We present transport measurements in superconductor-nanowire devices with a gated constriction forming a quantum point contact. Zero-bias features in tunneling spectroscopy appear at finite magnetic fields and oscillate in amplitude and split away from zero bias as a function of magnetic field and gate voltage. A crossover in magnetoconductance is observed: Magnetic fields above $\sim$0.5 T enhance conductance in the low-conductance (tunneling) regime but suppress conductance in the high-conductance (multichannel) regime. We consider these results in the context of Majorana zero modes as well as alternatives, including the Kondo effect and analogs of 0.7 structure in a disordered nanowire.

Improving Nanowire Photovoltaics: In principle, solar cells based on arrays of nanowires made from compound inorganic semiconductors, such as indium phosphide (InP), should decrease materials and fabrication costs compared with planar junctions. In practice, device efficiencies tend to be low because of poor light absorption and increased rates of unproductive charge recombination in the surface region. Wallentin et al. (p. 1057 , published online 17 January) now report that arrays of p-i-n InP nanowires (that switch from positive to negative doping), grown to millimeter lengths, can be optimized by varying the nanowire diameter and length of the n-doped segment. Efficiencies as high as 13.8% were achieved, which are comparable to the best planar InP photovoltaics.

Stable molecular switches: Many single-molecule current switches have been reported, but most show poor stability because of weak contacts to metal electrodes. Jia et al. covalently bonded a diarylethene molecule to graphene electrodes and achieved stable photoswitching at room temperature (see the Perspective by Frisbie). The incorporation of short bridging alkyl chains between the molecule and graphene decoupled their pielectron systems and allowed fast conversion of the open and closed ring states. Science , this issue p. 1443 ; see also p. 1394

We demonstrate theoretically how local strains in graphene can be tailored to generate a valley-polarized current. By suitable engineering of local strain profiles, we find that electrons in opposite valleys ($K$ or $K^{\prime }$) show different Brewster-like angles and Goos-Hänchen shifts, exhibiting a close analogy with light propagating behavior. In a strain-induced waveguide, electrons in $K$ and $K^{\prime }$ valleys have different group velocities, which can be used to construct a valley filter in graphene without the need for any external fields.