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Unexpected Rise in Ferroelectricity as Material Thins

Researchers showed that hafnium oxide surprisingly exhibits enhanced ferroelectricity (reversible electric polarization) as it gets thinner. The work shifts the focus of ferroelectric studies from more complex, problematic compounds to a simpler class of materials and opens the door to novel ultrasmall, energy-efficient electronics. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Off the Scales: Fish Armor Both Tough and Flexible

Humans have drawn technological inspiration from fish scales going back to ancient times: Romans, Egyptians, and other civilizations would dress their warriors in scale armor, providing both protection and mobility. Now, scientists have characterized carp scales down to the nanoscale, enabling them to understand how the material is resistant to penetration while retaining flexibility. Read more »

On-Off Switch for Regulating Tumor-Cell Growth

The mechanisms that affect the regulation of cell growth in certain tumor cells were revealed by a Genentech study of enzyme structures, conducted in part at the ALS. The work establishes a framework for the rational discovery of new therapeutics to improve upon currently existing treatments for certain cancers. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Energetics and Energy Loss in 2D Ruddlesden–Popper Perovskite Solar Cells

Qinye Bao and co‐workers systematically investigate the energetics and energy loss in 2D Ruddlesden‐Popper perovskite (RPP) solar cells. The crucial scenario found at the 2D RPP/electron transport layer interface is that the potential gradient across ligands promotes separation of the photogenerated carrier, with electrons transferring from the perovskite crystal to the electron transport layer. Read more »

How a Cancer Drug Targets Proteins for Degradation

Protein structures obtained by Novartis researchers helped reveal how a cancer drug promotes the degradation of proteins essential to cell proliferation. A detailed understanding of the drug’s mechanism of action is key to determining whether the protein-degradation system can be reprogrammed to degrade different targets. Read more »PPT-icon-35

The Bottleneck Step of a Complex Catalytic Reaction

The rate-limiting step in catalysis involving oxygen uptake was identified through analysis of the reaction pathways and observations performed under operating conditions. The work lays the foundation for improving the efficiency of energy conversion and storage devices such as fuel cells, catalytic reactors, and batteries. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Controlling antiferromagnetic domains in patterned La0.7Sr0.3FeO3 thin films

Antiferromagnetic spintronics have gained interest because they can be controlled at terahertz frequencies and are insensitive to external magnetic fields. Due to dimensional confinement as well as microstructuring by ion implantation, the spin axis of an antiferromagnetic oxide can be robustly controlled in a deterministic way up to room temperature. Read more »

A Scalable Platform for Two-Dimensional Metals

Using a new method for stabilizing a two-dimensional (2D) metal on a large-area platform, researchers probed the origins of the material’s superconductivity. The work represents a notable milestone in advancing 2D materials toward broad applications in topological computing, advanced optics, and molecular sensing. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

ALS in the News (May 2020)