In physics, disordered systems are physical systems whose microscopic constituents (e.g., atoms, spins, impurities, or structural units) lack translational or orientational long-range order and are characterized by randomness in parameters such as positions, couplings, or local potentials. This quenched or annealed disorder crucially affects thermodynamic, transport, and dynamical properties, leading to phenomena such as Anderson localization, glassy dynamics, and complex energy landscapes. Disordered systems are modeled using probabilistic descriptions of disorder realizations and ensemble averages, often requiring techniques from statistical mechanics, random matrix theory, and renormalization group methods to analyze emergent macroscopic behavior and phase transitions in the presence of randomness.
The matter of how metals deform or respond to external stresses has been extensively studied among metallurgists for centuries. When it comes to conventional metals—the crystalline kind with atoms that line up in neat patterns—the ...
Nanophysics
Feb 1, 2024
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High-entropy alloys can withstand extreme heat and stress, making them suitable for a variety of specific applications. A new study at the X-ray synchrotron radiation source BESSY II has now provided deeper insights into ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 30, 2024
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Physicists in Darmstadt are investigating aging processes in materials. For the first time, they have measured the ticking of an internal clock in glass. When evaluating the data, they discovered a surprising phenomenon.
Condensed Matter
Jan 26, 2024
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New findings debunk previous wisdom that solid-state qubits need to be super dilute in an ultra-clean material to achieve long lifetimes. Instead, cram lots of rare-earth ions into a crystal, and some will form pairs that ...
Quantum Physics
Jan 15, 2024
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In the incredibly small world of molecules, the elementary building blocks—the atoms—join together in a very regular pattern. In contrast, in the macroscopic world with its larger particles, there is much greater disorder ...
Nanophysics
Sep 19, 2023
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Nothing in the world is perfect. This is also true in materials research. In computer simulations, one often represents a system in a highly idealized way; for example, one calculates the properties that an absolutely perfect ...
Nanophysics
Aug 29, 2023
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A defect is not always a bad thing. In fact, when it comes to improving the electrocatalysis process that produces clean-burning hydrogen gas, it may be a very good thing. Researchers based in China engineered an electrocatalyst—which ...
Nanophysics
Jun 7, 2023
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High entropy alloys or HEAs consist of five or more different metallic elements and are an extremely interesting class of materials with a great diversity of potential applications. Since the macroscopic properties of HEAs ...
Nanophysics
Oct 20, 2022
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Two-dimensional materials, which consist of a single layer of atoms, exhibit unusual properties that could be harnessed for a wide range of quantum and microelectronics systems. But what makes them truly special are their ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 25, 2022
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When carbon atoms stack into a perfectly repeating three-dimensional crystal, they can form precious diamonds. Arranged another way, in repetitive flat sheets, carbon makes the shiny gray graphite found in pencils. But there ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 18, 2022
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