NEWSROOM

Findings reveal how molecular defects can enhance light conversion efficiency

A Würzburg research team has achieved the world’s first experimental confirmation of the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) universality class in two-dimensional quantum systems. Using polaritons in a precisely engineered GaAs semiconductor cooled to near absolute zero, they tracked the nonlinear, random growth process in both space and time—proving the famous 1986 growth equation holds in 2D.

Rice University chemists led by Raúl Hernández Sánchez have enabled neodymium to bind dioxygen via pi interactions using a custom ligand “basket.” This breakthrough created rare, highly reactive lanthanide-oxo species, mimicking iron-oxo centers in biology. The advance could open new synthetic routes for high-value chemicals across f-block metals. (JACS)

Strange things happen to materials when you peel them down, layer by layer, from thick chunks all the way to sheets just an atom thick. Reporting in the journal Nature Materials, a team led by physicists at The University of Texas at Austin has experimentally demonstrated a sequence of exotic magnetic phases in an ultrathin material that for the first time fully realize a theoretical model of two-dimensional magnetism first proposed in the 1970s. The researchers say the advan

Air cavities help atom-thin semiconductors shine brighter

Advanced imaging reveals a detailed understanding of the mechanisms driving a previously misunderstood material, researchers say