are used to investigate domain switching in a ferromagnetic Pt/Co/Pt thin film. A stochastic model ...

Texture-dependent all-optical switching in ferromagnetic films via stochastic nucleation of nanoscale domains

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Metal hybridization in dilute-alloy catalysts promotes sintering resistance by decreasing surface mobility - Nature Materials Single-atom alloys can exhibit unique catalytic properties. Here, using reactivity measurements, atomic-scale imaging, simulation and spectroscopic analysis, it is shown that 1 atom% addition of Pt to...

Metal hybridization in dilute-alloy catalysts promotes sintering resistance by decreasing surface mobility

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Charge-triggered switching mechanism in selenium selector enabling ultralow leakage current - Nature Materials Phase-change memories require effective ovonic threshold switching (OTS) selectors to eliminate leakage currents. A charge-triggered switching mechanism is identified in amorphous elemental selenium a...

Charge-triggered switching mechanism in selenium selector enabling ultralow leakage current

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Purcell-enhanced two-photon emission from a quantum dot via dark-state biexciton loading - Nature Materials Resonant p-shell excitation of a Purcell-enhanced In(Ga)As quantum dot–micropillar system enables efficient biexciton loading, leading to efficient two-photon emission with strong two-photon correlati...

Purcell-enhanced two-photon emission from a quantum dot via dark-state biexciton loading

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Molecular factors controlling charge pair generation in organic photovoltaic materials - Nature Materials A model is devised to investigate free charge generation in neat acceptor domains and at donor–acceptor heterojunctions. Efficient photocurrent generation in organic heterojunctions at low energetic o...

Molecular factors controlling charge pair generation in organic photovoltaic materials

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Engineering phase-frustration-induced flat bands in an aza-triangulene covalent kagome lattice - Nature Materials The on-surface synthesis of π-conjugated covalent organic frameworks (COFs) enables the realization of designer quantum nanomaterials. Orbital-phase frustration within an aza-triangulene COF-based kag...

Engineering phase-frustration-induced flat bands in an aza-triangulene covalent kagome lattice

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Key role of oxidizing species driving water oxidation revealed by time-resolved optical and X-ray spectroscopies - Nature Materials Iridium oxide is a state-of-the-art catalyst for green hydrogen production, but the identity of species present under operating conditions remains debated. Here, using multiple operando spectroscopy a...

Key role of oxidizing species driving water oxidation revealed by time-resolved optical and X-ray spectroscopies

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Topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids - Nature Materials Topological defect quadrupoles orchestrate predictable failure patterns in active nematic solid networks.

Topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids

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An ångström-scale Janus aperture as a gas flow rectifier - Nature Materials Gas transport through an ångström-sized Janus aperture in graphene, which is created by ozone etching, is investigated by using high-resolution transport measurements and high-throughput atomistic sim...

An ångström-scale Janus aperture as a gas flow rectifier

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Six-state clock physics in an atomically thin antiferromagnet - Nature Materials Nonlinear optical micropolarimetry and atomistic Monte Carlo simulations of monolayer NiPS3 evidence a Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless phase that, with decreasing temperature, gives way to long-range ...

Six-state clock physics in an atomically thin antiferromagnet

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Crystal-facet-directed all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells - Nature Materials The vacuum process is scalable and solvent free, yet all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells still trail solution-processed counterparts. Facet-directed co-evaporation yields (100)-oriented mixed-...

Crystal-facet-directed all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells

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Bulk-heterojunction doping in lead halide perovskites for low-resistance metal contacts - Nature Materials Through van der Waals integration of Ag/Au electrodes onto single-crystal CsPbBr3 thin films and subsequent formation of Ag2O/CsPbBr3 bulk heterojunctions, effective interfacial hole doping is achieve...

Bulk-heterojunction doping in lead halide perovskites for low-resistance metal contacts

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Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties - Nature Materials Vocal fold cancer tumours lose some of their malignant traits when mechanically stimulated by physiological stretch or vibrations, mimicking the opening and closing of vocal folds and phonation.

Restoring the tumour mechanophenotype of vocal fold cancer reverts its malignant properties

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A molten-salt dispersion of lanthanides at the atomic scale - Nature Materials Persistent synthesis challenges constrain the stabilization of single-atom lanthanide catalysts across many substrates. Using a method based on molten-nitrite chemistry, the atomic dispersion of lanth...

A molten-salt dispersion of lanthanides at the atomic scale

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Radioisotope-mimetic molecular afterglow probe for downregulated cancer biomarker imaging - Nature Materials A probe with month-long molecular afterglow luminescence targeting a downregulated cancer biomarker detects small liver tumours for image-guided resection in mice and rabbits.

Radioisotope-mimetic molecular afterglow probe for downregulated cancer biomarker imaging

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Multiscale-structured miniaturized 3D force sensors - Nature Materials Tactile sensing to differentiate normal and shear forces remains a challenge. A force microsensor array based on graphene and a liquid-metal composites decouples normal–shear force sensing, achieving ...

Multiscale-structured miniaturized 3D force sensors

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Ideal non-crystals as a distinct form of ordered states without symmetry breaking - Nature Materials A distinct class of ordered states without symmetry breaking is reported with perfect non-crystalline steric order. These ideal non-crystals exhibit non-trivial long-range orientational correlations a...

Ideal non-crystals as a distinct form of ordered states without symmetry breaking

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Helical metasurfaces based on topological surface states in three-dimensional photonic topological insulators - Nature Materials The open interfaces of a three-dimensional all-dielectric photonic topological insulator operate as effective metasurfaces with helical surface states, enabling spin-dependent steering and directional...

Helical metasurfaces based on topological surface states in three-dimensional photonic topological insulators

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Diverse polymers with chemical recyclability via regioirregular polymerization of a single monomer - Nature Materials Using a regioirregular polymerization strategy, diverse polymer structures containing urethane, carbonate and urea linkages are synthesized from a single tetramethylene urethane monomer. Mixed polymer...

Diverse polymers with chemical recyclability via regioirregular polymerization of a single monomer

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Cation–polymer interactions drive water expulsion and deswelling in n-type ladder organic mixed conductors - Nature Materials A molecular-level understanding of structural evolution upon electrochemical doping in organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors is required. A pronounced reduction in mass and thickness is observed i...

Cation–polymer interactions drive water expulsion and deswelling in n-type ladder organic mixed conductors

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Atomically precise synthesis and simultaneous heterostructure integration of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides through nano-confinement - Nature Materials Nano-confinement between a capping layer composed of graphene or hexagonal boron nitride and a substrate directs the growth kinetics during chemical vapour deposition, which enables the atomically pre...

Atomically precise synthesis and simultaneous heterostructure integration of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides through nano-confinement

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A 3-GPa ductile martensitic alloy enabled by interface complexes and dislocations - Nature Materials A martensitic alloy with a tensile strength exceeding 3 GPa and a fracture elongation of 5.13% is developed. These mechanical properties arise from interface complexes interacting with dense dislocati...

A 3-GPa ductile martensitic alloy enabled by interface complexes and dislocations

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A free energy landscape analysis of resistance fluctuations in a memristive device - Nature Materials Resistance noise in memristive devices is often described as a thermally activated process across simple energy barriers, but this can underestimate the role of entropy in a complex free energy landsc...

A free energy landscape analysis of resistance fluctuations in a memristive device

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Our February issue is live! Read about spin-locking of light, additives for perovskite-silicon tandem cells, and self-healing organic crystals. We also feature a Review on AI-driven approaches on materials discovery and much more. 👇
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Scalable manufacture of nearly pure-phase metallic MoS2 nanosheets - Nature Materials A microwave-assisted process is developed for the rapid and scalable manufacture of pure-phase metallic MoS2 nanosheets, enabling practical electrochemical devices for energy applications.

Scalable manufacture of nearly pure-phase metallic MoS2 nanosheets

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Water-soluble hexagonal BaAl2O4 as sacrificial layer for freestanding crystalline membranes and flexible devices - Nature Materials Freestanding membranes of hexagonal oxides remain difficult to obtain. In this work, a water-soluble crystalline hexagonal BaAl2O4 is found to serve as a sacrificial layer for obtaining freestanding m...

Water-soluble hexagonal BaAl2O4 as sacrificial layer for freestanding crystalline membranes and flexible devices

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