Electronic materials with nanoscale curved geometries

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in nanoscale curved electronic materials, highlighting how shape, confinement, and strain induce novel electronic and magnetic effects with potential applications in electronic and spintronic devices.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of shape-, confinement-, and strain-induced effects in nanoscale curved electronic materials and discusses their technological implications.

Findings

Curved geometries lead to novel electronic effects.

Strain and shape influence magnetic properties.

Potential applications in spintronic devices.

Abstract

Research into electronic nanomaterials has recently seen a growing focus into the synthesis of structures with unconventional curved geometries including bent wires in planar systems and three-dimensional architectures obtained by rolling up nanomembranes. The inclusion of these geometries has led to the prediction and observation of a series of novel effects that either result from shape-driven modifications of the electronic motion or from an intrinsic change of electronic and magnetic properties due to peculiar confinement effects. Moreover, local strains often generated by curvature also trigger the appearance of new phenomena due to the essential role played by electromechanical coupling in solids. Here we review the recent developments in the discovery of these shape-, confinement- and strain-induced curvature effects at the nanoscale, and discuss their potential use in electronic and spintronic devices.