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Valleytronics — exploiting a system’s pseudospin degree of freedom — is being increasingly explored in sonic crystals. Now, valley transport of sound is reported for a macroscopic triangular-lattice array of rod-like scatterers in a 2D air waveguide.
Experiments show that when driven by electric currents, magnetic skyrmions experience transverse motion due to their topological charge — similar to the conventional Hall effect experienced by charged particles in a perpendicular magnetic field.
Photoemission is usually driven by the energy of the illuminating laser pulses, but in the strong-field regime, the photoemission from an array of plasmonic nanoparticles is shown to be controlled by the light’s electric field.
Larval starfish use an outer layer of cilia to generate vortices in the fluid around their bodies. Spectacular imaging and mathematical modelling are combined to reveal that these dynamics are alternately optimized for swimming and feeding.
Resonances in the tunnelling spectra of a two-dimensional electron system provide strong evidence that the electrons arrange themselves into a Wigner crystal lattice with long-range ordering.
Droplets are an appealing picture for protocells in origin-of-life studies, but it’s unclear how they would have propagated by growth and division. Theory suggests that chemically active droplets spontaneously split into equal daughter droplets.
An optical second-harmonic generation study of a series of transition metal monopnictide Weyl semimetals reveals a giant, anisotropic nonlinear optical response in these systems.
Collections of rolling colloids are shown to pinch off into motile clusters resembling droplets sliding down a windshield. These stable dynamic structures are formed through a fingering instability that relies on hydrodynamic interactions alone.
A detailed and systematic neutron-scattering study uncovers a continuum of magnetic excitations down to 0.06 K in the triangular quantum magnet YbMgGaO4 — an observation consistent with quantum spin liquid behaviour.
Engineering moiré superlattices by stacking two-dimensional crystals could enable lateral superstructures to be formed where the local topological phase is periodically modulated, creating topological mosaics that are electrically switchable.
Single atoms on a surface can be useful in spintronics applications, but their spin lifetime is limited by relaxation. By cleverly employing an STM tip, one can probe the spin dynamics and disentangle different effects leading to relaxation.
Adiabatic processes are useful in quantum control, but they are slow. A way around this is to exploit shortcuts to adiabaticity, which can speed things up — for instance, by boosting stimulated Raman adiabatic passage.
High-harmonic generation in a solid turns out to be sensitive to the interatomic bonding — a very useful feature that could enable the all-optical imaging of the interatomic potential.
When deforming snow slowly, it resists. But when applying a deformation rapidly, it gives in more easily. Experiments now reveal propagating deformation bands and the localization of strain in compressed snow — both natural and artificial.
Observations of high-harmonic generation from a single layer of a transition metal dichalcogenide opens the door to studying strong-field and attosecond phenomena in two-dimensional materials.
The strength of optical trapping of a nanodiamond can be increased by cooperative effects between its numerous colour centres — or artificial atoms: an observation that brings together ideas from atom and nanoparticle trapping.
Observations show that, like light solar-mass stars, heavy stars also form through episodic disk-accretion; but faster, more energetic and emitting more light.
The synchronization of nine nanoconstriction spin Hall nano-oscillators brings spin-based oscillators closer to the power and noise requirements needed for practical applications.
High-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy measurements show that chains of magnetic atoms on the surface of a superconductor provide a promising platform for realizing and manipulating Majorana fermion quasiparticles.