The mechanical strength and toughness of engineering materials are often mutually exclusive, posing challenges for material design and selection. To address this, a research team from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has uncovered an innovative strategy: by simply twisting the layers of 2D materials, they can enhance toughness without compromising material’s strength. This breakthrough facilitates the design of strong and tough new 2D materials, promoting their broader applications in photonic and electronic devices. The findings have been published in the international journal Nature Materials.

Research from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities gives new insight into a material that could make computer memory faster and more energy-efficient.

While lasers integrated directly with silicon chips offer several advantages in photonics, their efficiency may be impacted by material mismatch and coupling loss. Researchers have now achieved the direct fabrication of quantum dot laser on silicon with broad and scalable photonics application. The integrated lasers were thermally stable and capable of efficient lasing at O-band frequency. This novel integration technique shows strong potential for broader adoption and commercialization.

This breakthrough research from Shanghai Jiao Tong University overcomes critical barriers to silicon micro-ring resonator (MRR) commercialization. By heterogeneously integrating low-loss phase-change material Sb₂Se₃, the team created non-volatile, "smart-programmable" transceivers enabling precise, full-spectral-range wavelength tuning via electrical pulses. Crucially, the technique preserves high performance, achieving 100 Gbps per MRR (400 Gbps total for 4 cascaded rings) and introducing an innovative thermal compensation scheme for stability. This work provides a robust solution for high-density, low-power optical interconnects, accelerating MRR technology from the lab towards transformative applications in data centers and high-speed networks, while showcasing the power of multidisciplinary innovation.