In recent years metamaterials have afforded high optical anisotropy, beyond the levels available using naturally occurring materials—but with limited spectral bandwidth. The authors have produced flexible gold “metafoils” of subwavelength thickness that sort circularly polarized light with very high contrast, over a broad frequency range that could be extended to include the important infrared “fingerprint” region used routinely for molecular spectroscopy. These metafoils can be made using established hot-embossing and nanoimprinting processes for cost-effective mass manufacture.

A comprehensive understanding of the behavior of water on titanium dioxide would be an important step toward industrial-scale artificial photosynthesis. This study uses first-principles calculations of x-ray photoelectron spectra to reveal that the energetic cost of water dissociation at the surface of titanium dioxide is reduced by a complex interplay between water and hydroxyl groups.

An exciton polariton (a photon, electron, and a hole in a bound state, behaving as a boson) is a building block for a condensate that emits coherent light. On-chip manipulation of such condensates is an essential step toward polariton-based quantum information devices and lasers. In this work the energy of a polariton condensate in a high-finesse GaAs microcavity is tuned, bringing into reach polariton condensate devices that can be controlled by applied electrical bias.

Recent experiments have shown graphene-based heterostructures to be prototypical tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), low-voltage power-saving replacements for traditional MOSFETs. This theoretical study of a sandwich of hexagonal boron nitride ($h$-BN) between graphene sheets reveals that an unavoidable misalignment between graphene and $h$-BN yields finite-voltage resonant tunneling and negative differential conductivity, which could be important for high-frequency devices.

Photonic integrated circuits are a promising platform for optical quantum computation, but many practical issues must be tackled. This study demonstrates interference of individual surface plasmons (collective oscillations of an electron gas) with over 90% visibility, proving their bosonic character and therefore suitability for applications. Effects of intrinsic losses in plasmonic waveguides on quantum information processing are also discussed.

In recent years metamaterials have afforded high optical anisotropy, beyond the levels available using naturally occurring materials—but with limited spectral bandwidth. The authors have produced flexible gold “metafoils” of subwavelength thickness that sort circularly polarized light with very high contrast, over a broad frequency range that could be extended to include the important infrared “fingerprint” region used routinely for molecular spectroscopy. These metafoils can be made using established hot-embossing and nanoimprinting processes for cost-effective mass manufacture.

Understanding the electrical actuation of carbon nanotubes is of key importance in the design and improvement of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) such as nanotweezers, balances, and actuators. This study shows that substantial (~1%) axial, radial, and torsional strains can be applied controllably to a single-wall carbon nanotube by manipulating the Fermi energy of the system via a gate voltage.

A longstanding goal of quantum-computer architecture is to integrate control circuitry in a fault-tolerant and compact manner that will facilitate future scalable designs. In this paper, authors propose using resonant trains of single flux quantum pulses to produce fidelities in excess of 99.9% for 20-ns gate times. The pulses provide one sharp kick per qubit oscillation period, analogous to pumping up a rider on a swing by giving one short push per cycle.

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations can be used to model and understand the behavior of organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices, from fundamental mechanisms to full device performance. The technique is valuable and unique in its ability to explicitly model the bicontinuous nanostructured form of these devices. This study characterizes the Ising-based morphology model, showing how to generate morphologies efficiently and how the interaction energy affects the tortuosity of interconnected domains and the resulting charge-transport behavior.