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Charge distribution offers a unique fingerprint of important properties of electronic systems, including dielectric response, charge ordering, and charge fractionalization. We develop an architecture for charge sensing in two-dimensional electronic systems in a strong magnetic field. We probe local change of the chemical potential in a proximitized detector layer using scanning tunneling microscopy, allowing us to infer the chemical potential and the charge profile in the sample. Our technique has both high energy (<0.3 meV) and spatial (<10 nm) resolution exceeding that of previous studies by an order of magnitude. We apply our technique to study the chemical potential of quantum Hall liquids in monolayer graphene under high magnetic fields and their responses to charge impurities. The chemical potential measurement provides a local probe of the thermodynamic gap of quantum Hall ferromagnets and fractional quantum Hall states. The screening charge profile reveals spatially oscillatory response of the quantum Hall liquids to charge impurities and is consistent with the composite Fermi liquid picture close to the half-filling. Our technique also paves the way to map moiré potentials, probe Wigner crystals, and investigate fractional charges in quantum Hall and Chern insulators. 

Abstract Cardiac microtissues provide a promising platform for disease modeling and developmental studies, which require the close monitoring of the multimodal excitation-contraction dynamics. However, no existing assessing tool can track these multimodal dynamics across the live tissue. We develop a tissue-like mesh bioelectronic system to track these multimodal dynamics. The mesh system has tissue-level softness and cell-level dimensions to enable stable embedment in the tissue. It is integrated with an array of graphene sensors, which uniquely converges both bioelectrical and biomechanical sensing functionalities in one device. The system achieves stable tracking of the excitation-contraction dynamics across the tissue and throughout the developmental process, offering comprehensive assessments for tissue maturation, drug effects, and disease modeling. It holds the promise to provide more accurate quantification of the functional, developmental, and pathophysiological states in cardiac tissues, creating an instrumental tool for improving tissue engineering and studies. 

Light transport contains all light information between a light source and an image sensor. As an important application of light transport, dual photography has been a popular research topic, but it is challenged by long acquisition time, low signal-to-noise ratio, and the storage or processing of a large number of measurements. In this Letter, we propose a novel hardware setup that combines a flying-spot micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) modulated projector with an event camera to implement dual photography for 3D scanning in both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) scenes with a transparent object. In particular, we achieved depth extraction from the LoS scenes and 3D reconstruction of the object in a NLoS scene using event light transport. 

Nanowires have substantial potential as the sensor component in electronic sensing devices. However, surface functionalization of traditional nanowire and nanotube materials with short peptides that increase sensor selectivity and sensitivity requires complex chemistries with toxic reagents. In contrast, microorganisms can assemble pilin monomers into protein nanowires with intrinsic conductivity from renewable feedstocks, yielding an electronic material that is robust and stable in applications, but also biodegradable. Here we report that the sensitivity and selectivity of protein nanowire-based sensors can be modified with a simple plug and play genetic approach in which a short peptide sequence, designed to bind the analyte of interest, is incorporated into the pilin protein that is microbially assembled into nanowires. We employed a scalable Escherichia coli chassis to fabricate protein nanowires that displayed either a peptide previously demonstrated to effectively bind ammonia, or a peptide known to bind acetic acid. Sensors comprised of thin films of the nanowires amended with the ammonia-specific peptide had a ca. 100-fold greater response to ammonia than sensors made with unmodified protein nanowires. Protein nanowires with the peptide that binds acetic acid yielded a 4-fold higher response than nanowires without the peptide. The protein nanowire-based sensors had greater responses than previously reported sensors fabricated with other nanomaterials. The results demonstrate that protein nanowires with enhanced sensor response for analytes of interest can be fabricated with a flexible genetic strategy that sustainably eliminates the energy, environmental, and health concerns associated with other common nanomaterials. 

Interacting electrons in flat bands give rise to a variety of quantum phases. One fundamental aspect of such states is the ordering of the various flavours—such as spin or valley—that the electrons can possess and the excitation spectrum of the broken-symmetry states that they form. These properties cannot be probed directly with electrical transport measurements. The zeroth Landau level of monolayer graphene with fourfold spin–valley degeneracy is a model system for such investigations, but the nature of its broken-symmetry states—particularly at partial fillings—is still not understood. Here we demonstrate a non-invasive spectroscopic technique with a scanning tunnelling microscope and use it to perform measurements of the valley polarization of the electronic wavefunctions and their excitation spectrum in the partially filled zeroth Landau level of graphene. We can extract information such as the strength of the Haldane pseudopotentials that characterize the repulsive interactions underlying the fractional quantum states. Our experiments also demonstrate that fractional quantum Hall phases are built upon broken-symmetry states that persist at partial filling. Our experimental approach quantifies the valley phase diagram of the partially filled Landau level as a model flat-band platform, which is applicable to other graphene-based electronic systems. 

Abstract Employing renewable materials for fabricating clean energy harvesting devices can further improve sustainability. Microorganisms can be mass produced with renewable feedstocks. Here, we demonstrate that it is possible to engineer microbial biofilms as a cohesive, flexible material for long-term continuous electricity production from evaporating water. Single biofilm sheet (~40 µm thick) serving as the functional component in an electronic device continuously produces power density (~1 μW/cm 2 ) higher than that achieved with thicker engineered materials. The energy output is comparable to that achieved with similar sized biofilms catalyzing current production in microbial fuel cells, without the need for an organic feedstock or maintaining cell viability. The biofilm can be sandwiched between a pair of mesh electrodes for scalable device integration and current production. The devices maintain the energy production in ionic solutions and can be used as skin-patch devices to harvest electricity from sweat and moisture on skin to continuously power wearable devices. Biofilms made from different microbial species show generic current production from water evaporation. These results suggest that we can harness the ubiquity of biofilms in nature as additional sources of biomaterial for evaporation-based electricity generation in diverse aqueous environments. 

A suspended nanowire is used to track both the electrical and mechanical activities in cells. 

Abstract Incorporating neuromorphic electronics in bioelectronic interfaces can provide intelligent responsiveness to environments. However, the signal mismatch between the environmental stimuli and driving amplitude in neuromorphic devices has limited the functional versatility and energy sustainability. Here we demonstrate multifunctional, self-sustained neuromorphic interfaces by achieving signal matching at the biological level. The advances rely on the unique properties of microbially produced protein nanowires, which enable both bio-amplitude (e.g., <100 mV) signal processing and energy harvesting from ambient humidity. Integrating protein nanowire-based sensors, energy devices and memristors of bio-amplitude functions yields flexible, self-powered neuromorphic interfaces that can intelligently interpret biologically relevant stimuli for smart responses. These features, coupled with the fact that protein nanowires are a green biomaterial of potential diverse functionalities, take the interfaces a step closer to biological integration. 

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy is used to image valley ordering in graphene in the presence of a magnetic field.