We demonstrate magnetosensitive e-skins for magnetic cognition, body position tracking, and touchless object manipulation.

No abstract

Fluorescent color-center patterns have been written on surfaces of synthetic type-Ib diamonds with spatial resolution below 180 nm via irradiation with focused ion and electron beams and subsequent annealing. The patterns are detected and spectroscopically analyzed using confocal optical microscopy. From the spatial extent of the color-center distributions, the activation energy for diffusion of vacancies in diamond is determined as (2.55±0.15) eV. Detailed information about the formation of color centers in diamond is obtained employing the three-dimensional spatial resolution of the confocal microscope combined with spectral resolution. In particular, the distributions of two color centers, ascribed to different charge states of the NV defect in diamond, have been spatially mapped and shown to depend strongly on the irradiation dose.

New and facile wet chemistry based synthesis method for the preparation and processing of MAX phase Cr2GaC.

Acting at high speed enables creatures to survive in their harsh natural environments. They developed strategies for fast actuation that inspire technological embodiments like soft robots. Here, we demonstrate a series of simulation-guided lightweight, durable, untethered, small-scale soft-bodied robots that perform large-degree deformations at high frequencies up to 100 Hz, are driven at very low magnetic fields down to 0.5 mT and exhibit a specific energy density of 10.8 kJ m−3 mT−1. Unforeseen asynchronous strongly nonlinear cross-clapping behavior of our robots is observed in experiments and analyzed by simulation, breaking ground for future designs of soft-bodied robots. Our robots walk, swim, levitate, transport cargo, squeeze into a vessel smaller than their dimensions and can momentarily close around a living fly. Such ultrafast soft robots can rapidly adapt to varying environmental conditions, inspire biomedical applications in confined environments, and serve as model systems to develop complex movements inspired by nature.