Topological materials are condensed-matter systems whose electronic or quasiparticle excitations are characterized by nontrivial topological invariants in momentum space, leading to robust boundary or defect states protected by symmetries such as time-reversal, crystalline, or particle–hole symmetry. Their bulk band structure exhibits features like band inversion and topological band gaps, enabling phenomena such as dissipationless edge or surface conduction, Dirac or Weyl fermions, and Majorana bound states. As physical systems, they serve as platforms for studying topological phases of matter, spin–orbit coupling effects, and emergent gauge fields, with relevance to quantum transport, spintronics, and topological quantum computation.
A team of US researchers has unveiled a device that can conduct electricity along its fractionally charged edges without losing energy to heat. Described in Nature Physics, the work, led by Xiaodong Xu at the University of ...
Today's most powerful computers hit a wall when tackling certain problems, from designing new drugs to cracking encryption codes. Error-free quantum computers promise to overcome those challenges, but building them requires ...
Superconductivity
Feb 5, 2026
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With an advanced technology known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), scientists are able to map out a material's electron energy-momentum relationship, which encodes the material's electrical, optical, ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 2, 2026
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Researchers at the University of Basel and the ETH in Zurich have succeeded in changing the polarity of a special ferromagnet using a laser beam. In the future, this method could be used to create adaptable electronic circuits ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 28, 2026
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Physicists from University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University (Finland) have experimentally realized a two-dimensional topological crystalline insulator. This is a quantum material that has been theoretically predicted for ...
Nanophysics
Jan 22, 2026
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Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and colleagues have developed a new way to fabricate three-dimensional nanoscale devices from single-crystal materials using a focused ion beam instrument. The ...
Nanophysics
Jan 21, 2026
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At TU Wien, researchers have discovered a state in a quantum material that had previously been considered impossible. The definition of topological states should be generalized.
Condensed Matter
Jan 14, 2026
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A collaboration between Stuart Parkin's group at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle (Saale) and Claudia Felser's group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden has realized ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 12, 2026
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Highspeed Internet, autonomous driving, the Internet of Things: data streams are proliferating at enormous speed. But classic radio technology is reaching its limits: the higher the data rate, the faster the signals need ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 4, 2025
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54
University of British Columbia (UBC) scientists have demonstrated a reversible way to switch the topological state of a quantum material using mechanisms compatible with modern electronic devices. Published in Nature Materials, ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 1, 2025
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