Optical spectra of an intracavity two-photon medium with sequeezed inputs

We consider an ensemble of three-level configuration atoms in an optical cavity, interacting through two-photon transitions with a cavity mode, driven by a broad-band squeezed input of finite amplitude. The atom-cavity system is coupled to reservoirs to describe the losses of the atoms and the cavity. Optical spectra in the transmitted and the reflected field are calculated and analysed in the good cavity limit, for the purely absorptive resonant case and the general case, respectively.     

Reaching the Fundamental Limitation in CO2 Reduction to CO with Single Atom Catalysts

The electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) to value-added chemicals with renewable electricity is a promising method to decarbonize parts of the chemical industry. Recently, single metal atoms in nitrogen-doped carbon (MNC) have emerged as potential electrocatalysts for CO₂RR to CO with high activity and faradaic efficiency, although the reaction limitation for CO₂RR to CO is unclear. To understand the comparison of intrinsic activity of different MNCs, two catalysts are synthesized through a decoupled two-step synthesis approach of high temperature pyrolysis and low temperature metalation (Fe or Ni). The highly meso-porous structure results in the highest reported electrochemical active site utilization based on in situ nitrite stripping; up to 59±6% for NiNC. Ex situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) confirms the penta-coordinated nature of the active sites. The catalysts are amongst the most active in the literature for CO₂ reduction to CO. The density functional theory calculations (DFT) show that their binding to the reaction intermediates approximates to that of Au surfaces. However, it is found that the turnover frequencies (TOFs) of the most active catalysts for CO evolution converge, suggesting a fundamental ceiling to the catalytic rates.     

Self-Adhesive Polydimethylsiloxane Foam Materials Decorated with MXene/Cellulose Nanofiber Interconnected Network for Versatile Functionalities

Polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) foam as one of next-generation polymer foam materials shows poor surface adhesion and limited functionality, which greatly restricts its potential applications. Fabrication of advanced PDMS foam materials with multiple functionalities remains a critical challenge. In this study, unprecedented self-adhesive PDMS foam materials are reported with worm-like rough structure and reactive groups for fabricating multifunctional PDMS foam nanocomposites decorated with MXene/cellulose nanofiber (MXene/CNF) interconnected network by a facile silicone foaming and dip-coating strategy followed by silane surface modification. Interestingly, such self-adhesive PDMS foam produces strong interfacial adhesion with the hybrid MXene/CNF nano-coatings. Consequently, the optimized PDMS foam nanocomposites have excellent surface super-hydrophobicity (water contact angle of ≈159^o), tunable electrical conductivity (from 10⁻⁸ to 10 S m⁻¹), stable compressive cyclic reliability in both wide-temperature range (from −20 to 200 ^oC) and complex environments (acid, sodium, and alkali conditions), outstanding flame resistance (LOI value of >27% and low smoke production rate), good thermal insulating performance and reliable strain sensing in various stress modes and complex environmental conditions. It provides a new route for the rational design and development of advanced PDMS foam nanocomposites with versatile multifunctionalities for various promising applications such as intelligent healthcare monitoring and fire-safe thermal insulation.     

Ultra-Wideband Electrostrictive Mechanical Antenna

Mechanical antennas based on piezoelectric materials can effectively reduce the size of long wave antennas down to 1/1000 of the wavelength (from km scale to mm level). However, the narrow bandwidth and weak field intensity seriously restrict its practical applications in transmission distance and channel capacity. Here, a mechanical antenna-based electrostrictive effect of relaxor ferroelectric ceramic (PMN-PT) is proposed to improve radiation capacity and achieve ultra-wideband characteristics (10 kHz–1 MHz). Due to the ultra-high dielectric constant at working temperature and the relationship between the strain and applied field intensity, the proposed antenna gets rid of the dependence on the poled materials and exhibits excellent communication properties beyond traditional mechanical antennas, which are experimentally demonstrated by a practical wireless communication system. Only using a single proposed mechanical antenna with 8 mm diameter and 3 mm thickness, the effective communication with a transmission distance of 200 m can be realized. This design offers a promising way of constructing mechanical antennas for long-wave communication.     

Breaking the Responsivity-Bandwidth Trade-Off Limit in GaN Photoelectrodes for High-Response and Fast-Speed Optical Communication Application

Underwater optical communication (UOC) has attracted considerable interest in the continuous expansion of human activities in marine/ocean environments. The water-durable and self-powered photoelectrodes that act as a battery-free light receiver in UOC are particularly crucial, as they may directly face complex underwater conditions. Emerging photoelectrochemical (PEC)-type photodetectors are appealing owing to their intrinsic aqueous operation characteristics with versatile tunability of photoresponses. Herein, a self-powered PEC photodetector employing n-type gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires as a photoelectrode, which is decorated with an iridium oxide (IrO_x) layer to optimize charge transfer dynamics at the GaN/electrolyte interface, is reported. Strikingly, the constructed n-GaN/IrO_x photoelectrode breaks the responsivity-bandwidth trade-off limit by simultaneously improving the response speed and responsivity, delivering an ultrafast response speed with response/recovery times of only 2 µs/4 µs while achieving a high responsivity of 110.1 mA W⁻¹. Importantly, the device exhibits a large bandwidth with 3 dB cutoff frequency exceeding 100 kHz in UOC tests, which is one of the highest values among self-powered photodetectors employed in optical communication system.     

Relaxation-Induced Significant Room-Temperature Dielectric Pulsing Effects

Thermo-responsive dielectric materials are in urgent demand owing to the rapid development of smart electronic/electrical systems. Although different types and structures of thermally responsive dielectric materials have been continuously reported, their dielectric response behaviors all originate from thermodynamic phase transitions. Herein, it is demonstrated that structural relaxation in poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), a non-thermodynamic phase transition, can induce a significant thermal dielectric pulse at room temperature. The dielectric pulse strength of up to 6.3 × 10⁵ at 20 Hz, with a dielectric pulsing temperature of 24 °C, is achieved from polyethylene glycol (PEG)-PVDF coaxial nanofibrous films (PVDF@PEG), fabricated via a continuous blow spinning method. Moreover, the films exhibit excellent flexibility, adjustable strength and toughness, switchable hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, and effective thermal management capability. The relaxation-induced dielectric pulsing effect, outstanding multifunctionality, and simple preparation combine to promote further scalability and prospects of PVDF@PEG. In particular, the work contributes to the discovery of the relaxation-induced dielectric response mechanism, which provides a new strategy for the generation of thermo-responsive dielectric materials.     

Glycyrrhetinic Acid Liposomes Encapsulated Microcapsules from Microfluidic Electrospray for Inflammatory Wound Healing

In diabetic wound healing, M1 macrophage accumulation and elevated inflammation are prevalent issues. Intelligent delivery systems that can sustainably release antioxidizing and anti-inflammatory ingredients are expected for effective wound healing. Herein, a novel glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) liposomes encapsulated microcapsules delivery system that has desired features for inflammatory wound repair is presented. As the bacteria could break down the alginate shells, the GA liposomes could be controllably released from the microcapsules, which promotes M2 macrophage polarization and regulate their responses in the inflammatory wound microenvironment. Based on these, it is demonstrated that the GA liposomes encapsulated microcapsules delivery system exhibits an anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effect for diabetic wound healing in a full-thickness defect model in diabetic rats. These results indicate that the immunomodulatory capabilities of the microcapsules can be unitized for efficient wound repair, and such a delivery system is valuable for clinical wound healing applications.     

Three Potential Elements of Developing Nerve Guidance Conduit for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Autograft replaced by a nerve guidance conduit (NGC) is challenging in peripheral nerve injury because current NGC is still limited by precise conductivity and excellent biocompatibility in vivo, which influences the peripheral nerve repair even for a long lesion gap repair. Several particular elements have the potential function for nerve conductivity acceleration based on the traditional three factors of neural tissue engineering. The review aims to address three questions: 1) What is the superior factor for nerve conduction in the application? 2) How can a more conductive regenerative scaffold be constructed in vivo? 3) What is the next step in nerve regeneration for NGC? The bibliometrics analysis of NGC-related references is adopted to acquire that the conductive material, manufacturing technology of neural scaffold, and electrical stimulation (ES) play essential roles in the acceleration of nerve conduction. This review visually analyses the research status and summarizes the main types of conductive materials, the manufacturing technologies of neural scaffolds, and the characteristics of ES. The viewpoints and outlook of developing NGC are also discussed in this review. The proposed three elements are expected to improve the nerve conduction of NGC in vivo and even address the dilemma of long-distance peripheral nerve injury.     

Functional Materials for Memristor-Based Reservoir Computing: Dynamics and Applications

The booming development of artificial intelligence (AI) requires faster physical processing units as well as more efficient algorithms. Recently, reservoir computing (RC) has emerged as an alternative brain-inspired framework for fast learning with low training cost, since only the weights associated with the output layers should be trained. Physical RC becomes one of the leading paradigms for computation using high-dimensional, nonlinear, dynamic substrates. Among them, memristor appears to be a simple, adaptable, and efficient framework for constructing physical RC since they exhibit nonlinear features and memory behavior, while memristor-implemented artificial neural networks display increasing popularity towards neuromorphic computing. In this review, the memristor-implemented RC systems from the following aspects: architectures, materials, and applications are summarized. It starts with an introduction to the RC structures that can be simulated with memristor blocks. Specific interest then focuses on the dynamic memory behaviors of memristors based on various material systems, optimizing the understanding of the relationship between the relaxation behaviors and materials, which provides guidance and references for building RC systems coped with on-demand application scenarios. Furthermore, recent advances in the application of memristor-based physical RC systems are surveyed. In the end, the further prospects of memristor-implemented RC system in a material view are envisaged.     

A Low-Complexity Precoding Scheme for Downlink Massive MU-MIMO Systems with Low-Resolution DACs

In this paper, we investigate the problem of downlink precoding for the narrowband massive multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) system with low-resolution digital-to-analog converters (DACs). We introduce a low-complexity precoding scheme based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) framework in this work. An efficient gradient descent (GD) algorithm with adaptive step-size determination mechanism (ASGD) is proposed to alleviate the computational complexity bottleneck of the inherent matrix inversion. Numerical results demonstrate that the ASGD precoder achieves an attractive trade-off between the performance and computational complexity compared with other counterparts.