Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-09-07DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02732-1
Israel Osmond, Mikhail A. Kuzovnikov, David A. Lewis, Hannah A. Shuttleworth, Tomás Marqueño, Milo J. Dixon, Cerian E. A. Robertson, Vitan Cherepnalkoski, Bihan Wang, Andreas Hermann, Miriam Peña-Alvarez, Ross T. Howie
{"title":"Ultrahigh pressure phase transition in ice","authors":"Israel Osmond, Mikhail A. Kuzovnikov, David A. Lewis, Hannah A. Shuttleworth, Tomás Marqueño, Milo J. Dixon, Cerian E. A. Robertson, Vitan Cherepnalkoski, Bihan Wang, Andreas Hermann, Miriam Peña-Alvarez, Ross T. Howie","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02732-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41563-026-02732-1","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most enduring problems in dense H2O ice has been the experimental realization of the pressure-induced symmetry breaking of cubic ice X to an orthorhombic crystal structure. Here, through diamond anvil cell experiments combined with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy techniques, we demonstrate that post-symmetrization, the crystal structure of ice X continuously distorts with pressure. Subjecting ice to pressures in excess of 308(5) GPa, we observe a first-order phase transition to ice XXII, consistent with the long-predicted phase possessing an orthorhombic crystal structure with Pbcm symmetry. We find that ice XXII is stable to pressures of at least 340(5) GPa. The crystal structure of ice X is observed to distort under extreme pressure at room temperature before transforming to ice XXII, the most dense H2O polymorph experimentally observed.","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":"25 10","pages":"1850-1854"},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-026-02732-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-09-07DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02734-z
Na Chen, Hanchao Teng, Yifu Sun, Yang Yang, Zhuoxin Xue, Oubo You, Ke Chen, Chengyu Jiang, Junlin Wang, Shenghan Zhou, Xiang Liu, Chong Wang, Zhen-Ze Li, Sheng Meng, Maguang Zhu, Hai Hu, Qing Dai
{"title":"Electrically programmable polariton symmetry breaking via non-Hermitian dissipation engineering","authors":"Na Chen, Hanchao Teng, Yifu Sun, Yang Yang, Zhuoxin Xue, Oubo You, Ke Chen, Chengyu Jiang, Junlin Wang, Shenghan Zhou, Xiang Liu, Chong Wang, Zhen-Ze Li, Sheng Meng, Maguang Zhu, Hai Hu, Qing Dai","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02734-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02734-z","url":null,"abstract":"The optical response of natural materials is constrained by crystal symmetry, limiting the design of reconfigurable nanophotonic devices. Here we demonstrate the electrically programmable symmetry breaking of phonon polaritons via non-Hermitian dissipation engineering. In a heterostructure composed of α-MoO3 and aligned carbon nanotubes (A-CNTs), we identify the A-CNT layer as an anisotropic dissipative medium. Driven by overdamped carrier dynamics, the nanotubes preclude polariton hybridization, exerting a proximity-induced resistive coupling instead. Thus, the A-CNT layer operates as a tunable momentum-space loss filter that selectively attenuates propagation along specific crystallographic directions. By electrostatically gating the A-CNTs to regulate their Drude loss, we achieve the continuous and reversible tuning of the polariton topology with transitions from symmetric hyperbolas to asymmetric shear wavefronts. Unlike refractive-index engineering that requires strict wavevector matching, this dissipative filtering mechanism allows for topology shaping without coherent hybridization, establishing dissipation as a programmable degree of freedom in topological nanophotonics and non-Hermitian device physics.","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":41.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-09-03DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02722-3
Yalan Zhang, Zheng Liang, Seong Chan Cho, Seong-Ho Cho, Guiming Fu, Xin Chen, Boyuan Liu, Sang-Uk Lee, Jae Hun Seol, Sanwan Liu, Hui Zhang, Kui Zhao, Sang Uck Lee, Xu Pan, Nam-Gyu Park
{"title":"Octahedral connectivity reconfigures interfacial carrier-selective properties for efficient perovskite solar cells.","authors":"Yalan Zhang, Zheng Liang, Seong Chan Cho, Seong-Ho Cho, Guiming Fu, Xin Chen, Boyuan Liu, Sang-Uk Lee, Jae Hun Seol, Sanwan Liu, Hui Zhang, Kui Zhao, Sang Uck Lee, Xu Pan, Nam-Gyu Park","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02722-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02722-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Regulation of electron- or hole-selective interfacial properties has traditionally relied on extrinsic chemical doping. Here we report a structurally driven strategy for modulating carrier-selective electronic characteristics through the organic-cation-induced reconfiguration of lead iodide octahedral connectivity. Two closely related imidazoline-based cations, which differ by only a single heteroatom, drive the formation of one-dimensional organic lead triiodide phases with distinct octahedral-sharing patterns. Single-crystal analysis combined with theoretical calculations reveals that the variation in connectivity reshapes orbital coupling, leading to pronounced changes in the work function and absolute band-edge positions that give rise to distinct carrier-selective interfacial behaviour without the introduction of extrinsic dopants. Leveraging this structural reconfiguration-induced electronic modulation, we realize complementary charge-selective contacts in perovskite solar cells, achieving a power conversion efficiency of 27.61% (certified steady-state 27.19%), together with excellent operational stability and scalability, including 22.26% efficiency in 655-cm<sup>2</sup> modules.</p>","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148888012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02726-z
Christopher T Triggs, Lei Chen, Jiahao Xie, Nicholas J Weadock, Zihan Zhang, Jiselle Y Ye, Ross A Kerner, Margherita Taddei, Fengjiu Yang, Bennett Addison, Xiaoming Wang, Tianran Liu, Steven P Harvey, Michael F Toney, Matthew C Beard, Yanfa Yan, Kai Zhu, Song Jin
{"title":"A chlorinated organic cation enables stable 2D/3D tin iodide perovskite photovoltaics.","authors":"Christopher T Triggs, Lei Chen, Jiahao Xie, Nicholas J Weadock, Zihan Zhang, Jiselle Y Ye, Ross A Kerner, Margherita Taddei, Fengjiu Yang, Bennett Addison, Xiaoming Wang, Tianran Liu, Steven P Harvey, Michael F Toney, Matthew C Beard, Yanfa Yan, Kai Zhu, Song Jin","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02726-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02726-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tin halide perovskites (THPs) offer narrower bandgaps and improved environmental safety compared with the widely studied lead-based perovskites, but their air sensitivity has hindered their progress and demands new material design to enable their practical applications. Here we report stable and efficient 2D/3D tin perovskite solar cells enabled by new ultrastable 2D and quasi-2D THPs based on the 4-chloro-phenethylammonium (4ClPEA) cation. The stronger π-stacking interactions and tighter interlayer packing in (4ClPEA)<sub>2</sub>SnI<sub>4</sub> among (4XPEA)<sub>2</sub>SnI<sub>4</sub> structures (X = H, F, Cl, Br) substantially impede oxygen and water diffusion, enabling superior air and moisture stability and bright photoluminescence lasting several months in ambient air. The addition of 4ClPEA markedly improves 2D/3D THP film crystallinity and orientation, leading to 16.2% efficient 2D/3D THP solar cells that show prolonged storage stability and operational stability at 55 °C surpassing 1,000 h. This study establishes a new strategy for designing stable and efficient THPs towards their practical applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148874196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-08-31DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02710-7
Alexandre Dmitriev, Magnus P Jonsson, Mark L Brongersma, Nader Engheta, Nicolò Maccaferri
{"title":"The meta way of thinking.","authors":"Alexandre Dmitriev, Magnus P Jonsson, Mark L Brongersma, Nader Engheta, Nicolò Maccaferri","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02710-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02710-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148866174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tuning moiré twist angles enhances tensile plasticity in bulk van der Waals crystals.","authors":"Jiali Zhou, Jiawei Zou, Zhiqiang Gao, Jiawei Zhang, Linlin Zhang, Zhi Li, Zhengyang Zhou, Pengfei Qiu, Yang Yang, Qian Yu, Lidong Chen, Xun Shi","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02731-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02731-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Moiré twisting breaks the inherent symmetry of crystal structures, providing a promising method for tuning emergent quantum phenomena and physical properties in layered materials. Here we demonstrate that moiré twisting can also be harnessed to effectively enhance the tensile plasticity of bulk layered van der Waals crystals. We show that interlayer moiré twisting, spanning a broad range of twist angles commensurate with the crystal's translational symmetry, can be controllably introduced through simple off-axis compression in ternary bulk layered van der Waals crystals. It facilitates efficient stress relaxation under mechanical loading with a further increase in the moiré twist angles and enables a substantial increase by up to 360% in room-temperature macroscopic tensile ductility, reaching 30% tensile strain along the a-b plane. Moreover, moiré twisting occurs only between layers and, thus, negligibly affects the in-plane electronic properties. By establishing tunable moiré twisting as an effective mechanism for plastic deformation, this work provides a broadly applicable strategy for enhancing tensile ductility in bulk layered materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148866218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-08-28DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02713-4
Paula Maria Vilarinho, Sean Kelly
{"title":"From invention to industrialization of materials in Europe.","authors":"Paula Maria Vilarinho, Sean Kelly","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02713-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02713-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-08-28DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02744-x
{"title":"Neural network finds twisted crystals that steer light at the nanoscale.","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02744-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02744-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature MaterialsPub Date : 2026-08-28DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02723-2
Lucía F Álvarez-Tomillo, José Álvarez-Cuervo, Pablo Calvo-Barlés, Sergio G Rodrigo, Enrique Terán-García, Aitana Taragaza Martín-Luengo, Kirill V Voronin, Alexey Y Nikitin, Luis Martín-Moreno, Pablo Alonso-González
{"title":"Deep learning design of nanoscale polariton propagations in twisted van der Waals multilayers.","authors":"Lucía F Álvarez-Tomillo, José Álvarez-Cuervo, Pablo Calvo-Barlés, Sergio G Rodrigo, Enrique Terán-García, Aitana Taragaza Martín-Luengo, Kirill V Voronin, Alexey Y Nikitin, Luis Martín-Moreno, Pablo Alonso-González","doi":"10.1038/s41563-026-02723-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02723-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nano-optics aims to understand and control the propagation of light at the nanoscale through the excitation of surface polaritons: hybrid light-matter quasiparticles. Recently, twisted van der Waals materials have enabled unprecedented phonon polariton propagations, such as canalization. However, nano-optics still presents an important limitation: obtaining polariton propagations on demand. Here we combine deep neural networks with twisted polaritonic multilayers to enable on-demand design of phonon polariton propagation. We demonstrate canalization, bicanalization and tricanalization in twisted α-MoO<sub>3</sub> homostructures over previously unexplored frequencies (600-800 cm<sup>-1</sup>). We illustrate the practical potential of our method by achieving a desired polariton propagation in an existing α-MoO<sub>3</sub> bilayer by adding an extra α-MoO<sub>3</sub> layer. Finally, we extend our neural networks to a variety of other materials, allowing us to predict canalization from the visible to the terahertz regime. Our deep-learning-based approach offers considerable potential for advancing nanophotonic applications in areas such as sensing or thermal management.</p>","PeriodicalId":19058,"journal":{"name":"Nature Materials","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":38.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}