Abstract
Chirality—the property of an object wherein it is distinguishable from its mirror image—is of widespread interest in chemistry and biology1–6. Regioselective magnetization of one-dimensional semiconductors enables anisotropic magnetism at room temperature, as well as the manipulation of spin polarization—the properties essential for spintronics and quantum computing technology7. To enable oriented magneto-optical functionalities, the growth of magnetic units has to be achieved at targeted locations on a parent nanorod. However, this challenge is yet to be addressed in the case of materials with a large lattice mismatch. Here, we report the regioselective magnetization of nanorods independent of lattice mismatch via buffer intermediate catalytic layers that modify interfacial energetics and promote regioselective growth of otherwise incompatible materials. Using this strategy, we combine materials with distinct lattices, chemical compositions and magnetic properties, that is, a magnetic component (Fe3O4) and a series of semiconducting nanorods absorbing across the ultraviolet and visible spectrum at specific locations. The resulting heteronanorods exhibit optical activity as induced by the location-specific magnetic field. The regioselective magnetization strategy presented here enables a path to designing optically active nanomaterials for chirality and spintronics.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 192-197 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Nature nanotechnology |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2020 |
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 51732011, 21431006, 21761132008, 81788101, 11227901 and 21805188), the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 21521001), Key Research Programme of Frontier Sciences, CAS (grant no. QYZDJ-SSW-SLH036), the National Basic Research Programme of China (grant no. 2014CB931800), the Users with Excellence and Scientific Research Grant of Hefei Science Centre of CAS (grant no. 2015HSC-UE007), Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies (grant no. AHY050000), Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence Program and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Biomedical Engineering
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering