Quantum researchers are searching for a topological superconductor—a material that, if discovered, would allow major advances in quantum computing by combining two distinct “flavors” of superconductivity.

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For decades, physicists recognized only two types of magnetism that occur in materials without external influence: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. In findings published in Science, a team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has delivered conclusive experimental proof of a third magnetic phase called altermagnetism.

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A collaborative research team led by Yasuhiro Kobori at Kobe University, together with researchers from Toho University, Saitama University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg, has identified a potential molecular mechanism that could enhance magnetic compass responses in cryptochrome, a blue-light-sensitive protein implicated in magnetoreception.

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Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms in which electrons can move with high mobility, making it promising for high-speed electronic components. Yet it is not very efficient at converting light into electricity. While light absorbed by graphene does excite electrons, leaving behind positively charged carriers called ‘holes,’ the absorbed light energy cannot be […]

The word “vacuum” may conjure the image of empty space. Maybe you think of a region far outside the solar system without planets, debris, gas clouds or light. According to quantum theory, however, a vacuum is never truly empty. Quantum mechanics extends the Heisenberg uncertainty principle—which states that we cannot measure the position and the […]

Researchers have experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to obtain from an altermagnet a spin current that can transport magnetic information. This result is supported by the theoretical model of electron transport developed by the CFM group. Altermagnets are a new class of materials that, despite not exhibiting the net magnetization […]

Theoretical physicists at Emory University have discovered a way to use light to detect the “spectral fingerprints” of anyons—exotic quasiparticles that emerge from the collective behavior of many electrons. Their findings are published in Physical Review Letters. The work offers a new tool for the study of anyons, which hold potential as fundamental building blocks […]

Glasses are (mostly) brittle, metals can be ductile (plastic), and liquids flow easily. Polymers are interesting because they exhibit all three types of behavior, depending on their chemical nature, temperature, and deformation rate. If polymers are not able to crystallize, their low-temperature state is glassy, and they are hard and transparent. One example is poly(methylmethacrylate) […]