NEWSROOM

Quantum materials exhibit remarkable emergent properties when they are excited by external sources. However, these excited states decay rapidly once the excitation is removed, limiting their practical applications. A team of researchers from Harvard University and the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now demonstrated an approach to stabilise these fleeting states and probe their quantum behaviour using bright X-ray flashes from the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL at PSI. T

MIT physicists have demonstrated a new form of magnetism that could one day be harnessed to build faster, denser, and less power-hungry “spintronic” memory chips. The new magnetic state is a mash-up of two main forms of magnetism: the ferromagnetism of everyday fridge magnets and compass needles, and antiferromagnetism, in which materials have magnetic properties at the microscale yet are not macroscopically magnetized.

An international study published in Nature Materials has revealed vortex-like structures in an antiferroelectric material — a class of material with no net polarity. This unprecedented discovery challenges classical theories and opens up exciting new possibilities in materials physics.

Using a new technique, the ETH researchers succeeded in creating the first lithium niobate metalenses with precisely engineered nanostructures. While functioning as normal light focusing lenses, these devices can simultaneously change the wavelength of laser light. When infrared light with a wavelength of 800 nanometres is sent through the metalens, visible radiation with a wavelength of 400 nanometres emerges on the other side and is directed at a designated point.

“We were hugely surprised and excited when we saw the electrons exhibiting wave-like behavior along a preferred axis,” he recalls. “It was like throwing a stone into a pond and observing ripples travelling only left and right, and not in other directions—it seemed like smoking-gun evidence for SSB in a fluid of electrons.”

According to a study published in Advanced Functional Materials, the refined technique can bypass the high-temperature annealing and generates higher-purity diamond films than the original substrates. Moreover, the substrate sustains minimal damage in the process and can be reused, making the whole process resource-efficient and scalable.