Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Unprecedented control over the superposition of electronic states in a 'quantum corral', exerted by changing the position of a single atom within it, provides a powerful tool for studying the quantum behaviour of matter.
The development of compact plasma accelerators, enabled by the advent of high-power lasers, could revolutionize the use of particle beams. This review presents the physical principles that underlie such devices and provides an outlook on the possibilities.
Control over the distribution of electrons in a relativistic particle beam enables the realization of a bright, narrow, tunable source of terahertz radiation.
The energy of an atom binding one photon in a cavity can be derived classically. But when two photons are bound to the atom, signatures of light quantization appear in the spectrum. These have now been observed in the optical domain.
A systematic study of ionization and high harmonic generation in strong laser fields at long wavelengths confirms predictions made 40 years ago, and has important implications for the development of attosecond light sources.
Although a driven colloidal suspension is not at equilibrium, a systematic study shows that such a system can still undergo a phase transition — albeit to a randomly organized state.
The requirement for an object to be surrounded by empty space when imaged by coherent X-ray diffraction was once thought to be a fundamental limitation. A variant of coherent diffractive imaging proves this not to be the case, and substantially widens its potential use.
In a solid, electrons behave differently than in a vacuum. In particular, their charge can break up into fractions of the elementary charge. Theoretical work shows how the electron's spin could help to observe fractional charges directly.
Quantum mechanics provides the means for solving certain communication tasks more efficiently than is possible classically. Photons entangled in multiple degrees of freedom could provide a route to fully tap that potential.
Despite more than a decade of study, single-wall carbon nanotubes still have the ability to surprise. One recent study finds that in ultraclean nanotubes an unexpectedly strong spin–orbit coupling arises; another demonstrates their ability to support one-dimensional Wigner crystals.
The complex behaviour of high-temperature superconductors has inspired some complex models and theories, but a conventional model seems to work just fine for scanning tunnelling spectroscopy.
Beautiful, intricate patterns in limestone result from feedback between hydrodynamics and chemistry. This self-organizing process resides in an unfamiliar region of parameter space for systems of deposition under fluid flow.
