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News & Views |
Of electrons and photons
Multi-colour light fields allow a nonlinear coupling between free electrons and propagating light by stimulated Compton scattering, without the need for near fields to mediate the interaction.
- Niklas Müller
- & Sascha Schäfer
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Article
| Open AccessCoulomb-correlated electron number states in a transmission electron microscope beam
Coulomb interactions in free-electron beams are usually seen as an adverse effect. The creation of distinctive number states with one, two, three and four electrons now reveals unexpected opportunities for electron microscopy and lithography from Coulomb correlations.
- Rudolf Haindl
- , Armin Feist
- & Claus Ropers
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Article |
Thermalization and dynamics of high-energy quasiparticles in a superconducting nanowire
The performance of superconducting devices is affected by the generation and relaxation of excitations called quasiparticles. A scanning tunnelling microscope can controllably inject quasiparticles so their dynamics can be better understood.
- T. Jalabert
- , E. F. C. Driessen
- & C. Chapelier
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Letter
| Open AccessImaging ferroelectric domains with a single-spin scanning quantum sensor
A scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscope is used to image ferroelectric domains in piezoelectric and improper ferroelectric samples with high sensitivity. The technique relies on the nitrogen-vacancy’s Stark shift produced by the samples’ electric field.
- William S. Huxter
- , Martin F. Sarott
- & Christian L. Degen
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Article |
Three-state nematicity and magneto-optical Kerr effect in the charge density waves in kagome superconductors
The interplay between superconductivity that might break time-reversal symmetry and charge order is a key issue in kagome materials. Now, optical measurements show that spatial and time-reversal symmetries are broken at the onset of charge order.
- Yishuai Xu
- , Zhuoliang Ni
- & Liang Wu
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Letter |
Coherence enhancement of solid-state qubits by local manipulation of the electron spin bath
Nitrogen vacancy centres close to the surface of diamonds are a key component of quantum sensing technologies. Using an atomic force microscope to manipulate the surface electrostatic environment can significantly improve the sensing performance.
- Wentian Zheng
- , Ke Bian
- & Ying Jiang
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Letter |
Imaging local discharge cascades for correlated electrons in WS2/WSe2 moiré superlattices
The Hubbard model describes many fascinating phenomena, but relating it to complicated quantum materials is difficult. Now, atomic-resolution measurements can estimate the interaction parameters that appear in the model for real materials.
- Hongyuan Li
- , Shaowei Li
- & Feng Wang
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News & Views |
Polarization out of the vortex
The virtual photons that are exchanged when a free-electron vortex beam interacts with a nanoscopic target unlock an explicit connection between polarized optical spectroscopy and the inelastic scattering of scalar electron waves.
- David J. Masiello
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Article |
Experimental identification of two distinct skyrmion collapse mechanisms
In principle skyrmions are topologically protected, but the crystal lattice interferes with this protection so that they should be unstable to switching of their winding number. Here this process is understood via scanning tunnelling microscopy.
- Florian Muckel
- , Stephan von Malottki
- & Markus Morgenstern
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Article |
Resonant phase-matching between a light wave and a free-electron wavefunction
Energy–momentum phase-matching enables strong interactions between free electrons and light waves. As a result, the wavefunction of the electron exhibits a comb structure, which was observed using photon-induced near-field electron microscopy.
- Raphael Dahan
- , Saar Nehemia
- & Ido Kaminer
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Article |
Binary icosahedral clusters of hard spheres in spherical confinement
The authors investigate out-of-equilibrium crystallization of a binary mixture of sphere-like nanoparticles in small droplets. They observe the spontaneous formation of an icosahedral structure with stable MgCu2 phases, which are promising for photonic applications.
- Da Wang
- , Tonnishtha Dasgupta
- & Alfons van Blaaderen
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Letter |
Nematic transitions in iron pnictide superconductors imaged with a quantum gas
A trapped quantum gas and optical microscopy are simultaneously employed to measure the nematicity of an iron-based superconductor. This demonstrates the potential of quantum gases to be used for scanning microscopy of quantum materials.
- Fan Yang
- , Stephen F. Taylor
- & Benjamin L. Lev
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Letter |
Vibrational spectroscopy at atomic resolution with electron impact scattering
Conventional on-axis electron energy-loss spectroscopy can detect vibrational modes in crystals and amorphous solids at atomic resolution by isolating the specific signal from the background signal and the dipole contributions.
- Kartik Venkatraman
- , Barnaby D. A. Levin
- & Peter A. Crozier
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Measure for Measure |
Of limited length
Continuously improving precision in length measurements increases understanding of our world and its phenomena, both at small and large scales, as Leo Gross reveals.
- Leo Gross
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News & Views |
Putting the gap on the map
The measurement of the charge density wave energy gap in high-temperature superconducting cuprates uncovers new links between competing states.
- Jiarui Li
- & Riccardo Comin
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Letter |
Wavelength-scale errors in optical localization due to spin–orbit coupling of light
The spin–orbit coupling of light leads to systematic wavelength-scale errors in the measurement of the position of emitters of elliptically polarized light.
- G. Araneda
- , S. Walser
- & A. Rauschenbeutel
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Letter |
Sign reversal of the order parameter in (Li1−xFex)OHFe1−yZnySe
A scanning tunnelling microscopy study of an intercalated iron selenide-based superconductor reveals a sign change in its superconducting gap function, providing indirect evidence for the origin of the pairing mechanism in this system.
- Zengyi Du
- , Xiong Yang
- & Hai-Hu Wen
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News & Views |
The benefits of getting high
Standard rheology tells us how a cell responds to deformation. But ramping up the frequency reveals more about its internal dynamics and morphology, mapping a route to improved drug treatments — and possible insight into the malignancy of cancers.
- Klaus Kroy
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Letter |
High-frequency microrheology reveals cytoskeleton dynamics in living cells
Microrheology of cells suggests that the dynamics of single filaments in the cytoskeleton dominate at high frequencies. This response can be used to detect differences between cell types and states — including benign and malignant cancer cells.
- Annafrancesca Rigato
- , Atsushi Miyagi
- & Felix Rico
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Letter |
Subatomic-scale force vector mapping above a Ge(001) dimer using bimodal atomic force microscopy
Measuring vector quantities in nanoscale systems is challenging — often only scalar magnitudes can be experimentally obtained. Now, a multi-frequency atomic force microscopy method for probing the 3D force response of a Ge(001) surface is reported.
- Yoshitaka Naitoh
- , Robert Turanský
- & Yasuhiro Sugawara
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Article |
Ultrafast terahertz control of extreme tunnel currents through single atoms on a silicon surface
Controlling electric currents on the atomic scale requires being able to handle the ultrafast timescales involved. Now, experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of terahertz scanning tunnelling microscopy as a method for doing just that.
- Vedran Jelic
- , Krzysztof Iwaszczuk
- & Frank A. Hegmann
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Article |
Nanotextured phase coexistence in the correlated insulator V2O3
A near-field optical microscopy study provides nanoscale insight into an insulator-to-metal transition and the interplay with a neighbouring structural phase transition in a prototypical correlated electron material.
- A. S. McLeod
- , E. van Heumen
- & D. N. Basov
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News & Views |
Heavy going
Chiral symmetry breaking is imaged in graphene which, through a mechanism analogous to mass generation in quantum electrodynamics, could provide a means for making it semiconducting.
- Christopher Mudry
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News & Views |
Ready for a close-up
Rashba spin–orbit coupling has already provided fertile physics and applications in spintronics but real-space imaging shows how the strength of this interaction varies on the nanoscale.
- Junsaku Nitta
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Letter |
A universal moiré effect and application in X-ray phase-contrast imaging
Overlaying two transparent phase masks in a light beam results in a far-field achromatic intensity pattern. This effect lies at the basis of a polychromatic far-field interferometer for use in X-ray phase-contrast imaging without absorption gratings.
- Houxun Miao
- , Alireza Panna
- & Han Wen
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News & Views |
Protons in concert
The transfer of protons across a high barrier only occasionally occurs through quantum-mechanical tunnelling. Low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy shows concerted tunnelling of four protons within chiral cyclic water tetramers supported on an inert surface.
- Christof Drechsel-Grau
- & Dominik Marx
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Letter |
Direct visualization of concerted proton tunnelling in a water nanocluster
Many-body tunnelling is a complex but important phenomenon. Scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments with a Cl-terminated tip on a cyclic cluster of hydrogen-bonded water molecules now demonstrate controllable concerted tunnelling of four protons.
- Xiangzhi Meng
- , Jing Guo
- & Ying Jiang
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Letter |
Nonlinear inelastic electron scattering revealed by plasmon-enhanced electron energy-loss spectroscopy
Electron energy-loss spectroscopy uses inelastically scattered electrons to provide information about a material’s chemical composition. It is now shown that localized plasmonic excitations can lead to nonlinear scattering, significantly enhancing the signals arising from inelastic electrons.
- Chun Kai Xu
- , Wen Jie Liu
- & Xiang Jun Chen
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News & Views |
Chaotic memory
Controlled switching of interacting ferroelectric surface domains leads to a variety of regular and chaotic patterns, and could provide a physical platform for performing calculations.
- Alain Pignolet
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Letter |
Magnetic monopole field exposed by electrons
Magnetic monopoles continue to be elusive. However, an experiment now shows that the interaction of an electron beam with the tip of a nanoscopically thin magnetic needle—a close approximation to a magnetic monopole field—generates an electron vortex state, as expected for a true magnetic monopole field.
- Armand Béché
- , Ruben Van Boxem
- & Jo Verbeeck
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Article |
Intermittency, quasiperiodicity and chaos in probe-induced ferroelectric domain switching
Ferroelectric domain switching on the surface of a lithium niobate thin film can be induced by the tip of a scanning probe microscope, and gives rise to both regular and chaotic spatiotemporal patterns. Moreover, the long-range interactions that govern these phenomena can be tuned by varying temperature, humidity, domain spacing and tip bias.
- A. V. Ievlev
- , S. Jesse
- & S. V. Kalinin
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