https://phys.org/physics-news/materials en-us The latest news on Physics, Materials, Science and Technology Bulk acoustic resonators—stacked material structures inside which acoustic waves resonate—can be used to amplify sounds or filter out undesired noise. These resonators have found wide use in today's RF telecommunication, like Front-End Modules (FEM) in iPhones. They could also be valuable components for various cutting-edge scientific applications, including quantum technologies and imaging devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-strategy-spin-acoustic-silicon-vacancies-4h.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:00:02 EDT news616933556 Researchers at the Max-Born-Institute have now mapped the linear and nonlinear optical polaron response using ultrafast two-dimensional spectroscopy in the THz frequency range. As they discuss in the current issue of Physical Review Letters, multi-photon ionization of isopropanol molecules by a femtosecond pulse in the near-infrared generates free electrons and the resulting changes of the dielectric properties of the liquid are probed and/or manipulated in the THz frequency range. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-motions-electrons-solvent-molecules-polar.html General Physics Condensed Matter Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:12:56 EDT news616932772 A new electrical method to conveniently change the direction of electron flow in some quantum materials could have implications for the development of next-generation electronic devices and quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-electrical-quantum-phenomenon-future-electronic.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news616926339 We live in an era of data deluge. The data centers that are operated to store and process this flood of data use a lot of electricity, which has been called a major contributor to environmental pollution. To overcome this situation, polygonal computing systems with lower power consumption and higher computation speed are being researched, but they are not able to handle the huge demand for data processing because they operate with electrical signals, just like conventional binary computing systems. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-ushering-era-light-powered-multi-level-memories.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Tue, 17 Oct 2023 11:00:02 EDT news616759201 A collaborative group of researchers has manipulated the behavior of light as if it were under the influence of gravity. The findings, which were published in the journal Physical Review A on September 28, 2023, have far-reaching implications for the world of optics and materials science, and bear significance for the development of 6G communications. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-photonic-crystals-gravity.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:17:02 EDT news616673821 Researchers from Monash University have unlocked fresh insights into the behavior of quantum impurities within materials. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-quantum-mysteries-insights-2d-semiconductor.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:53:03 EDT news616672381 A team of physicists at the Technical University of Denmark has found the reason a spinning magnet can cause a secondary magnet to levitate without the need for stabilization. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Applied, the group describes experiments they conducted to learn more about the phenomenon and what they learned from them. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnet-levitate.html General Physics Condensed Matter Mon, 16 Oct 2023 09:50:01 EDT news616668486 Superconductivity is the ability of some materials to conduct a direct electrical current (DC) with almost no resistance. This property is highly sought after and favorable for various technological applications, as it could boost the performance of different electronic and energy devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-strategy-light-driven-superconductivity-kc.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Sun, 15 Oct 2023 09:10:01 EDT news616406799 In a new breakthrough, researchers have used a novel technique to confirm a previously undetected physics phenomenon that could be used to improve data storage in the next generation of computer devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-method-orbital-hall-effect-spintronics.html Condensed Matter Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:38:47 EDT news616415923 Exciton polaritons, hybrid quasiparticles caused by the strong exciton-photon coupling, constitute a unique prototype for studying many-body physics and quantum photonic phenomena traditionally in cryogenic conditions. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nonlinear-exciton-polaritons-ws2-monolayer.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:26:03 EDT news616407961 The electron and phonon are two fundamental particles (quasi-particles) of condensed matter and their interplay in single crystals can create many interesting physical phenomena, such as polaritons, charge density waves and up-conversion fluorescence. In laser crystal, the electronic transitions of an active ion can be manipulated by its surrounding lattice vibrations, whereby the emitting photon energy gradually decreases or increases by the creation or annihilation of quantized phonons. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-phonon-lasing-fluorescence-spectrum.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:50:40 EDT news616344638 Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, Germany, have long been exploring the effect of using tailored laser drives to manipulate the properties of quantum materials away from equilibrium. One of the most striking demonstrations of these physics has been in unconventional superconductors, where signatures of enhanced electronic coherences and super-transport have been documented in the resulting non-equilibrium states. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-widely-tuneable-terahertz-lasers-boost.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:31:03 EDT news616329061 In a new Science Advances study, scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China have developed a dynamic network structure using laser-controlled conducting filaments for neuromorphic computing. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-elevating-neuromorphic-laser-controlled-filaments-vanadium.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:27:03 EDT news616321617 The many-body interaction of charges (electrons) and nuclei (phonons) plays a critical role in determining the properties and functionalities of molecules and solids. The exact correlated motion of these particles gives rise to different conductivity, energy storage capabilities, phase transitions, and superconductivity. Now, the team of ICREA Prof. at ICFO Jens Biegert has developed attosecond soft X-ray core-level spectroscopy as a method to observe the correlated interaction between charges and phonons in real time. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-attosecond-core-level-x-ray-spectroscopy-condensed.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Wed, 11 Oct 2023 16:23:25 EDT news616260203 A team of international researchers led by The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and The University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has made a significant discovery in the field of quantum materials, uncovering the controllable nonlinear Hall effect in twisted bilayer graphene. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-physicists-nonlinear-hall-effect-bilayer.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Wed, 11 Oct 2023 09:40:03 EDT news616236001 Researchers who have been working for years to understand electron arrangement and magnetism in certain semimetals have been frustrated by the fact that the materials only display magnetic properties if they are cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-topology-magnetism-higher-temperatures.html General Physics Condensed Matter Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:13:22 EDT news616162397 Settling a half century of debate, researchers have discovered that tiny linear defects can propagate through a material faster than sound waves do. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-defects-diamond-faster.html General Physics Condensed Matter Thu, 05 Oct 2023 15:09:04 EDT news615737341 A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon known as graphene has remarkable properties on its own, but things can get even more interesting when you stack up multiple sheets. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-quantum-ruler-explore-exotic.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:00:02 EDT news615716614 A research team under the direction of Prof. Dr. Felix Deschler at Heidelberg University's Institute for Physical Chemistry has developed a semiconductor that efficiently generates light and simultaneously gives that light a certain spin. According to the researchers, the so-called chiral perovskite material has great technological potential that can be used for applications in optoelectronics, telecommunications, and information processing. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-organic-inorganic-semiconductor-generates-circularly-polarized.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 05 Oct 2023 10:43:07 EDT news615721385 On the dream list of many condensed matter physicists is observing fractionalization, the phenomena of a collective state of electrons carrying a charge that is a fraction of the electron charge, without a magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-physicists-fractionalization-magnetic-field.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Tue, 03 Oct 2023 11:18:00 EDT news615550673 Researchers led by Giulia Galli at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering report a computational study that predicts the conditions to create specific spin defects in silicon carbide. Their findings, published online in Nature Communications, represent an important step towards identifying fabrication parameters for spin defects useful for quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-simulations-reveal-atomic-scale-story-qubits.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Mon, 02 Oct 2023 16:35:05 EDT news615483302 X-ray technology plays a vital role in medicine and scientific research, providing non-invasive medical imaging and insight into materials. Recent advancements in X-ray technology enable brighter, more intense beams and imaging of increasingly intricate systems in real-world conditions, like the insides of operating batteries. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientists-durable-sensitive-material-high.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Sat, 30 Sep 2023 04:10:01 EDT news615265573 In research that could jumpstart interest into an enigmatic class of materials known as quasicrystals, MIT scientists and colleagues have discovered a relatively simple, flexible way to create new atomically thin versions that can be tuned for important phenomena. In work reported in Nature they describe doing just that to make the materials exhibit superconductivity and more. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-physicists-coax-superconductivity-quasicrystals.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Fri, 29 Sep 2023 05:49:27 EDT news615185359 Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Stanford University, and Denmark Technical University have designed a cutting-edge X-ray microscope capable of directly observing sound waves at the tiniest of scales—the lattice level within a crystal. These findings, published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could change the way scientists study ultrafast changes in materials and the resulting properties. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-revolutionary-x-ray-microscope-unveils-deep.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 13:01:03 EDT news615124861 The popular children's game of telephone is based on a simple premise: The starting player whispers a message into the ear of the next player. That second player then passes along the message to the third person and so on until the message reaches the final recipient, who relays it to the group aloud. Often, what the first person said and the last person heard are laughably different; the information gets garbled along the chain. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-quantum-defects-diamond-interconnect.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:10:13 EDT news615118206 Light can excite electron and hole pairs inside semiconducting materials. If the attraction between a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole (the antiparticle of electron in solid state physics) is strong, they stay bound together, forming states known as excitons. In these states, positively charged holes can be viewed as the vacancies left behind by the electrons they are paired with. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-excitons-moir-superlattices.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 09:55:02 EDT news615113693 Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with colleagues elsewhere have employed neutron imaging and a reconstruction algorithm to reveal for the first time the 3D shapes and dynamics of very small tornado-like atomic magnetic arrangements in bulk materials. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-imaging-elusive-skyrmion-neutron-tomography.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Tue, 26 Sep 2023 05:55:18 EDT news614926508 A team of scientists, led by Dr. David Hsieh from the California Institute of Technology, have observed evidence of stable Hubbard excitons in a photo-doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. The findings of their study are published in Nature Physics. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientists-hubbard-exciton-strongly-insulators.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Mon, 25 Sep 2023 08:46:21 EDT news614850374 Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China(USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed an ultra-cold atom quantum simulator to study the relationship between the non-equilibrium thermalization process and quantum criticality in lattice gauge field theories. The research was led by Pan Jianwei and Yuan Zhensheng, in collaboration with Zhai Hui from Tsinghua University and Yao Zhiyuan from Lanzhou University. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-exploring-relationship-thermalization-dynamics-quantum.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Fri, 22 Sep 2023 11:10:41 EDT news614599838 It sounds like magic: photoelectrodes could convert the greenhouse gas CO2 back into methanol or N2 molecules into valuable fertilizer—using only the energy of sunlight. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-diamond-materials-solar-powered-electrodes-spectroscopy.html Condensed Matter Thu, 21 Sep 2023 17:08:05 EDT news614534881