Shan Yin

In this work, we propose a graphite-induced interface strategy, in which pre-carbonized coconut shell carbon is wrapped with graphite paper and then carbonized. This process induces ordered rearrangement of carbon atoms on the hard carbon surface, forming ion transport channels composed of graphitic domains. These channels lower the kinetic barrier for Na+ entry into the internal closed pores, thereby converting inaccessible closed pores into accessible ones. The designed hard carbon achieves a high specific capacity of 359.64 mAh g−1 at 30 mA g−1, with a plateau contribution of 215.08 mAh g−1 and an excellent initial Coulombic efficiency of 91.21%.

Aqueous Zn-ion batteries stand out as ideal large-scale energy storage devices under global carbon neutrality, yet their commercialization is plagued by various stability issues of Zn anodes. Current modification strategies only offer superficial explanations, ignoring the dominant effect of the interfacial electronic structure and local electric field on Zn2+ deposition. This work employs nicotinic acid (NA) to regulate the Zn anode microzone interfacial electronic structure. Its adsorption triggers charge redistribution and forms an intrinsic interfacial electric field, reconstructing the electric double layer and modulating the d-band center to homogenize ion flux. Low-concentration NA achieves ultra-long cycling of symmetric cells, suppresses hydrogen evolution, and optimizes Zn nucleation. The cycling lifetime of ZnǁZn symmetric cells is prolonged over eight times and reaches 2500 h at 1 mA cm−2/1 mAh cm−2. The constructed PANIǁZn full cells maintain remarkable stability over 1600 cycles, demonstrating the enormous potential of interfacial electron structure modification for future high-performance aqueous zinc batteries.

Metasurfaces have emerged as highly promising platforms for information processing in applications such as computational imaging and wireless communications. Consequently, it is essential to investigate the information capacity of metasurfaces. Here, we derive the information theory for metasurfaces by considering ubiquitous near-field coupling effect between the meta-structures and find that an information entropy reduction will be introduced to the upper bound of information for metasurfaces due to such couplings. This theory is validated through several examples of the free-space metasurface holographic imaging. A series of experiments are conducted in terahertz bands, which further verify our findings of the information entropy reduction in practical scenarios. These findings indicate the significance of the coupling effect between the sub-wavelength structures, which could further guide the design of metasurface information devices with higher integration and enhanced information transfer capabilities.

The uncontrolled growth of Zn dendrites remains a significant obstacle to the advancement of aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs). Here, we introduce 1,4-butynediol (BTDA) as an electrolyte additive that simultaneously reconstructs the local Zn2+/H2O environment at the Zn anode interface, directing the preferential growth of Zn deposition planes and thereby suppressing dendrite formation, to achieve uniform, compact Zn anodes. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that BTDA molecules preferentially adsorb onto the Zn (002) plane, inducing homogeneous and dense deposition while mitigating side reactions and hydrogen evolution, thereby enhancing interfacial stability and reaction reversibility. As a result, the ZnǁZn cell delivers ultralong lifespans exceeding 4000 and 6000 h at 30 mA cm−2/1 mAh cm−2 and 10 mA cm−2/1 mAh cm−2, respectively. The ZnǁCu cell maintains a high Coulombic efficiency of 99.5% after 3200 h at 1 mA cm−2/0.5 mAh cm−2. Moreover, full cells exhibit excellent capacity recovery under varying rates and retain 64.9% of their capacity after 2500 cycles at 1.0 A g−1. We believe our work not only offers an effective strategy for achieving a reversible Zn anode in long-lifespan AZIBs but also provides new insights into the organic molecule-engineered electrode/electrolyte interfacial physics processes.

Intracranial pressure monitoring is critically important for the diagnosis and management of patients in neurocritical care. To address the limitations of existing invasive sensors, including infection risks, high cost, and susceptibility to electromagnetic interference, as well as the insufficient accuracy of non-invasive sensors, this work presents the design and fabrication of a miniaturized optical fiber sensor based on a polydimethylsiloxane membrane Fabry-Perot interferometer and a fiber Bragg grating for simultaneous temperature and pressure monitoring. Experimental results demonstrate that within the clinically critical pressure range of 7-70 cmH ₂ O, the sensor exhibits high linearity (R ² > 0.99), high pressure sensitivity (0.20 μm/cmH ₂ O), and high accuracy (single-measurement error ≤ 2.1 cmH ₂ O). In the physiological temperature range of 35-41°C, its temperature measurement sensitivity reaches 8 pm/°C. The Fabry-Perot interferometer and fiber Bragg grating signals operate without mutual interference, enabling decoupled measurement of temperature and pressure. Repeatability tests conducted over 21 days and extended stability tests confirm the sensor's exceptional long-term stability and reproducibility. Compared with conventional sensors based on silicon or metal diaphragms, the PDMS membrane employed in our design can be fabricated using a straightforward spin-coating process, eliminating the need for complex micromachining. This approach not only significantly reduces the sensor probe's fabrication complexity and cost but also, owing to the high elasticity of polydimethylsiloxane, yields enhanced pressure sensitivity. This research provides a highly promising technological solution for high-performance, cost-effective, and accurate intracranial pressure monitoring.

The minimum energy principle is the most fundamental principle in physical systems, which is that the evolution of physical systems always tends toward the minimum energy states. Coupled mode theory in metamaterials describes the energy interaction between structures and modes in metamaterials. In this paper, we investigate why the coupled mode theory arises from the minimum energy principle. We theoretically demonstrate our finding from the coupled mode theory and illustrate the full-wave simulations and experiments from the transmission spectra.

In this paper, we demonstrate the Anderson localization effect in coupled metamaterial structures. We introduce the random variables by randomly choosing the geometrical parameter of structures and randomly choosing the distance between structures to reduce the coupling of metamaterial and this decoupling effect is equivalent to Anderson localization effect, which can reduce the coupling without enlarging the area of unit cell. We demonstrate our idea by employing the experiments. Furthermore, we present an example of deflector to see how this decoupling effect can help us design functional devices.

In this paper, we demonstrate that the absorption frequencies of the bimodal absorber shift with the coupling strength of the bright and dark modes. The coupling between the bright mode and the dark mode can acquire electromagnetically induced transparency, we obtain the analytical relationship between the absorbing frequencies, the resonant frequencies, losses of the bright mode and dark mode, and the coupling strength between two modes by combining the coupled mode theory with the interference theory. As the coupling strength between the bright mode and the dark mode decreases, the two absorption peaks gradually move closer to each other, inversely, they will move away from each other. The simulation employs three distinct metasurface structures with coupling of the bright and dark modes, thereby verifying the generality of the theoretical findings.

In this paper, we propose a new method based on Huygens’ principle for calculations of transmission spectra with weak coupling and we call this method an improved Huygens’ principle. The original Huygens’ principle for metamaterial can only deal with transmission spectra without coupling between metamaterial structures. Our improved Huygens’ principle can give the approximate calculations of transmission spectra while considering coupling by employing the original Huygens’ principle. We demonstrate our method by employing full-wave simulations and experimental results.