Crystal phenomena as a research area investigates the physical behaviors and properties that arise from the ordered atomic or molecular arrangements in crystalline solids, including symmetry-governed effects and defect-related responses. It encompasses studies of phase transitions, lattice dynamics, crystallographic defects (dislocations, vacancies, interfaces), anisotropic mechanical, thermal, and electronic behavior, as well as optical and dielectric responses governed by crystal symmetry and band structure. The field integrates experimental techniques such as X-ray and neutron diffraction, electron microscopy, and spectroscopies with theoretical and computational methods to elucidate structure–property relationships, enabling the design and control of functional materials in electronics, photonics, mechanics, and quantum technologies.
A research team led by the University of Osaka, working with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), RIKEN and the Institute of Science Tokyo, has uncovered a fundamental mechanism behind ...
General Physics
Jul 16, 2026
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37
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, ...
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have developed a technique for interrogating molecules on surfaces with spectroscopic precision, thereby reaching the ultimate quantum limit for the first ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 26, 2026
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90
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 ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 26, 2026
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47
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 ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 25, 2026
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12
Materials scientists at Rice University have developed a new workflow methodology for measuring microscopic defects in diamond and other advanced semiconductor materials. By making it easier to spot flaws that can undermine ...
Nanophysics
Jun 25, 2026
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Flocking birds and schools of fish are a familiar sight. While previous research has uncovered the broad dynamics driving these movements, their underlying intricacies remain a mystery. Now a study by a team of New York University ...
Soft Matter
Jun 18, 2026
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Raman optical activity, long thought to require chiral molecules or magnetic order, has been demonstrated in an achiral, nonmagnetic crystal by researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo. The effect arises through ferroaxial ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 8, 2026
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10
Scientists have shed light on a thermal process in magma that may help explain why similar volcanic systems can produce very different eruptive behaviors.
Earth Sciences
Jun 8, 2026
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160
Waves of light and sound interact to drive electronic and structural changes in a perovskite crystal. At the atomic scale, nothing is ever truly still. Materials that appear perfectly rigid and motionless to the naked eye ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 5, 2026
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99
