https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Scientists at the University of California, Riverside are making breakthroughs in understanding how quantum wave functions move across ultra-thin materials—research that could eventually improve solar energy technologies and help lay the groundwork for new forms of quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-vibronics-future-energy-technologies.html Condensed Matter Thu, 28 May 2026 15:00:02 EDT news699191461 Quantum materials, materials with properties that are influenced by the laws of quantum mechanics, have attracted considerable attention over the past few decades. Their unique properties make these materials advantageous for the development of numerous cutting-edge technologies, including quantum computers, highly sensitive sensors and energy-efficient electronics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-wse-reveals-elusive-neutral-quantum.html Condensed Matter Mon, 18 May 2026 07:40:03 EDT news698056753 Last year, tungsten diselenide (WSe2) had its magic moment. Two independent research groups discovered "magic angles" at which two atom-thin layers of the unique semiconductor, when twisted relative to one another into what's known as a moire pattern, can superconduct electricity. Cory Dean and his colleagues at Columbia documented superconductivity at a 5° twist angle; upstate at Cornell, Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak's team saw it at around 3.5°. Until then, graphene was the only other moire material capable of the feat. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-range-magic-angles-superconductivity-2d.html Superconductivity Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:00:04 EDT news695572951 When mobile charge carriers, also known as itinerant electrons, interact with the strong exchange magnetic fields associated with the intrinsic angular momentum of localized electrons, this can give rise to the so-called Kondo effect. A Kondo insulator is a state of matter with an energy gap opened by the Kondo effect that forbids electrical conduction at low temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-2d-topological-kondo-insulator-moir.html Nanophysics Mon, 09 Mar 2026 11:20:05 EDT news692014646 Scientists have observed a new microscopic mechanism enabling precise control of the magneto-optical properties of excitons in alloys of two-dimensional semiconductors. This discovery opens up tangible prospects for technological applications in devices exploiting valleytronics. The research findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-alloy-valleytronics-microscopic-mechanism-scientists.html Condensed Matter Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:00:03 EST news691078141 Excitons are pairs of bound negatively charged electrons and positively charged holes that form in semiconductors, enabling the transport of energy in electronic devices. These pairs of charge carriers also emerge in transition metal dichalcogenides, thin semiconducting materials comprised of a transition metal and two chalcogen atoms. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-exciton-moir-superlattices-method-leverages.html Condensed Matter Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:10:02 EST news685365916 Faster, more efficient, and more versatile—these are the expectations for the technology that will produce our energy and handle information in the future. But how can these expectations be met? A major breakthrough in physics has now been made by an international team of researchers from the Universities of Göttingen, Marburg, the Berlin Humboldt in Germany, and Graz in Austria. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hybrid-excitons-combining-worlds.html Condensed Matter Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:06:36 EST news685296362 Quantum technologies demand perfection: one photon at a time, every time, all with the same energy. Even tiny deviations in the number or energy of photons can derail devices, threatening the performance of quantum computers that someday could make up a quantum internet. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-molecular-coating-noisy-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:00:04 EDT news678637901 Electronic devices lose energy as heat due to the movement of electrons. Now, a breakthrough in nanoengineering has produced a new kind of switch that matches the performance of the best traditional designs while pushing beyond the power-consumption limits of modern electronics. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-generation-nanoengineered-loss-electronics.html Nanophysics Sun, 14 Sep 2025 09:00:01 EDT news676887426 Moiré superlattices are periodic patterns formed when two or more thin semiconducting layers are stacked with a small twist angle or lattice mismatch. When 2D materials form these patterns, their electronic, mechanical, and optical properties can change significantly. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-trilayer-moir-superlattices-tunable-exciton.html Condensed Matter Fri, 12 Sep 2025 07:20:02 EDT news676805619 Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) is a material created by stacking two sheets of graphene onto each other, with a small twist angle of about 1.1°. At this "magic angle," electrons move very slowly, which can lead to the emergence of highly correlated electron states. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-hofstadter-butterfly-bilayer-graphene-reveals.html Condensed Matter Mon, 08 Sep 2025 11:20:07 EDT news676548681 Spintronics are promising devices that work utilizing not only the charge of electrons, like conventional electronics, but also their spin (i.e., their intrinsic angular momentum). The development of fast and energy-efficient spintronic devices greatly depends on the identification of materials with a tunable spin-selective conductivity, which essentially means that engineers can control how electrons with different spin orientations move through these materials, ideally using external magnetic or electric fields. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-mechanism-tungsten-diselenide.html Condensed Matter Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:50:01 EDT news671449167 Imagine a world in which free-floating electric vehicles charge wirelessly as they glide down highways, laptops are hundreds of times more powerful, and clean energy flows in limitless supply. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-scientists-edge-closer-superconductors-materials.html Superconductivity Mon, 05 May 2025 16:01:04 EDT news665679661 A moiré pattern appears when you stack and rotate two copies of an image with regularly repeating shapes, turning simple patterns of squares or triangles into a groovy wave pattern that moves across the combined image in an optical delight. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-moir-eye-phasons-enable-interlayer.html Nanophysics Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:03:04 EDT news662040182 A collaborative team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), Nanjing University, Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (SLAB), and international partners has introduced a new method to regulate exotic electronic states in two-dimensional materials. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-advancing-quantum-materials-approach-electronic.html Nanophysics Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:46:03 EST news659263561 Superconductivity is a widely sought after material property, which entails an electrical resistance of zero below a specific critical temperature. So far, it has been observed in various materials, including recently in so-called multilayer graphene allotropes (i.e., materials that consist of several layers of a hexagonal carbon lattice). https://phys.org/news/2025-02-distinct-superconducting-states-bernal-bilayer.html Superconductivity Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:40:12 EST news659180405 In real life, mutants can arise when their DNA changes to give them an advantage over the rest of the population. A team from the University of Michigan has used simulations on the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's Neocortex system to find out why beneficial mutants rarely come to dominate real organisms. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-supercomputer-simulation-beneficial-mutations-rarely.html Evolution Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:21:49 EST news658059705 Leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum computers can perform calculations at lightning-fast speeds, enabling them to solve complex problems faster than conventional computers. In quantum technology applications such as quantum computing, light plays a central role in encoding and transmitting information. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-unity-quantum-efficiency-2d-photon.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:05:05 EST news653673899 After dominating the electronics industry for decades, conventional silicon-based transistors are gradually approaching their limits, which is preventing engineers from further reducing their size without affecting their performance. To continue advancing portable computers, smart phones and other devices, researchers have thus been exploring the potential of transistors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-2d-materials-boost-p-transistor.html Nanophysics Tue, 17 Dec 2024 07:10:07 EST news653569321 Modern high-speed internet uses light to quickly and reliably transmit large amounts of data through fiber-optic cables, but currently, light signals hit a bottleneck when data processing is necessary. For that, they must convert into electrical signals for processing before further transmission. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-optical-device-paves-faster-fiber.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 19 Oct 2024 13:21:23 EDT news648562870 Moiré superlattices are materials consisting of two layers stacked on top of each other with either a small rotational misalignment or a lattice mismatch between them. The Kondo lattice model, on the other hand, describes systems in which conduction electrons interact with localized magnetic impurities, which changes the systems' electrical and magnetic properties. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-physicists-emergence-ferromagnetism-onset-kondo.html Condensed Matter Thu, 17 Oct 2024 06:40:01 EDT news648127967 In conjunction with research staff from the Charles University of Prague and the CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU) center in San Sebastian, CIC nanoGUNE's Nanodevices group has designed a new complex material with emerging properties in the field of spintronics. This discovery, published in the journal Nature Materials, opens up a range of fresh possibilities for the development of novel, more efficient and more advanced electronic devices, such as those that integrate magnetic memories into processors. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unprecedented-properties-revealed-artificial-materials.html Condensed Matter Tue, 10 Sep 2024 11:28:11 EDT news645186481 If you make a material thinner and thinner, at a certain point it undergoes a seemingly miraculous transformation: A two-dimensional material that consists of only one or two layers of molecules sometimes has completely different properties than the same material when it is thicker. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-physicists-electronic-properties-moir-crystals.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:01:03 EDT news641037662 Advanced materials, including two-dimensional or "atomically thin" materials just a few atoms thick, are essential for the future of microelectronics technology. Now a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a way to directly measure such materials' thermal expansion coefficient, the rate at which the material expands as it heats. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-atom-thin-material.html Nanomaterials Fri, 28 Jun 2024 07:29:27 EDT news638778562 In a study published in Science Advances, Prof. Wang Can from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Xu Xiulai of Peking University have demonstrated for the first time the dependence of valley polarization switching and polarization degree on the moiré period by twist engineering in electrically controlled transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers (hBLs). https://phys.org/news/2024-05-angle-moir-lattice-valley-polarization.html Condensed Matter Wed, 22 May 2024 09:48:03 EDT news635590081 Semiconductors are a cornerstone of next-generation technology, so a new method to excite atoms in semiconductor materials is likely to excite a broad range of researchers and industries as well. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-good-vibrations-energy-lasers-atomic.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 May 2024 12:22:36 EDT news633871353 Making ever smaller and more powerful chips requires new ultrathin materials: 2D materials that are only 1 atom thick, or even just a couple of atoms. Think about graphene or ultra-thin silicon membrane for instance. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-thermal-properties-2d-materials-microchips.html Nanophysics Thu, 18 Apr 2024 11:09:03 EDT news632657341 Researchers have successfully manipulated distinct exciton species within a hybrid monolayer WSe2-Ag nanowire structure. By exploiting the unique valley-spin locked band structures and electron-hole configurations of TMDs, the team, led by Professor Hongxing Xu, Prof. Xiaoze Liu and Dr. Ti Wang from School of Physics and Technology, has taken a significant step toward practical photonic applications for optical information processing and quantum optics. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-versatile-wse.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:07:25 EST news626612843 When a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole in a pair remain bound together following excitation by light, they produce states known as excitons. These states can influence the optical properties of materials, in turn enabling their use for developing various technologies. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-formation-excitonic-mott-insulator-state.html Condensed Matter Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:10:01 EST news620039139 Light can excite electron and hole pairs inside semiconducting materials. If the attraction between a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole (the antiparticle of electron in solid state physics) is strong, they stay bound together, forming states known as excitons. In these states, positively charged holes can be viewed as the vacancies left behind by the electrons they are paired with. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-excitons-moir-superlattices.html Condensed Matter Thu, 28 Sep 2023 09:55:02 EDT news615113693