Materials for devices articles within Nature Physics

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• Article
  09 November 2023 | Open Access

  Coupling to octahedral tilts in halide perovskite nanocrystals induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitons

  Time-resolved measurements show that coupling between electrons and phonons in lead halide perovskites can mediate attractive interactions between excitons, although the interaction strength depends on the specific material.

  • Nuri Yazdani
  • , Maryna I. Bodnarchuk
  •  & Aaron M. Lindenberg

• News & Views | 31 October 2023

  Phonon slowdown

  A detailed understanding of phonon transport is crucial for engineering the thermal properties of materials. A particular doping strategy is now shown to lead to good thermoelectric performance with low thermal conductivity.

  • Zhilun Lu

• Thesis | 10 August 2023

  Physics in a cocktail glass

  • Mark Buchanan

• Research Briefing | 01 May 2023

  A multilayer superconductor acts as an interdependent network

  An experimental platform comprising two disordered superconductors separated by a thermally conducting electrical insulator represents a controllable physical system of interdependent networks. This system is modelled by thermally coupled networks of Josephson junctions. This platform could provide insights into theoretical multiscale phenomena, such as cascading tipping points or self-organized branching processes.

• Article
  16 March 2023 | Open Access

  Probing many-body dynamics in a two-dimensional dipolar spin ensemble

  Solid-state systems are established candidates to study models of many-body physics but have limited control and readout capabilities. Ensembles of defects in diamond may provide a solution for studying dipolar systems.

  • E. J. Davis
  • , B. Ye
  •  & N. Y. Yao

• Article | 23 January 2023

  Visualization of bulk and edge photocurrent flow in anisotropic Weyl semimetals

  Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of photocurrent generation is important for photodetector design. Now, the anisotropy of the thermal properties of Weyl semimetals is shown to generate circulating photocurrents.

  • Yu-Xuan Wang
  • , Xin-Yue Zhang
  •  & Brian B. Zhou

• Article
  22 December 2022 | Open Access

  Ultrafast X-ray imaging of the light-induced phase transition in VO₂

  The intermediate states in photo-excited phase transitions are expected to be inhomogeneous. However, ultrafast X-ray imaging shows the early part of the metal–insulator transition in VO₂ is homogeneous but then becomes heterogeneous.

  • Allan S. Johnson
  • , Daniel Perez-Salinas
  •  & Simon E. Wall

• Article | 18 August 2022

  Piezomagnetic switching of the anomalous Hall effect in an antiferromagnet at room temperature

  Control of magnetization is important for applications in spintronics. Now, the piezomagnetic effect allows strain to control the anomalous Hall effect in a metal at room temperature by rotating its antiferromagnetic order.

  • M. Ikhlas
  • , S. Dasgupta
  •  & S. Nakatsuji

• Article | 28 February 2022

  Strained crystalline nanomechanical resonators with quality factors above 10 billion

  Soft clamping reduces the dissipation of nanomechanical resonators, but this method has been limited to amorphous materials. When applied in crystalline silicon, it enables resonators with quality factors beyond ten billion.

  • A. Beccari
  • , D. A. Visani
  •  & T. J. Kippenberg

• Article
  23 December 2021 | Open Access

  Evidence for equilibrium exciton condensation in monolayer WTe₂

  Exciton condensation has been observed in various three-dimensional (3D) materials. Now, monolayer WTe₂—a 2D topological insulator—also shows the phenomenon. Strong electronic interactions allow the excitons to form and condense at high temperature.

  • Bosong Sun
  • , Wenjin Zhao
  •  & David H. Cobden

• Article | 15 July 2021

  Detecting photoelectrons from spontaneously formed excitons

  Excitons have been predicted to form spontaneously—without external excitation—in some materials. Low-temperature ARPES measurements on Ta₂NiSe₅ now provide evidence for such an excitonic insulator and for so-called preformed excitons.

  • Keisuke Fukutani
  • , Roland Stania
  •  & Han Woong Yeom

• Article | 21 January 2021

  Exchange bias due to coupling between coexisting antiferromagnetic and spin-glass orders

  Coexistence of a spin-glass phase with antiferromagnetism in an intercalated crystal produces a large exchange bias effect. This is due to the interplay of disorder and frustration.

  • Eran Maniv
  • , Ryan A. Murphy
  •  & James G. Analytis

• Letter | 28 September 2020

  Observation of flat bands in twisted bilayer graphene

  Spectroscopic measurements using nano-ARPES on twisted bilayer graphene directly highlight the presence of the flat bands.

  • Simone Lisi
  • , Xiaobo Lu
  •  & Felix Baumberger

• Letter | 02 December 2019

  Long-range ballistic propagation of carriers in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite thin films

  Charge-carrier dynamics are fundamental to the operation and performance of semiconductor devices. In methylammonium lead iodide perovskites, carriers in the non-equilibrium regime after excitation propagate ballistically over 150 nm within 20 fs.

  • Jooyoung Sung
  • , Christoph Schnedermann
  •  & Akshay Rao

• Letter | 26 August 2019

  Giant gate-controlled proximity magnetoresistance in semiconductor-based ferromagnetic–non-magnetic bilayers

  The authors demonstrate magnetoresistance of 80% from a two-dimensional electron gas proximity coupled to a ferromagnetic layer. This extends spintronics functionality to semiconductor devices.

  • Kosuke Takiguchi
  • , Le Duc Anh
  •  & Masaaki Tanaka

• Letter | 30 July 2018

  Giant anomalous Nernst effect and quantum-critical scaling in a ferromagnetic semimetal

  A magnetic field and temperature gradient produce a large electric potential in a ferromagnet, indicating the possible presence of Weyl points. The specific structure of Weyl points gives the electrons quantum-critical properties.

  • Akito Sakai
  • , Yo Pierre Mizuta
  •  & Satoru Nakatsuji

• Review Article | 02 March 2018

  Antiferromagnetic opto-spintronics

  An overview of how electromagnetic radiation can be used for probing and modification of the magnetic order in antiferromagnets, and possible future research directions.

  • P. Němec
  • , M. Fiebig
  •  & A. V. Kimel

• Research Highlights | 01 November 2017

  Sensor extraordinaire

  • Andreas H. Trabesinger

• Review Article | 25 September 2017

  Emergent functions of quantum materials

  Topology and collective phenomena give quantum materials emergent functions that provide a platform for developing next-generation quantum technologies, as surveyed in this Review.

  • Yoshinori Tokura
  • , Masashi Kawasaki
  •  & Naoto Nagaosa

• Article | 31 July 2017

  Coexistence of ultra-long spin relaxation time and coherent charge transport in organic single-crystal semiconductors

  A linear relationship between spin and momentum relaxation shows that the spin relaxation in an organic semiconductor crystal that has ultra-long spin lifetimes and coherent band-like transport is governed by the Elliott–Yafet mechanism.

  • Junto Tsurumi
  • , Hiroyuki Matsui
  •  & Jun Takeya

• News & Views | 19 October 2015

  The anharmonicity blacksmith

  Anharmonicity is a property of lattice vibrations governing how they interact and how well they conduct heat. Experiments on tin selenide, the most efficient thermoelectric material known, now provide a link between anharmonicity and electronic orbitals.

  • Joseph P. Heremans

• Article | 19 October 2015

  Orbitally driven giant phonon anharmonicity in SnSe

  Tin selenide is at present the best thermoelectric conversion material. Neutron scattering results and ab initio simulations show that the large phonon scattering is due to the development of a lattice instability driven by orbital interactions.

  • C. W. Li
  • , J. Hong
  •  & O. Delaire

• Letter | 21 September 2015

  Three-stage decoherence dynamics of an electron spin qubit in an optically active quantum dot

  The mechanisms of decoherence in solid-state spin qubits subject to low magnetic fields turn out to be more complex than previously expected as an additional fast relaxation stage has now been identified.

  • Alexander Bechtold
  • , Dominik Rauch
  •  & Jonathan J. Finley

• News & Views | 16 March 2015

  The birth of an exciton

  The photons that make up visible light are indivisible. But certain organic materials can use singlet fission to divide the energy from one photon equally between two molecules. Experiments now reveal the molecular dynamics behind this phenomenon.

  • Troy Van Voorhis

• Letter | 16 March 2015

  Orbital textures and charge density waves in transition metal dichalcogenides

  A theoretical and experimental study reveals the relation between charge density waves and orbital textures for different stackings in a two-dimensional layered material.

  • T. Ritschel
  • , J. Trinckauf
  •  & J. Geck

• Article | 16 March 2015

  Evidence for conical intersection dynamics mediating ultrafast singlet exciton fission

  A vibrational wavepacket generated in a spin singlet is shown to be transferable to spin triplets during singlet fission in organic semiconductors, providing a link between multi-molecular singlet fission and single-molecular internal conversion.

  • Andrew J. Musser
  • , Matz Liebel
  •  & Philipp Kukura

• Letter | 02 February 2015

  Dynamics and inertia of skyrmionic spin structures

  Understanding the motion of magnetic skyrmions is essential if they are to be used as information carriers in devices. It is now shown that topological confinement endows the skyrmions with an unexpectedly large mass, which plays a key role in their dynamics.

  • Felix Büttner
  • , C. Moutafis
  •  & S. Eisebitt

• News & Views | 10 November 2014

  Power inequality

  Non-reciprocal components are useful in microwave engineering and photonics, but they are not without their drawbacks. A compact design now provides non-reciprocity without resorting to magnets or nonlinearity.

  • Ari Sihvola

• Letter | 10 November 2014

  Magnetic-free non-reciprocity and isolation based on parametrically modulated coupled-resonator loops

  Communication systems require non-reciprocal electromagnetic propagation, which is difficult to realize in circuits. An alternative is demonstrated by modulating the phase of strongly coupled resonators in a circular configuration.

  • Nicholas A. Estep
  • , Dimitrios L. Sounas
  •  & Andrea Alù

• Research Highlights | 30 May 2014

  Sense for symmetry

  • Abigail Klopper

• News & Views | 22 September 2013

  Orbital control

  On cooling, transition metal oxides often undergo a phase change from an electrically conducting to an insulating state. Now it is shown that the metal–insulator transition temperature of vanadium dioxide thin films can be controlled by applying strain.

  • Takashi Mizokawa

• News & Views | 05 February 2012

  To see a SAW

  Mechanical oscillations of microscopic resonators have recently been observed in the quantum regime. This idea could soon be extended from localized vibrations to travelling waves thanks to a sensitive probe of so-called surface acoustic waves.

  • Aashish Clerk

• Article | 05 February 2012

  Local probing of propagating acoustic waves in a gigahertz echo chamber

  Mechanical oscillations of microscopic resonators have recently been observed in the quantum regime. This idea could soon be extended from localized vibrations to travelling waves thanks to a sensitive probe of so-called surface acoustic waves.

  • Martin V. Gustafsson
  • , Paulo V. Santos
  •  & Per Delsing