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.
It sounds bizarre, but they exist: crystals made of rotating objects. Physicists from Aachen, Düsseldorf, Mainz and Wayne State (Detroit, U.S.) have jointly studied these exotic objects and their properties. They easily break ...
General Physics
Oct 21, 2025
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Imagine industrial processes that make materials or chemical compounds faster, cheaper, and with fewer steps than ever before. Imagine processing information in your laptop in seconds instead of minutes or a supercomputer ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 14, 2025
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125
A new study reveals that spontaneous emission, a key phenomenon in the interaction between light and atoms, manifests in a new form within a photonic time crystal. This research, led by a KAIST team, not only overturns existing ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 1, 2025
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97
Nature has many rhythms: the seasons result from Earth's movement around the sun, the ticking of a pendulum clock results from the oscillation of its pendulum. These phenomena can be understood with very simple equations. ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 22, 2025
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472
Imagine a clock that doesn't have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 5, 2025
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901
Might two bent crystals pave the way to finding new physics? The Standard Model of particle physics describes our world at its smallest scales exceptionally well. However, it leaves some important questions unanswered, such ...
General Physics
Aug 29, 2025
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180
Metal oxide materials with nanoscale pores have been applied and studied in a wide range of fields, including as catalysts, adsorption and separation materials, and energy materials. Among them, single-crystalline nanoporous ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 18, 2025
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64
In a new study published in Nature Physics, scientists have achieved the first experimental observation of phonon angular momentum in chiral crystals.
Large metal surfaces coated with precisely formed nanostructures have so far remained in the realm of fantasy. The obstacle standing in the way of their production seemed fundamental, as it resulted from the presence of crystal ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 7, 2025
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Crystallization, a fundamental process in nature, hinges on two distinct stages: nucleation and growth. The latter plays a pivotal role in shaping the morphology, size, and purity of crystalline materials, making it a focus ...
Nanophysics
Jul 29, 2025
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