Nano Letters

J-aggregates of cyanine dyes have emerged as powerful photothermal and imaging agents in the near-infrared (NIR) window due to their red-shifted absorption, narrow bandwidth, and strong excitonic coupling. However, their instability in biological environments often necessitates external carriers or stabilizers that compromise efficiency and biocompatibility. Here, we introduce deep eutectic solve…

The significant mismatch between the long wavelengths of the mid-infrared and the length scales of many chemical, biological, and/or material elements results in weak light-matter interaction and is a significant obstacle for molecular sensing at the nanoscale. Here we demonstrate that metaplasmonic resonators, which extend true plasmonic response from the visible/near-infrared wavelength range t…

Miniaturized laboratories (mini-lab) centered on droplet/bubble-based microreactions hold immense promise for various applications. Magnetic excitation is widely utilized in open-surface minilaboratories, but the intrinsic properties of magnetic media limit mini-lab functionalization. Here we propose a mini-lab assembled from two femtosecond laser-engineered heterogeneous components, leveraging s…

Cold tumors suffer from insufficient innate immune priming. To overcome this, we construct a photothermally programmable bacterial-metal immune amplifier (Bac@IR780@MnTA). This hybrid material is sequentially assembled by anchoring IR780 onto interferon-β (IFN-β)-expressing <i>Escherichia coli</i>, followed by the <i>in situ</i> deposition of a manganese-tannic acid (MnTA) coordination shell. Nea…

Uniformity in the excitonic spectrum is a key requirement for accessing intrinsic excitonic physics in two-dimensional semiconductors; however, in transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers supported on substrates, exciton energies and line widths can vary spatially due to inhomogeneities from contact with other materials or fabrication residues. Suspended TMD monolayers provide a route to …

Nanoparticles are widely used in nanomedicine for controlled drug delivery and improved bioavailability. However, their effectiveness is often limited by passive diffusion, especially in confined, fluid-filled environments like the bladder, where rapid drug clearance and uneven distribution reduce therapeutic impact. These challenges contribute to high recurrence in bladder cancer despite intrave…

Photoassisted lithium-sulfur batteries (PA-LSBs) leverage photogenerated carriers to accelerate the sulfur redox kinetics, yet their performance is often limited by the rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs. Herein, we propose a Lorentz force-assisted carrier separation strategy to enhance the photocatalytic activity and overcome this limitation. A magneto-optically responsive nitrogen-doped…

Deploying gate-all-around (GAA) field effect transistors (FETs) in the back-end-of-line (BEOL) represents a promising pathway to extend Moore's law. Although the in-plane solid-liquid-solid (IPSLS) approach can produce planar silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with precise positions and alignment at low temperatures, the SiNW density should be further enhanced for higher integration density. Here, we empl…

Renal-clearable gold nanoparticles (RC-AuNPs) show promise for kidney computed tomography (CT) imaging by providing structural and functional information. To aid their clinical translation, understanding how their physicochemical properties affect renal CT enhancement is essential. By a head-to-head comparison of glutathione-coated and PEGylated RC-AuNPs (GS-AuNPs and PEG-AuNPs, respectively), we…

Effective management of diabetic wounds requires the simultaneous modulation of bacterial infection, oxidative stress, and angiogenesis. Here, we present a dynamic, self-healing hydrogel platform that integrates Ti₃C₂ MXene nanosheets and epidermal growth factor (EGF) within a glutathione-modified chitosan/alginate network. This injectable system uses dynamic Schiff-base cro…

Aggregation-induced quenching severely limits the imaging properties of indocyanine green (ICG), despite its FDA approval and its emission in the near-infrared II (NIR-II) region. Herein, we introduce a dual-interface assembly strategy that orchestrates the sequential assembly of asymmetric ICG-lipid conjugates at lipid and liposome-protein interfaces to achieve two-stage NIR-II fluorescence enha…

Spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are emerging platforms for quantum sensing. The negatively charged boron vacancy (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>B</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math>) is widely studied due to its robust spin properties, but …

The incorporation of immiscible elements into a solid-solution ultrafine nanoparticle provides extensive possibilities in pursuing extraordinary properties, yet remains a significant challenge, especially in conductive compounds with strong chemical bonds. Herein, we propose a strategy of high-entropy engineering and lattice distortion to allow the atomic mixing of multiple dissimilar elements in…

While main chain-main chain and side chain-side chain interactions are known to maintain protein architectures, the role of main chain-side chain interactions remains largely unexplored. Among various amino acid side chains, uncharged polar ones may uniquely modulate molecular conformations through directional hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) with the main chain. Using 15 minimalistic amphiphilic pep…

Spin-orbit coupling gives rise to intriguing physical phenomena in bosonic condensates such as formation of stripe phases and domains with vortex arrays. However, how the non-Hermiticity affects the spatial distribution of spin-orbit coupled topological defects such as the vortex pair is still challenging to study. In the present work, we realize a nonequilibrium room-temperature exciton polarito…

Exosomes are nanoscale extracellular vesicles whose membrane-embedded proteins encode phenotypic information but remain difficult to interrogate due to hydrophobicity, low copy number, and nanoscale curvature. Here, we present AptEx-ID, a chemically guided aptamer evolution strategy that enables direct discovery and quantification of exosomal membrane proteins under native conditions. By introduc…

Using nanosensors in living plants allows the real-time detection of internal reactive oxygen species (e.g., hydrogen peroxide) signaling in response to environmental stressors. The time-dependent pulse of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) constitutes a <i>signaling waveform</i>; however, standardized methods of extracting and analyzing such waveforms quantitatively remain elusive. H…