NEWSROOM

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are the first to directly utilize orbital currents without the need for conversion of the orbital current into a spin current. “We have thus realized the first purely orbitronic device approach,” said Dr. Christin Schmitt, a scientist in the research group of Professor Mathias Kläui at the JGU Institute of Physics. Orbitronics is a promising technology for future memory devices, as it could enable the realization of lar

certain wavelength and direction will also emit heat in the same ways. This fundamental relationship, known as reciprocity, limits our ability to independently control heat absorption and heat emission. But if absorption and emission could be separated, engineers could design devices that absorb heat from one direction while emitting it in another. By ‘steering’ thermal energy, they could create more efficient thermal management, energy conversion, infrared sensing, and th

MIT researchers have found that rhombohedral graphene — a naturally occurring staircase-like stack of four or five atomically thin carbon layers found in ordinary graphite — can host multiple distinct superconducting states simultaneously, a rarity among known superconductors. Publishing in Nature, the team reports that three of these states not only survive exposure to magnetic fields up to around 9 tesla (roughly 180,000 times Earth's magnetic field), which would normally d

An international research team has demonstrated that the intrinsic disorder of the compound semiconductor CuInSnS₄ can be exploited to influence its optical properties. While the atomic vibrations also sense the local disorder, their response is averaged over many different local environments and therefore appear isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal. In contrast, the optical excitations, known as excitons, are much more sensitive to the local arrangement of atoms. Surpr

MIT researchers have developed a new approach that dramatically improves the modeling of chemically disordered metal alloys, a long-standing challenge in materials science. Traditional simulation techniques struggle with the complex atomic arrangements in real-world alloys. The team addressed this by creating smarter training datasets for machine-learning models that better capture the diverse local chemical environments in disordered materials. Using information theory to ge

Chiral 2D metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are among the most promising materials for future technologies that exploit the spin of electrons in spin-based optoelectronics or spintronics, but getting them to perform consistently has proven difficult. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a data-driven approach that identifies and models key synthesis parameters to optimize their performance.

Researchers at Tohoku University have uncovered the long-standing mystery behind the synthesis of Janus two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, paving the way for more precise manufacturing of materials used in future electronics and clean energy technologies. Janus 2D materials are named after the two-faced Roman god because their top and bottom surfaces are composed of different elements. This asymmetry creates a strong internal electric field, making them attractive for appl

An international research team has observed Jahn-Teller polarons, unique quasiparticles, in cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) crystals triggered by precisely tailored laser pulses. These polarons emerge through ultrafast electron transfer and local lattice distortions, dramatically influencing the material’s structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. Using advanced pump probe spectroscopy and theoretical modeling led by physicists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Ac

A hard drive maker's nanophotonics push is on track to outscale East Asian laser producers within 18 months. Seagate's Springtown facility in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, is on course to become the world's largest producer of semiconductor lasers by volume within roughly 18 months, according to evidence given to the UK's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. The plant already leads laser production in Europe and currently manufactures between one-fifth and one-quarter o

Quad, a company specializing in superconducting nanowire monophoton detectors (SNSPDs), announced on the 22nd that it has completed attracting 2.1 billion won worth of pre-A round investment. @BluePoint Quad becomes Korea's first dedicated SNSPD company, betting on a sensor technology that's becoming foundational to quantum computing, LiDAR, and defense applications. Quad, a South Korean startup building superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), has closed a

A research team from Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan, the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, and other collaborators has demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and time—can be created using everyday liquid-crystal materials.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have developed a technique for interrogating molecules on surfaces with spectroscopic precision and thereby reaching the ultimate quantum limit for the first time. With their findings, published in Science, the researchers open new opportunities for the study of molecule-surface interactions and molecular quantum technologies.