Researchers at Kyushu University have found that an ultrathin layer of iridium manganese (IrMn) can improve two spin-related signals in a structure made of a magnetic insulator and a platinum film. By examining how spin currents are generated and absorbed, the team gained insights into how the intermediate layer improves spin transfer. The findings could inform the development of ultralow-power devices for computing and energy harvesting.
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 for quantum computing.
Researchers at EPFL have developed a chip-scale blue laser that combines stable light emission with rapid frequency control, opening possibilities for underwater communication, environmental sensing and quantum technologies.
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 characteristic of conventional magnets, can generate this type of current.
All materials contain inherent defects. These are not always harmful, since they can be used to engineer and introduce certain properties into a material. However, it is crucial to understand how they function and how they affect the material's properties.
Scientists at Rutgers and in Estonia have used invisible light to look into tiny magnetic whirlpools, called vortices, inside a superconductor, revealing details that could help researchers develop better materials for carrying electricity.
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 velocity of an object exactly at the same time—to a vacuum. The result is that a vacuum can never be still.
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 harnessed effectively unless electrons and holes are separated and directed to different contacts.
A research team from Toyohashi University of Technology, the Institute for Molecular Science and the Institute of Science Tokyo, led by Yu Kinjo and professor Ryugo Tero of Toyohashi University of Technology, has developed a new method to investigate the state of water near material surfaces using X-rays. By combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy with data analysis, the researchers separated the weak signals of interfacial water from those of the much larger amount of surrounding water.
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.
Graphene, a material consisting of a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, has proved promising for various technological applications. Materials in which several layers of graphene are stacked together can exhibit different advantageous properties.
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.
Quantum networks could one day connect quantum computers into more powerful systems and enable new forms of secure communication. But a fundamental obstacle stands in the way: Quantum information is extraordinarily fragile, and the entanglement between particles of light on which such networks would depend is easily disrupted.
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.
Particle accelerators are expensive. Not just to build or to run, but also to predict the outcome of measurements obtained from them.
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