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Chalcogenide perovskites have attracted increasing research attention in recent years due to their promise of unique optoelectronic properties combined with stability. However, the synthesis and processing of these materials has been constrained by the need for high temperatures and/or long reaction times. In this work, we address the open question of a low-temperature growth mechanism for BaZrS3. Ultimately, a liquid-assisted growth mechanism for BaZrS3 using molten BaS3 as a flux is demonstrated at temperatures ≥540 °C in as little as 5 min. The role of Zr-precursor reactivity and S(g.) on the growth mechanism and the formation of Ba3Zr2S7 is discussed, in addition to the purification of resulting products using a straightforward H2O wash. The extension of this growth mechanism to other Ba-based chalcogenides is shown, including BaHfS3, BaNbS3, and BaTiS3. In addition, an alternative vapor-transport growth mechanism is presented using S2Cl2 for the growth of BaZrS3 at temperatures as low as 500 °C in at least 3 h. These results demonstrate the feasibility of scalable processing for the formation of chalcogenide perovskite thin-films. (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c00494) 

Abstract Electron spins in silicon quantum dots are promising qubits due to their long coherence times, scalable fabrication, and potential for all-electrical control. However, charge noise in the host semiconductor presents a major obstacle to achieving high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates in these devices. In this work, we measure the charge-noise spectrum of a Si/SiGe singlet-triplet qubit over nearly 12 decades in frequency using a combination of methods, including dynamically-decoupled exchange oscillations with up to 512 π pulses during the qubit evolution. The charge noise is colored across the entire frequency range of our measurements, although the spectral exponent changes with frequency. Moreover, the charge-noise spectrum inferred from conductance measurements of a proximal sensor quantum dot agrees with that inferred from coherent oscillations of the singlet-triplet qubit, suggesting that simple transport measurements can accurately characterize the charge noise over a wide frequency range in Si/SiGe quantum dots. 

Consumer-mediated movement can couple food webs in distinct habitats and facilitate energy flow between them. In New England saltmarshes, mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) connect the vegetated marsh and creek food webs by opportunistically foraging on the invertebrate communities of the marsh surface when access is permitted by tidal flooding and marsh-edge geomorphology. Via their movements, mummichog represent a critical food web node, as they can potentially transport energy from the marsh surface food web to creek food web and exert top-down control on the communities of the vegetated marsh surface. Here, I use gut content analysis, calorimetric analysis, and field surveys to demonstrate that access to the marsh surface (afforded by marsh-edge geomorphology) impacts the trophic relay of marsh production to creek food webs. Fish populations in creeks with greater connectivity had a higher total biomass of terrestrial invertebrates in their guts. However, bomb calorimetry showed no difference in the average caloric content of mummichog individuals from creeks with different creek edge geomorphology. Access also did not impact mummichog distribution across the marsh platform and exhibited no evidence of top-down control on their invertebrate prey. Thus, mummichogs function as initial nodes in the trophic relay, unidirectionally moving energy from the vegetated marsh to the creek food web. Reduced marsh surface access via altered marsh-edge geomorphology results in a 50 % to 66 % reduction in total energy available to aquatic predators via this route. Estuarine systems are intimately connected to coastal and offshore systems via consumer mediated flows of energy; thus, disruptions to the trophic relay from the marsh surface at the tidal creek scale can have far reaching impacts on secondary productivity in multiple disparate systems and must be accounted for in considerations of impacts to future food-web function. 

Cell‐free protein synthesis (CFPS) is a versatile biotechnology platform enabling a broad range of applications including clinical diagnostics, large‐scale production of officinal therapeutics, small‐scale on‐demand production of personal magistral therapeutics, and exploratory research. The shelf stability and scalability of CFPS systems also have the potential to overcome cost and infrastructure challenges for distributing and using essential medical tests at home in both high‐ and low‐income countries. However, CFPS systems are often more time‐consuming and expensive to prepare than traditional in vivo systems, limiting their broader use. Much work has been done to lower CFPS costs by optimizing cell extract preparation, small molecule reagent recipes, and DNA template preparation. In order to further reduce reagent cost and preparation time, this work presents a CFPS system that does not require separately purified DNA template. Instead, a DNA plasmid encoding the recombinant protein is transformed into the cells used to make the extract, and the extract preparation process is modified to allow enough DNA to withstand homogenization‐induced shearing. The finished extract contains sufficient levels of intact DNA plasmid for the CFPS system to operate. For a 10 mL scale CFPS system expressing recombinant sfGFP protein for a biosensor, this new system reduces reagent cost by more than half. This system is applied to a proof‐of‐concept glutamine sensor compatible with smartphone quantification to demonstrate its viability for further cost reduction and use in low‐resource settings.

 

Abstract Superconductivity is among the most fascinating and well-studied quantum states of matter. Despite over 100 years of research, a detailed understanding of how features of the normal-state electronic structure determine superconducting properties has remained elusive. For instance, the ability to deterministically enhance the superconducting transition temperature by design, rather than by serendipity, has been a long sought-after goal in condensed matter physics and materials science, but achieving this objective may require new tools, techniques and approaches. Here, we report the transmutation of a normal metal into a superconductor through the application of epitaxial strain. We demonstrate that synthesizing RuO 2 thin films on (110)-oriented TiO 2 substrates enhances the density of states near the Fermi level, which stabilizes superconductivity under strain, and suggests that a promising strategy to create new transition-metal superconductors is to apply judiciously chosen anisotropic strains that redistribute carriers within the low-energy manifold of d orbitals.