Skyrmions, once a hypothesized field-theoretical object believed to describe the nature of elementary particles, became common sightings in recent years among several non-centrosymmetric metallic ferromagnets. For more practical applications of Skyrmionic matter as carriers of information, thus realizing the prospect of "Skyrmionics", it is necessary to have the means to create and manipulate Skyrmions individually. We show through extensive simulation of the Landau-LifshitzGilbert equation that a circulating current imparted to the metallic chiral ferromagnetic system can create isolated Skyrmionic spin texture without the aid of external magnetic field.

We report the growth of GaN micro-rods and coaxial quantum-well heterostructures on graphene films, together with structural and optical characterization, for applications in flexible optical devices. Graphene films were grown on Cu foil by means of chemical vapor deposition, and used as the substrates for the growth of the GaN micro-rods, which were subsequently transferred onto SiO2/Si substrates. Highly Si-doped, n-type GaN micro-rods were grown on the graphene films using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The growth and vertical alignment of the GaN micro-rods, which is a critical factor for the fabrication of high-performance light-emitting diodes (LEDs), were characterized using electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The GaN micro-rods exhibited promising photoluminescence characteristics for optoelectronic device applications, including room-temperature stimulated emission. To fabricate flexible LEDs, InxGa1–xN/GaN multiple quantum wells and a p-type GaN layer were deposited coaxially on the GaN micro-rods, and transferred onto Ag-coated polymer substrates using lift-off. Ti/Au and Ni/Au metal layers were formed to provide electrical contacts to the n-type and p-type GaN regions, respectively. The micro-rod LEDs exhibited intense emission of visible light, even after transfer onto the flexible polymer substrate, and reliable operation was achieved following numerous cycles of mechanical deformation.

Electrophysiological devices are critical for mapping eloquent and diseased brain regions and for therapeutic neuromodulation in clinical settings and are extensively used for research in brain-machine interfaces. However, the existing clinical and experimental devices are often limited in either spatial resolution or cortical coverage. Here, we developed scalable manufacturing processes with a dense electrical connection scheme to achieve reconfigurable thin-film, multithousand-channel neurophysiological recording grids using platinum nanorods (PtNRGrids). With PtNRGrids, we have achieved a multithousand-channel array of small (30 μm) contacts with low impedance, providing high spatial and temporal resolution over a large cortical area. We demonstrated that PtNRGrids can resolve submillimeter functional organization of the barrel cortex in anesthetized rats that captured the tissue structure. In the clinical setting, PtNRGrids resolved fine, complex temporal dynamics from the cortical surface in an awake human patient performing grasping tasks. In addition, the PtNRGrids identified the spatial spread and dynamics of epileptic discharges in a patient undergoing epilepsy surgery at 1-mm spatial resolution, including activity induced by direct electrical stimulation. Collectively, these findings demonstrated the power of the PtNRGrids to transform clinical mapping and research with brain-machine interfaces.

The epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) of GaN microdisks on graphene microdots and the fabrication of flexible light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using these microdisks is reported. An ELOG technique with only patterned graphene microdots is used, without any growth mask. The discrete micro-LED arrays are transferred onto Cu foil by a simple lift-off technique, which works reliably under various bending conditions.

Detailed information regarding the alloy deposition/ dealloying and fabrication steps, the energy dispersive X-ray spectral characterization, histology on chronically implanted mice and characterization of explanted electrodes, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and their small signal components, sterilization effects of autoclave, ethylene oxide, and sterrad, on impedance distribution, comparison of surface and depth recorded single units and extracted composite receptive fields in songbird experiments, and comparison of recordings using PtNR devices and NeuroNexus ECoG Pt electrodes on NHP and corresponding power-frequency plots (PDF)