Physics

Marine antifouling coatings are designed to alleviate the pervasive marine biological pollution; however, existing environmentally friendly low-surface-energy coatings exhibit poor static antifouling performance, along with issues such as unstable antifoulant release and limited capability to remove adhered bacteria. Inspired by the self-protection mechanism of staghorn corals and ocean temperature variations, a novel coating named PDMS-P(NIPAM)₁₀-P(CsAc)₅, has been developed. By incorporating a novel copolymer of poly(<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and capsaicin into the silicone polyurethane side chains, the coating exhibits excellent synergistic antifouling performance by integrating temperature-responsive fouling release with the biocidal effects of capsaicin, effectively combining both active and passive antifouling strategies. Capsaicin is continuously and stably released through hydrolysis and adheres to the coating surface, exhibiting antibacterial efficacy of 99.03% against <i>E. coli</i> and 97.83% against <i>S. aureus</i>. Meanwhile, temperature-induced changes in the coating's wettability facilitate the detachment of bacteria from the surface. Furthermore, the coating exhibits exceptional properties in preventing protein and algae adhesion. It also exhibits excellent mechanical strength and self-healing capabilities with an adhesion strength of up to 2.49 MPa and a self-healing rate of up to 90.47%, highlighting its significant potential for marine antifouling applications.

Stabilizing metastable Cu(I) species during electrochemical CO₂ reduction remains a fundamental challenge, as their rapid electroreduction into metallic Cu undermines C-C coupling and long-term selectivity. Here, we overturn this limitation through the interfacial engineering of Cu₂O with hydroxy-terminated Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i> MXene, creating an adaptive catalyst that sustains Cu(I) redox dynamics under strongly reducing conditions. In situ-grown Cu₂O nanocubes leverage Ti³⁺ Lewis acid sites and surface -OH/F groups to establish a hydrophilic, locally oxidative microenvironment─an unconventional stabilization regime that defies the typical reductive decay of oxide-derived Cu. This interfacial-driven approach delivers a 3-fold increase in activity and a 46% Faradaic efficiency toward C₂ products, while maintaining stability beyond 70 h. Spectro-electrochemical Raman analyses, cyclic voltammetry, and real-time potential of zero charge analyses established that MXene-Cu coupling modulates and elevates local pH to enhance CO₂ solubility, strengthens *CO adsorption, and uniquely stabilizes the rarely explored *C₂H₅O^- intermediate, thereby providing an unexpected mechanistic pathway to selective multicarbon formation. By demonstrating that dynamic redox equilibria, rather than static oxidation states, govern efficient CO₂-to-fuel conversion, this work redefines Cu-based electrocatalysis and establishes a new paradigm for designing resilient electrocatalysts through electronic and chemical environment control.

Hydrogels have emerged as promising materials for flexible electronics due to their excellent biocompatibility, flexibility, and tunable physicochemical properties. However, traditional hydrogels often suffer from swelling-induced mechanical degradation, which limits their practical applications. In this study, a series of HEMA-HEA hydrogels were developed by modulating the ratio of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) to hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA). These hydrogels exhibited tunable antiswelling properties, optical transparency, mechanical robustness, and self-bonding capabilities. With increasing HEMA content, the hydrogels transitioned from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, significantly enhancing their mechanical performance and reducing swelling ratios. Notably, HEMA5-HEA0 demonstrated outstanding antiswelling behavior with a swelling ratio of only 0.9%, while HEMA4-HEA1 exhibited balanced mechanical properties and minimal strain hysteresis, making it an ideal candidate for flexible strain sensors. The fabricated sensors demonstrated sensitivity, excellent fatigue resistance, and stable operation underwater, enabling real-time motion sensing and wireless communication in aquatic environments. Additionally, by leveraging the self-bonding property and differential swelling behavior of HEMA-HEA hydrogels, we achieved postprogrammable transformation control, enabling the design of complex shapes and autonomous fixation of RFID chips underwater. The RFID embedded in the hydrogel could communicate normally underwater, indicating that the hydrogel had no effect on the transmission of wireless signals. This study provides new insights into the design of high-performance hydrogels and demonstrates their potential for flexible electronics and underwater applications.

Memristors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials are pivotal for next-generation neuromorphic hardware, owing to their high integration density, flexibility, excellent electrical properties, and advantage in neuromorphic computing. However, practical deployment is often thwarted by substantial switching variability and limited endurance, primarily arising from uncontrollable interfacial damage and energetic metal-ion diffusion during conventional electrode deposition. Herein, high-quality monolayer WSe₂ single crystals are synthesized via bidirectional-flow physical vapor deposition (PVD). Subsequently, Ag/WSe₂/Ag memristors are constructed using a damage-free van der Waals (vdW) metal integration process to preserve the intrinsic lattice integrity. The fabricated vdW devices exhibit remarkable switching consistency with a coefficient of variation (C_v) of only 2.62%, a high memory window exceeding 10⁶, a low High Resistance State (HRS) current below 10 pA, and robust endurance exceeding 10⁵ cycles. Beyond emulating fundamental synaptic behaviors, the devices achieve high-fidelity recognition accuracies of 99.51% for the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST) and 95.39% for the Fashion-MNIST data sets, respectively. Furthermore, biorealistic nociceptive functionalities, such as threshold firing and sensitization, are successfully emulated. This work demonstrates that vdW electrode integration is a robust paradigm for enhancing the reliability of 2D memristors, paving the way for robust high-performance neuromorphic intelligence hardware.

In this work, cotton fabrics were conformally coated with ZnO layers via self-limiting atomic layer deposition (ALD) at substrate temperatures ranging from room temperature up to 120 °C. Structural analysis of coated samples revealed a dominant wurtzite <i>h-</i>ZnO (002) orientation, with grain size increasing from 8.1 to 11.3 nm, and dislocation density decreasing accordingly, as a function of deposition temperature from room temperature to 120 °C. SEM and EDX analyses confirmed that ZnO formed a uniform coating on the cotton fibers and that Zn was homogeneously distributed throughout the textile surface. Direct SEM thickness measurements indicate that the conformal ZnO coating on individual cotton fibers has an average thickness of approximately ∼55 nm. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the surface chemical composition and oxidation states of the films. The measured optical band gaps ranged from 3.18 to 3.28 eV, while Urbach energies decreased with increasing deposition temperature, indicating reduced defect density. Photodetector devices fabricated on ZnO-coated cotton exhibited strong UV photoresponse, with ON/OFF ratios increasing from 1.4 to 161 at 10 V bias, depending on deposition conditions. The highest ON/OFF ratio was observed for the device with thermally deposited ZnO at RT. Time-dependent <i>I</i>-<i>V</i> and <i>I</i>-<i>t</i> measurements confirmed repeatable photoresponse and stable operation under continuous illumination for extended durations. Furthermore, the textile-integrated photodetectors have demonstrated their suitability for flexible and wearable optoelectronic sensing applications by maintaining measurable photoresponse under cyclic bending, uniaxial tensile strain of up to 6%, and severe manual compression. These findings demonstrate the potential of low-temperature ALD-grown ZnO films for inherently integrated textile sensors.

Abstract Photon's dual nature, manifesting as both wave-like and particle-like behavior, is a phenomenon known as wave-particle duality and remains one of the most perplexing mysteries in quantum mechanics. In this work, we explore the relationships among the wave behavior, particle behavior, and entanglement of quantum states. We show the strong complementary relationships for bipartite isolated systems in terms of the generalized quantum entropic measures. This provides a measureindependent result going beyond all the existed complementary results based on specific measures. We further extend the results for non-isolated systems.

Conventional toehold-mediated strand displacement─a cornerstone of dynamic DNA nanotechnology─is fundamentally limited by its reliance on the fixed toehold stability to control reaction kinetics, restricting precise and reversible regulation of molecular circuits. Here, we describe an epigenetically regulated system that exploits single-nucleobase N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) modification within the toehold domain to achieve programmable kinetic control over DNA strand displacement. Site-specific m⁶A methylation disrupts base pairing at the toehold domain, effectively inhibiting strand displacement rates. This inhibition is precisely and reversibly modulated by demethylase FTO, which removes m⁶A modifications and restores toehold reactivity. Applied to catalytic hairpin assembly, this strategy not only enables the controlled inhibition and restoration of nucleic acid circuit function but also enhances its sensitivity and specificity in microRNA detection, exemplified by the intracellular imaging of cancer-associated microRNA-21. Our combined theoretical and experimental analyses indicate that both the location and density of m⁶A modifications critically dictate the extent of reaction inhibition, supporting the use of single-base epigenetic modifications as a versatile tool for chemical system design. This epigenetically regulated platform provides a general framework for dynamic nucleic acid circuits, with broad implications for biosensing, molecular computing, and synthetic biology, advancing the development of epigenetically controlled biochemical systems.

Nanoparticle morphology is a critical determinant of physical and chemical properties, yet the fundamental mechanisms governing how specific shapes emerge during crystallization remain elusive. In this work, we reveal that the final morphology of binary core-shell nanoparticles is governed by a kinetic bifurcation in nucleation modes: surface-nucleation mode and inner-nucleation mode. Using binary Pt@Au core-shell nanoparticles as a representative model system, we identify a "kinetic switch" regulated by the shell-to-core atomic ratio. At low shell concentrations, the surface faceting effect of the core remains, acting as a template for surface nucleation that yields 5-fold twinned structures. As the shell concentration increases, the gold atoms progressively disrupt the surface faceting of the platinum core, shifting the nucleation site to the core interior and resulting in single-crystalline morphologies. We demonstrate that this transition is driven by shell-induced disruption of surface faceting rather than thermodynamic stability alone, and we establish a mechanistic link between nucleation position and final morphology. By elucidation of these two intrinsic crystallization pathways and the origin of their bifurcation, this work provides a predictive framework for the rational design and kinetic control of binary nanomaterials.

Hair graying is a multifactorial pigmentary disorder resulting from melanocyte dysfunction. Effective treatment is challenging due to the deep localization of follicular melanocytes and the limited efficiency of current transdermal delivery systems for bioactive macromolecules. Here, we present a rationally designed transdermal therapy employing polymeric tyrosinase nanocapsules (nTYRs) for the direct activation of local melanocytes and in situ stimulation of melanogenesis. Guided by a penetration model established in our study, the size and surface potential of nTYRs were optimized to enhance skin permeability and preserve enzymatic activity. nTYRs efficiently delivered active tyrosinase through the stratum corneum to hair follicle melanocytes, resulting in rapid and robust hair repigmentation. Efficacy and safety were validated across mouse and human melanocyte models and porcine and human skin models. An immune-mediated endogenous hair graying mouse model was developed and employed to closely mimic human pathophysiology and directly assess the effects of nTYRs on damaged melanocytes. This study provides a promising and broadly applicable strategy for reversing hair graying with direct efficacy, minimal side effects, and strong potential for synergistic use with existing therapies.

Photothermoelectric (PTE) systems, which convert light into electricity through sequential photothermal (PT) and thermoelectric (TE) processes, offer a promising strategy for self-powered wearable electronics. In this work, we develop a homogeneous PTE composite system by integrating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a dye-modified two-dimensional metal-organic framework (2D MOF), referred to as ZrBTBD, obtained via the postsynthetic modification of a 2D MOF, ZrBTB, with N719 dye. The introduction of N719 enhances visible-light absorption and facilitates doping level modulation with CNTs. Together with n-type doping using N-DMBI, the resulting p-type C/ZrBTBD10 and n-type C/ZrBTBD-N5 composites achieve high power factors of 465.7 and 363.1 μW m^-1 K^-2, respectively. Under 100 mW cm^-2 illumination, the PT temperature increases from 47.3 °C to 51.2 °C, and the <i>zT</i> is significantly enhanced compared to CNTs. A flexible PTE generator assembled from these composites delivers an open-circuit voltage of 12.3 mV and a maximum power output of 365.4 nW. A wearable prototype demonstrates its potential for flexible, self-powered electronics. This work represents the demonstration of dye-immobilized MOF/CNT composite materials in PTE systems, offering a molecular-level strategy for integrating light harvesting, interfacial charge modulation, and thermoelectric conversion.

Metal-ion-based antibacterial agents are promising against antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA, but their reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent bactericidal activity is greatly hampered by the infection-related hypoxic microenvironments. Here, we green-synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the surface of biocompatible microalgae <i>Chlorella vulgaris</i> (CV) to develop a live cell-metal hybrid system. These living cyborg AgNP@CV microalgae not only provide sustained oxygen generation to alleviate hypoxia under illumination due to their photosynthetic capability, but also synergistically enhance Ag ion-mediated ROS production to kill MRSA. Moreover, AgNP@CV promotes angiogenesis of endothelial cells via the VEGF-VEGFR2-PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, facilitating tissue regeneration. In a clinically relevant MRSA-infected wound model, a single dose of AgNP@CV achieves efficient bacterial elimination and wound healing, significantly surpassing Ag-containing hydrogel dressing. In addition, this approach is universal and cost-effective for producing many other metal-NP@CV systems with strong antibacterial ability, such as CuNP@CV and ZnNP@CV. These cyborg microalgae provide a sustainable and translatable strategy for treating resistant bacterial infections through self-oxygenation and synergistic metal ion therapy.

Advanced applications featuring sub-microscale and nanoscale metallic structures, which include energy storage devices, nanophotonic elements, and nanoelectronic interfaces, require three-dimensional multimaterial structural elements. Here, we present an approach for highly localized meniscus-confined electrodeposition based on double-barrel nanopipettes capable of producing high-aspect ratio metallic structures with a wide range of elemental compositions. This is enabled by the possibility of finely tuning local ionic content directly inside the liquid meniscus by applying voltage bias between the barrels filled with different electrolytes. This provides a platform for fast switching between materials within a single voxel and the fabrication of smooth material gradients via tunable electrodeposition, which is also characterized by improved mass-transport and faster print rates. We demonstrate the capability of this approach by producing various arrangements of Cu-Au and Au-Pt voxels with ca. 200 nm lateral resolution, which are formed from fully dense (non-porous) polycrystalline metallic alloys with the evidence of metastable microstructural features.

Chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) adoptive transfer therapy has shown remarkable efficacy in hematologic malignancies. However, the therapeutic efficacy of CAR-T in treating solid tumors, particularly "cold tumors" such as prostate cancer, is significantly restricted by the cumbersome ex vivo manufacturing, impaired T cell fitness, and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that blunts T cell function. Here, we successfully constructed a nanodelivery system based on zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8). This system exhibited high CAR-gene encapsulation efficiency, reduced nonspecific hepatic accumulation, targeted delivery to tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and efficient intracellular gene transfection efficiency, enabling in situ construction of chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M). Co-delivery of IFN-γ and CAR genes not only maintained the specific tumor-killing and phagocytic activity of CAR-Ms against tumor cells but also activated adaptive immunity, inducing excellent antitumor efficacy, as evidenced by the observed 95.54% inhibition of tumor growth in a prostate cancer mouse model. This strategy provides a promising approach for systematic in vivo editing of CAR-Ms.

The tandem strategy for electrochemical CO₂ reduction (ECO₂R), which utilizes CO gas as the essential intermediate, offers a promising route for converting CO₂ into multicarbon (C₂₊) products. However, inefficient retention and utilization of the CO intermediate remain fundamental issues limiting the practical viability of these tandem systems. Here, we introduce a proof-of-concept "CO reservoir" strategy to directly address this bottleneck. With a well-defined bilayer tandem ECO₂R system, we show that incorporating N-doped carbon nanotube (NCNT) as a CO reservoir into the downstream Cu catalyst layer simultaneously enhances the retention time, local concentration, and utilization efficiency of the CO intermediate, a discovery validated by COMSOL simulations, potential-step chronoamperometry, theoretical calculations, and in situ Raman spectroscopy. Enabled by this reservoir effect, the tandem electrocatalyst demonstrates exceptional CO₂-to-C₂₊ performance, achieving a peak C₂₊ Faradaic efficiency <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>FE</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>C</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math>) of 87.1 ± 2.7% and, notably, an optimal C₂₊ partial current density <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mi>j</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>C</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:msub><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:math> exceeding 1 A cm^-2. The CO reservoir strategy constitutes a promising approach for effective intermediate management in tandem ECO₂R systems, establishing a viable tandem route toward industrial-level C₂₊ production from CO₂.

Live bacterial therapy has shown promise in inducing antitumor immunity, but its efficacy is often limited by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and insufficient tumor-specific T cell activation. In this study, core-shell Au@Zn_<i>x</i>Mn_1-<i>x</i>S nanoparticles (AZMS) were synthesized and covalently conjugated to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) to generate the engineered bacterium AZMB, which was subsequently encapsulated within a hyaluronic acid-based matrix to fabricate the functional implant AZMB-IM. Upon percutaneous administration via a puncture needle, BCG acts as a potent immune initiator, significantly enhancing the recruitment of M1-type macrophages and natural killer cells to the tumor site, and also induced the maturation of dendritic cells. Concurrently, AZMB dissociates in the TME, releasing Zn²⁺ and Mn²⁺ ions. Zn²⁺ disrupts the mitochondrial membrane potential, triggering a reactive oxygen species (ROS) storm and inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD). Meanwhile, Mn²⁺ amplifies the ROS effect via a Fenton-like reaction and activates the cGAS-STING signaling pathway, which in turn drives robust T cell-mediated antitumor immunity. Collectively, through synergistic activation of innate immunity and ICD-driven adaptive immune responses, AZMB-IM remodels the TME and enhances antitumor immunity, highlighting its significant potential for clinical translation in the treatment of advanced and metastatic solid tumors.

Flexible aerogels combining mechanical adaptability and functional performance are crucial for next-generation wearable electronics. However, their practical deployment is constrained by the intrinsic strength-flexibility trade-off. Here, we propose an ion-mediated nanoengineering-based fabrication strategy to construct flexible wood-derived aerogels with outstanding mechanical robustness and ionic conductivity. Partial delignification preserves the wood's load-bearing hierarchical honeycomb framework while exposing cellulose chains for interactions with ionic liquids. This interaction reorganizes the hydrogen-bonding network among cellulose chains through extensible ionic bridges, thereby enhancing cell wall elasticity and imparting ionic conductivity. Benefiting from the preserved wood scaffold and ionic liquid-induced nanoscale reconstruction, the resulting aerogel withstands 90% compressive strain, 180° bending, and 720° twisting, while reaching a compressive strength of 1.75 MPa, far exceeding most flexible aerogels. Moreover, its ionic conductivity enables stable piezoresistive sensing of diverse human motion signals, showing great promise in flexible sensing and wearable electronics.

After displays, short- and mid-wave infrared (IR) sensing is seen as the next frontier for optoelectronic applications of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs). Considerable research efforts have focused on two material platforms: lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) chalcogenides. Although impressive progresses have brought this technology to the development of focal plane arrays, the presence of heavy metals is often recognized as a critical barrier to broader commercial adoption. This challenge has generated a push toward new synthetic pathways enabling greener IR-active NC materials. However, in practice, each material platform tends to create parallel, independent fields, thus mitigating the benefits of already established developments. In this perspective, we discuss how the Pb/Hg-based IR sensor legacy can benefit the emergence of III-V and silver chalcogenide platforms by offering genuine and critical discussions about the limitation of each kind of material. Finally, we propose some development strategies for the emergence of next generation greener NC-based IR imagers.

A hitherto unknown mechanism for the breakdown of superhydrophobicity, which is the prerequisite for various interface-related applications and phenomena, is reported. When a droplet impacts onto a sphere placed atop a superhydrophobic surface with a droplet-sphere offset, even though the sphere decelerates the droplet, a smaller impact speed than in the case without a sphere impact speed is required for superhydrophobicity breakdown. When the inertia-powered liquid-vapor interface that wraps the sphere with no contact with the sphere surface dominates over the capillarity-driven resistance to interface deformation and the spontaneous spreading of the contact line on the sphere, an air cavity forms near the sphere bottom, and the cavity-collapse-induced jet toward the substrate is revealed to be the reason.

The rapidly expanding field of two-dimensional materials has recently extended to include freestanding complex oxides, opening new opportunities for nanoscale ferroic design. Using first-principles-based atomistic simulations, we demonstrate that ultrathin freestanding ferroelectric layers host a diverse landscape of polar states. Above a critical thickness, electrostatic confinement stabilizes a vortex-labyrinthine regime with liquid-like out-of-plane domains and long-range orientational order, which upon cooling evolves into two nearly degenerate topological configurations: a wave-helix texture and a chiral bubbles phase. Remarkably, these states are deterministically and reversibly interconverted by static and THz electric fields, enabling ultrafast electrical control of topological states. The small energy separation between the two phases creates a programmable energy landscape, establishing freestanding ferroelectric nanolayers as reconfigurable platforms for topological nanoelectronics without structural twisting or interface engineering.

Monolayer 1T-TaS₂ hosts a star-of-David charge-density wave (CDW) that stabilizes a low-temperature Mott-insulating state. Recent time-resolved spectroscopies indicate a coupling between the CDW amplitude mode and the electronic correlation strength, yet the role of the screened Coulomb interaction remains unclear. Using the constrained random-phase approximation, we show that the CDW amplitude modifies the bare and screened on-site interactions, leading to sizable variations in the effective Hubbard <i>U</i>. Our combined density-functional and dynamical mean-field theory calculations reveal that the Hubbard bands shift in concert with the CDW amplitude and that a reduced distortion drives a transition from a Mott insulator to a correlated metal. These results demonstrate a direct link between lattice distortions and Coulomb interactions in transition-metal dichalcogenides, providing a microscopic mechanism for light-induced control of correlated phases in two-dimensional quantum materials.

Two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper (2D RP) nitride perovskites, combining strong covalency with reduced dimensionality and weak interlayer coupling, are promising candidates for low-energy polarization control. Here, we study 2D RP nitride perovskite La₂WN₄ using first-principles calculations in combination with symmetry analysis and mode decomposition. La₂WN₄ hosts a competing semiconducting ferroelectric (FE, <i>Aba</i>2) phase and antiferroelectric (AFE, <i>Pna</i>2₁) phase, where polarization originates from WN₆ octahedral distortions coupled to nitrogen displacements. Both the AFE-FE interconversion and polarization reversal proceed over low barriers, enabling fast, energy-efficient switching. External stimuli provide effective control, given that 1% biaxial compressive strain or an in-plane electric field of 0.025 V/Å can reversibly toggle between AFE and FE states. Moreover, La₂WN₄ can be exfoliated into a stable semiconducting monolayer that retains sizable in-plane polarization with a low switching barrier, highlighting its potential for low-power-programmable AFE/FE functionalities.

Exciton-polariton III-V semiconductor microcavities provide a robust platform for emulating complex Hamiltonians, enabling topological photonics and quantum simulation for advanced photonic functionalities. Here, we introduce two novel fabrication techniques, etch-and-oversputter and deposit-and-oversputter, that overcome limitations of traditional photonic confinement. Both use structured, locally elongated semiconductor cavities to create deep, highly controllable potentials, while leveraging high-quality GaAs-based materials, which achieve excellent Q-factors. A sputtered all-dielectric top mirror introduces an innovative hybrid approach, simplifying fabrication while maintaining quality compared to deep ion etching. Utilizing a Kagome lattice as a benchmark, we show high-quality optical band structures previously inaccessible with deep etching. Furthermore, we study a two-dimensional breathing Kagome lattice and demonstrate polariton lasing from a zero-dimensional corner mode, confirming precise control over couplings and tight polariton localization. These methods enable fabrication of intricate lattices, including higher-order topological insulators, or on-chip quantum regimes utilizing the polariton blockade mechanism due to tight photonic confinement.