Long after the heady days of high‐temperature superconductivity, the oxides came back into the limelight in 2004 with the discovery of the 2D electron gas (2DEG) in SrTiO3 (STO) and several heterostructures based on it. Not only do these materials exhibit interesting physics, but they have also opened up new vistas in oxide electronics and spintronics. However, much of the attention has recently shifted to KTaO3 (KTO), a material with all the “good” properties of STO (simple cubic structure, high mobility, etc.) but with the additional advantage of a much larger spin‐orbit coupling. In this state‐of‐the‐art review of the fascinating world of KTO, it is attempted to cover the remarkable progress made, particularly in the last five years. Certain unsolved issues are also indicated, while suggesting future research directions as well as potential applications. The range of physical phenomena associated with the 2DEG trapped at the interfaces of KTO‐based heterostructures include spin polarization, superconductivity, quantum oscillations in the magnetoresistance, spin‐polarized electron transport, persistent photocurrent, Rashba effect, topological Hall effect, and inverse Edelstein Effect. It is aimed to discuss, on a single platform, the various fabrication techniques, the exciting physical properties and future application possibilities of this family of materials.

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The conducting interfaces of perovskite oxides are fertile playgrounds of diverse quantum phenomena, and they are potentially important for applications in superconducting nanoelectronic devices. We discovered that the interfaces between the Mott-insulator LaVO3 and the band-insulator SrTiO3 host two-dimensional superconductivity below T c ≈ 250 mK. Our band structure calculations indicate that for these interfaces, multiple bands (the V and the Ti d bands) cross the Fermi energy where the V d electrons also carry a magnetic moment, thereby raising the possibility of an unconventional order parameter (OP) of the superconducting phase. We have fabricated subsurface soft metallic point-contacts at the LaVO3/SrTiO3 interfaces to probe the OP symmetry spectroscopically through the measurement of Andreev reflection. The spectroscopic features strongly deviate from the expectations within the conventional Bardeen–Cooper–Schriefer framework and support the existence of an unconventional order parameter.

Gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) are readily used nanoparticles which finds applications in fields like biosensors, drug delivery, optical bioimaging and many state of art systems used for detection. In the recent years fiber optic sensors have seen utilization of Au-NPs along with other nanoparticles for implementation of sensors for sensing various biomolecules like cholesterol, glucose, and uric acid. The cancer cells, creatinine and bacteria can also be detected with the fiber optic sensors. Given the significance of gold nanoparticles in fibre optic sensors, the current work is a review of the synthesis, the common methods used for characterization, and the applications of Au-NPs. It is important to discuss and analyse the work reported in the literature to understand the trend and gaps in developing plasmonic optical fiber sensors.

Vitamins are essential nutrients that aid in metabolism, cell growth, and the appropriate functioning of other biomolecules. They are required for the proper functioning of various systems in human body. Both vitamin shortage and excess can pave the way for a variety of illnesses. They enter the body via food and supplements eaten, making it critical to measure the vitamin concentrations in food, medicines, and biological fluids. The concentrations of these vitamins are determined using a variety of techniques. The performance measure of the techniques like selectivity, sensitivity, and limit of detection is crucial in their utilization. Among the many techniques of determination, electrochemical sensing and optical sensing have garnered widespread interest because of their potential to improve performance. Additionally, the introduction of innovative materials has added a lot of benefits to sensing. The aim of this article is to summarize significant work toward recent improvements in electrochemical and optical methods for detecting different vitamins. Additionally, it attempts to assess the gaps in vitamin sensing in order to encourage researchers to fill such gaps that will benefit the community.

An unusual dependence of electrical resistance on the direction of the magnetic field, relative to that of current, in a 2D electron gas with strong spin-orbit coupling formed at the LaVO 3 -KTaO 3 interface is reported. The observations are incompatible with any previously reported magneto-transport measurements. Surprisingly, on the one hand the system exhibits signatures of chiral anomaly such as negative magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect, on the other hand, a number of features are even qualitatively beyond the existing theories. It is found that all the unusual features in transport are controlled by the quantum effects originating from strong spin-orbit coupling induced spin-momentum locking, and the traditional Lorentz mechanism plays a minimal role. The results not only open up a new avenue related to magneto-transport in spin-orbit coupled metals but also pave a path to engineer non-magnetic materials as sensors for vector magnetic fields.

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