Owing to an ultrathin body, atomic scale smoothness, dangling bond-free surface, and sizable bandgap, transistors based on two-dimensional (2D) layered semiconductors show the potential of scalability down to the nanoscale, highdensity three-dimensional integration, and superior performance in terms of better electrostatic control and smaller power consumption compared with conventional three-dimensional semiconductors (Si, Ge, and III-V compound materials). To apply 2D layered materials into complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor logic circuits, it is important to modulate the carrier type and density in a controllable manner, and engineer the contact (between metal electrode and 2D semiconductor) and the interface (between dielectrics and semiconducting channel) to get close to their intrinsic carrier mobility. In this review, the most widely studied 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) are focused on, and an overview of recent progress on doping, contact, and interface engineering of the TMD-based field-effect transistors is provided.

Carbon-based TiO2 composites have many advantages as photocatalysts. However, they suffer from low light efficiency due to the low contrast of TiO2 with carbon. We synthesized a novel type of anatase-type TiO2-C hybrid aerogel by a one-pot sol-gel method, which shows a photocatalytic activity for methylene degradation up to 4.23 times that of P25, a commercial photocatalyst from Degussa Inc. The hybrid aerogels are prepared from TiCl4 and resorcinol–furfural, and have a tunable macropore size from 167 to 996 nm. They are formed of submicrometer particles that consist of interwoven anatase and carbon nanoparticles. The anatase nanoparticles have a size of 8–9 nm and a tunable oxygen vacancy from 7.2 to 18.0%. The extremely high activity is ascribed to the large light absorption caused by macropore scattering and oxygen vacancies in the anatase. These findings may open up a new avenue and stimulate further research to improve photocatalytic performance.

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Control of light–matter interactions is central to numerous advances in quantum communication, information, and sensing. The relative ease with which interactions can be tailored in coupled plasmonic–photonic systems makes them ideal candidates for investigation. To exert control over the interaction between photons and plasmons, it is essential to identify the underlying energy pathways which influence the system’s dynamics and determine the critical system parameters, such as the coupling strength and dissipation rates. However, in coupled systems which dissipate energy through multiple competing pathways, simultaneously resolving all parameters from a single experiment is challenging as typical observables such as absorption and scattering each probe only a particular path. In this work, we simultaneously measure both photothermal absorption and two-sided optical transmission in a coupled plasmonic–photonic resonator consisting of plasmonic gold nanorods deposited on a toroidal whispering-gallery-mode optical microresonator. We then present an analytical model which predicts and explains the distinct line shapes observed and quantifies the contribution of each system parameter. By combining this model with experiment, we extract all system parameters with a dynamic range spanning 9 orders of magnitude. Our combined approach provides a full description of plasmonic–photonic energy dynamics in a weakly coupled optical system, a necessary step for future applications that rely on tunability of dissipation and coupling.

Herein, we report the targeted synthesis and solid state assembly of a novel triazine-based [4+6] organic molecular cage. The tetrahedral cage features a large cavity (∼2070 Å(3)), and after desolvation, the resultant material exhibits a high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of 1181 m(2) g(-1) and also features selective adsorption of CO2 over N2.