https://phys.org/physics-news/materials/ en-us The latest news on Physics, Materials, Science and Technology If a liquid is cooled slowly to its freezing point, it becomes a crystal in which the constituent particles are arranged in an ordered pattern. In contrast, when the liquid is cooled very quickly, the particles are unable to arrange themselves in an ordered fashion, and it becomes glass. Glassy materials are all around us in everyday life. Common examples include window glass, certain metal alloys, polymers, foams, gels and even soft materials like emulsions and colloids. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-glasses-suddenly-deform-smoothly.html General Physics Wed, 08 Jul 2026 19:00:05 EDT news702746156 Researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed the first magnetic multipole-based micromagnetic model for antiferromagnets. Published in Applied Physics Reviews, their generalized framework provides a theoretical and computational foundation for designing future spintronic devices made with antiferromagnetic materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-octupole-captures-domain-wall.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:20:09 EDT news702658045 It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from Earth's surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate the extreme temperature and pressure conditions of Earth's inner core. This enabled the first-ever simultaneous measurement of iron's dynamic strength at relevant temperatures and pressures. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-iron-motion-earth-core-conditions.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:30:03 EDT news702648393 Researchers from the Quantum Hardware group at CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with the British company Quantum Motion, have demonstrated an advanced readout sensor for spin qubits that, while being more compact than previous designs, can reach the level of readout precision needed to implement quantum error correction protocols. The study has been published in the journal Nature Sensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ultra-compact-sensor-paves-powerful.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:20:01 EDT news702639003 Electrons, negatively charged particles, sometimes coordinate their movements in ways that produce certain collective excitations referred to as quasiparticles. One case in which this occurs is the quantum Hall effect, a phenomenon that emerges when electrons are confined to a very thin layer, cooled to temperatures around 0 kelvin and exposed to a very strong magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-evidence-elusive-high-energy-gravitons.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:00:08 EDT news702543513 Physicists have long puzzled over a strange contradiction inside a family of minerals called rutile oxides. These materials all share the same crystal structure—but while some of them, like titanium dioxide, are firmly insulating, others, like ruthenium dioxide, conduct electricity like a metal. So far, physicists have had little idea of why this happens. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-metallic-rutile-oxides-cooling.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:00:09 EDT news702627994 Ferromagnetism has long been studied in a wide range of periodic crystals and amorphous materials. In quasicrystals (QCs), which possess long-range quasiperiodic order and unconventional rotational symmetries, such as 10-fold symmetry, ferromagnetism remained elusive until recently, when it was finally realized in gold (Au)-based icosahedral QCs. These discoveries establish QCs as a third platform for magnetism beyond periodic crystals and amorphous materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bulk-ferromagnetic-quasicrystals-emerge-rapid.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:00:01 EDT news702571031 Magnetic storage devices, like a computer's hard disk drive, utilize magnets to represent binary data. However, as these devices are downsized, stray magnetic fields generated by individual magnetic components can interact with neighboring elements to cause operational malfunctions, limiting how much data we can densely pack into memory devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-chirality-memory.html Condensed Matter Sun, 05 Jul 2026 06:40:02 EDT news702292237 A German-Japanese research team involving the University of Augsburg has made a significant breakthrough in the use of antiferromagnets. For the first time, the team has succeeded in writing magnetic information using only ultrashort laser pulses—without the need for electric currents or magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-optical-antiferromagnets-storage-devices-energy.html Condensed Matter Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news702223904 Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method that uses a single ion to detect electromagnetic fields above a surface and to create a three-dimensional map of them. In the future, this approach can be used to improve chips for quantum computers and quantum sensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ion-3d-electromagnetic-fields-chips.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:20:04 EDT news702223023 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-orbitronics-key-hurdle-orbital-currents.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:10:01 EDT news702229681 Quantum materials, materials exhibiting physical behavior governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, have proved promising for the development of numerous advanced technologies, including quantum technologies, memory devices and solar panels. In some of these materials, electrons can collectively arrange themselves in unusual patterns, giving rise to states that cannot be explained by classical physics theories. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spontaneous-current-loops-kagome-metal.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:20:07 EDT news702218355 The ordinary graphite in pencil lead is proving to be surprisingly multifaceted at the microscale. In a study published in the journal Nature, MIT researchers report that a certain microscopic structure found in natural graphite can host multiple superconducting states. Superconductivity is an electronic state of matter in which electrons pair up and glide through a material with zero resistance. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-graphene-multiple-states-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Mon, 29 Jun 2026 18:40:01 EDT news701961484 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 appears isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-disorder-optics-compound-semiconductors.html Condensed Matter Mon, 29 Jun 2026 18:10:02 EDT news701968441 An international team of quantum researchers has shown how machine learning can be used to filter a practically infinite number of possible material combinations to identify candidates for superconductivity. Thanks to the breakthrough, new superconductors can now be found much faster, says Aalto University Professor Päivi Törmä, who leads the SuperC consortium behind the research. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-superconductors-yield-thousands.html Condensed Matter Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:20:09 EDT news701954709 Almost every material expands when heated. Well-known examples include railroad tracks and concrete roadways, which feature visible expansion gaps to accommodate this effect. However, thermal expansion poses a far more acute challenge for extremely precise technologies, such as lasers and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, where even minute dimensional changes can compromise precision. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-crystal-strategy-thermal-expansion.html Condensed Matter Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:40:01 EDT news701696989 A research team led by Prof. Zhang Jinglei from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that the trilayer nickelate La4Ni3O10-δ exhibits a nearly isotropic upper critical field under high pressure. This finding provides important experimental insight into the superconducting mechanism of nickel-based materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-isotropic-superconducting-property-revealed-trilayer.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:20:01 EDT news701622961 In an international experiment, researchers observed Jahn–Teller polarons—quasiparticles that could play an important role in future ultrafast spintronic devices. These polarons emerged within the crystal lattice of cobalt oxide that had been activated by carefully tailored laser pulses. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-laser-pulses-capture-unexplored-polaronic.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:40:02 EDT news701617923 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-roadmap-boost-gen-spintronics.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news701626681 Although the efficiency of organic solar cells has now risen to more than 20%, there are physical limits that make it difficult to further increase their performance. A research team from Linköping University in Sweden, the University of Potsdam, the Paul-Drude-Institut in Berlin and other collaborators has now demonstrated which physical processes limit a key parameter in the performance of organic solar cells. This opens up the possibility of overcoming the long-standing efficiency limits of organic solar cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-longer-exciton-lifetimes-ease-efficiency.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:40:05 EDT news701535301 Magnetic fields are generally known to destroy superconductivity in a material. However, in exceptional cases, they can lead to what is known as "re-entrant superconductivity"—where superconductivity disappears as expected, but then unexpectedly returns when the magnetic field is increased further. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-magnetic-field-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:00:02 EDT news701532785 Multiferroics are materials that exhibit more than one prominent "ferroic" property, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. One of their most advantageous features is that they allow engineers to control their magnetic states with electric fields or vice versa, due to an effect known as magnetoelectric coupling. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-interlayer-doping-room-temperature-multiferroics.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:40:01 EDT news701346383 Magnetic quantum oscillations have been unexpectedly observed in insulators, where freely moving charge carriers are not expected to exist. A joint study by researchers from Tokyo University of Science, The University of Tokyo and Kobe University investigated this puzzling behavior in the Kondo insulator YbB12 using ultrasound. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-oscillations-kondo-insulator-ytterbium.html Condensed Matter Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:40:01 EDT news701445483 In a recent study, Manish Garg, independent group leader at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI FKF), succeeded in probing the local properties of bright and dark excitons in the organic superconductor copper naphthalocyanine (CuNc). The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-packet-interferometry-captures-elusive-dark.html Condensed Matter Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:10:03 EDT news701453702 Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical laws of physics governing the behavior of water are influenced by the atomic structure of the walls. "It's not that classical hydrodynamics breaks down, but rather that it gets mixed with the condensed matter physics of the solid walls," says Nikita Kavokine, tenure-track assistant professor and leader of the EPFL Quantum Plumbing Lab. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-molecular-plumbing-nanofluidics.html Condensed Matter Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news701338983 Researchers at the National Graphene Institute, in collaboration with the National University of Singapore, have shown that the magnetic behavior of electrons in graphene can be precisely controlled using electricity, revealing unusually large spin signals in a carefully engineered graphene system. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-electrically-tunable-polarization-graphene-path.html Condensed Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:00:03 EDT news701014116 How does light turn into motion within a metal? A team of researchers from European XFEL, the University of Potsdam and other participating institutions has shown that ultrashort optical laser pulses can trigger extremely rapid lattice vibrations in periodically layered metal structures—not primarily by heating the atomic lattice, but through the pressure exerted by hot electrons. The results are published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-laser-pulses-layered-metals-vibrating.html Condensed Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:10:03 EDT news701018641 Scientists can learn a lot about a quantum material by watching how it responds to light. In magnetic semiconductors, one especially useful messenger is the exciton: a pairing of a negatively charged electron and the positively charged "hole" it leaves behind. Until now, excitons in magnetic materials have mostly been used as reporters. They could reveal how spins were arranged or how magnetic waves moved through a material. But Cornell researchers have shown that excitons can do more than observe magnetism. They can actively steer it. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-magnet-excitons-knob-magnetic.html Condensed Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:00:04 EDT news700995121 A newly developed method allows researchers to dynamically switch chirality—a particular lack of mirror symmetry—to generate spin currents in semiconductors, researchers from Science Tokyo report. Their approach relies on the reversible insertion and removal of small chiral molecules from the interlayer gaps of a layered, nonchiral semiconductor material using electrochemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-reversible-chirality-mos-generates-currents.html Condensed Matter Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:40:05 EDT news700909861 Physicists have long been drawn to the nonlinear Hall effect: a subtle variant of the classical Hall effect, in which an electric voltage appears perpendicular to a current flowing through a material. Unlike its classical counterpart, the nonlinear version can arise even without breaking time-reversal symmetry, and its magnitude is tied to deep geometric properties of electron wave functions. So far, however, the behavior of the effect when a magnetic field is applied has remained poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-hall-effect-gains-graphene.html Condensed Matter Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:40:01 EDT news700903892