Mineral dust increases the habitability of terrestrial planets but confounds biomarker detection.

Identification of habitable planets beyond our solar system is a key goal of current and future space missions. Yet habitability depends not only on the stellar irradiance, but equally on constituent parts of the planetary atmosphere. Here we show, for the first time, that radiatively active mineral dust will have a significant impact on the habitability of Earth-like exoplanets. On tidally-locked planets, dust cools the day-side and warms the night-side, significantly widening the habitable zone. Independent of orbital configuration, we suggest that airborne dust can postpone planetary water loss at the inner edge of the habitable zone, through a feedback involving decreasing ocean coverage and increased dust loading. The inclusion of dust significantly obscures key biomarker gases (e.g. ozone, methane) in simulated transmission spectra, implying an important influence on the interpretation of observations. We demonstrate that future observational and theoretical studies of terrestrial exoplanets must consider the effect of dust.

Can conventional phase-change memory devices be scaled down to single-nanometre dimensions?

The scaling potential of 'mushroom-type' phase-change memory devices is evaluated, down to single-nanometre dimensions, using physically realistic simulations that combine electro-thermal modelling with a Gillespie Cellular Automata phase-transformation approach. We found that cells with heater contact sizes as small as 6 nm could be successfully amorphized and re-crystallized (RESET and SET) using moderate excitation voltages. However, to enable the efficient formation of amorphous domes during RESET in small cells (heater contact diameters of 10 nm or less), it was necessary to improve the thermal confinement of the cell to reduce heat loss via the electrodes. The resistance window between the SET and RESET states decreased as the cell size reduced, but it was still more than an order of magnitude even for the smallest cells. As expected, the RESET current reduced as the cells got smaller; indeed, RESET current scaled with the inverse of the heater contact diameter and ultra-small RESET currents of only 19 µA were achieved for the smallest cells. Our results show that the conventional mushroom-type phase-change cell architecture is scalable and operable in the sub-10nm region.