Transferring Liquid Metal to form a Hybrid Solid Electrolyte via a Wettability-Tuning Technology for Lithium-Metal Anodes.

Integrating solid-state electrolyte (SSE) into Li-metal anodes has demonstrated great promise to unleash the high energy density of rechargeable Li-metal batteries. However, fabricating a highly cyclable SSE/Li-metal anode remains a major challenge because the densification of the SSE is usually incompatible with the reactive Li metal. Here, a liquid-metal-derived hybrid solid electrolyte (HSE) is proposed, and a facile transfer technology to construct an artificial HSE on the Li metal is reported. By tuning the wettability of the transfer substrates, electron- and ion-conductive liquid metal is sandwiched between electron-insulating and ion-conductive LiF and oxides to form the HSE. The transfer technology renders the HSE continuous, dense, and uniform. The HSE, having high ion transport, electron shut-off, and mechanical strength, makes the composite anode deliver excellent cyclability for over 4000 h at 0.5 mA cm-2 and 1 mAh cm-2 in a symmetrical cell. When pairing with LiFePO4 and sulfur cathodes, the HSE-coated Li metal dramatically enhances the performance of full cells. Therefore, this work demonstrates that tuning the interfacial wetting properties provides an alternate approach to build a robust solid electrolyte, which enables highly efficient Li-metal anodes.

Regulated Electrodeposition of Na Metal in Monolithic ZIF-Pillared Graphene Anodes.

Sodium (Na) metal batteries receive increasing attention because of their high energy densities and low costs that are enabled by the abundant Na resources. However, dendritic growth and low efficiency of Na-metal anodes limit the practical applications of Na-metal batteries. Here, we propose a three-dimensionally pillared structure in which carbonized nanoparticles of zeolite imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) are sandwiched between reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets (ZIF-8-C@rGO). Such a pillared structure enables two advantages over rGO. First, the sodiation products of ZIF-8 (NaZn13, Na2O, and N-doped carbon) have a strong chemical affinity to Na metal, thereby inducing favorable nucleation of Na metal to guide Na deposition. Second, the pillared structure could facilitate the diffusion of Na ions through rGO sheets and help homogenize the current distribution, leading to a uniform deposition of Na metal. As a result, ZIF-8-C@rGO exhibits a dendrite-free morphology during Na plating/stripping and excellent cycling stability with high Coulombic efficiency of over 99.8% for at least 2000 h. A symmetric cell could maintain more than 4000 h with a stable average overpotential of only 30 mV at a capacity of 1 mA h cm-2. This work demonstrates that the design of a ZIF-pillared structure could combine thermodynamic and kinetic regulating factors to offer an alternative solution to the development of durable Na electrodes for high-performance Na-metal batteries.

All-Optical Manipulation of Magnetization in Ferromagnetic Thin Films Enhanced by Plasmonic Resonances.

In this paper, we report all-optical manipulation of magnetization in ferromagnetic Co/Pt thin films enhanced by plasmonic resonances. By annealing a thin Au layer, we fabricate large-area Au nanoislands on top of the Co/Pt magnetic thin films, which show plasmonic resonances around the wavelength of 606 nm. Using a customized magneto-optical Kerr effect setup, we experimentally observe an 18.5% decrease in the minimum laser power required to manipulate the magnetization, comparing the on- and off-resonance conditions. The results are in very good agreement with numerical simulations. Our research findings demonstrate the possibility to achieve an all-optical magnetic recording with low energy consumption, low cost, and high areal density by integrating plasmonic nanostructures with magnetic media.

Comparison of postsurgical clinical sequences between completely embolized and incompletely embolized patients with wide nicked intracranial aneurysms treated with stent assisted coil embolization technique: A STROBE-compliant study.

The technique of stent-assisted coil embolization has been widely used in the clinic, while its efficacy and safety have yet to be evaluated. This study investigates the values of computed tomography angiography (CTA), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in evaluating the Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization in the treatment of intracranial wide-necked aneurysm.A total of 578 intracranial wide-necked aneurysm patients confirmed by MRA + CTA + DSA examinations were included and treated with Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization in this study. All patients were assigned into complete embolization (CE) group and incomplete embolization (IE) group according to the results of postoperative MRA + CTA + DSA examinations and Raymond grades. Hunt-Hess grades, incidence of complication and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) grades of patients were investigated to assess the therapeutic effect of Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization in intracranial wide-necked treatment. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess risk factors for the therapeutic effect of Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization in intracranial wide-necked aneurysm.CTA images offered a better and clearer view than MRA and DSA images in both the CE and IE groups. Both the sensitivity and specificity of CTA were apparently higher than those of MRA. Patients in the CE group enjoyed a higher good GOS rate but a lower incidence of complication than those in the IE group. In Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization treatment, the Hunt-Hess grade, hypertension, and size of artery aneurysm were independent factors affecting the therapeutic effect of Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization in intracranial wide-necked aneurysm.Compared with MRA, CTA shows a higher value in evaluating the therapeutic effect of Enterprise stent-assisted coil embolization for the treatment of intracranial wide-necked aneurysm, and can thus serve as an important means of predicting the therapeutic effect of endovascular intervention in treating patients with intracranial wide-necked aneurysm.

A low-frequency chip-scale optomechanical oscillator with 58 kHz mechanical stiffening and more than 100th-order stable harmonics.

For the sensitive high-resolution force- and field-sensing applications, the large-mass microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and optomechanical cavity have been proposed to realize the sub-aN/Hz1/2 resolution levels. In view of the optomechanical cavity-based force- and field-sensors, the optomechanical coupling is the key parameter for achieving high sensitivity and resolution. Here we demonstrate a chip-scale optomechanical cavity with large mass which operates at ≈77.7 kHz fundamental mode and intrinsically exhibiting large optomechanical coupling of 44 GHz/nm or more, for both optical resonance modes. The mechanical stiffening range of ≈58 kHz and a more than 100th-order harmonics are obtained, with which the free-running frequency instability is lower than 10-6 at 100 ms integration time. Such results can be applied to further improve the sensing performance of the optomechanical inspired chip-scale sensors.

Controllable optomechanical coupling and Drude self-pulsation plasma locking in chip-scale optomechanical cavities.

We demonstrate the controllable optomechanical coupling and Drude self-pulsation plasma locking in chip-scale optomechanical cavities. The optomechanical coupling between the optical and mechanical degrees-of-freedom is dependent on the intracavity energy via the coupled fiber position. With the deterministic optomechanical stiffening, the interaction between optomechanical oscillation and self-pulsation can be controlled. Intracavity locking with 1/6 subharmonics is obtained over a wide optical detuning range of 190.01-192.23 THz. These results bring new insights into implementations of nonlinear dynamics at mesoscopic scale, with potential applications from photonic signal processing to nonlinear dynamic networks.