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. The circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE), a phenomenon that generates helicity-dependent photocurrents in noncentrosymmetric materials, can originate purely from a crystal's internal structure without a contribution from the surface, a study from Science Tokyo reveals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mirror-image-crystals-reverse-driven.html Nanophysics Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:40:12 EDT news710157781 Magnetic properties in molecular materials depend not only on the molecular components themselves but also on their solid-state organization. In charged π-electronic systems, electrostatic and dispersion forces can organize molecules into distinct ion-pairing structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-counteranions-reshape-molecular-tune-magnetism.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:40:01 EDT news710086621 Researchers at the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) have developed a new strategy for producing covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with semiconducting properties without relying on chemical doping. The approach could open new avenues for developing materials for applications in electronics and energy storage. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-neutral-radicals-porous-semiconductors-chemical.html Materials Science Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:20:08 EDT news708617221 Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), an interaction between an electron's spin and its motion, plays a key role in creating topological insulators—unusual materials that are insulating in their interior but can conduct electricity along their surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-temperature-emerges-topological-properties-materials.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:49:22 EDT news707554042 Researchers from the University of Osaka have developed a new class of chiral semiconducting polymers that can generate highly spin-polarized electrical currents. The team's unique molecular design allows the polymers to self-assemble into helical structures that efficiently filter electron spins, offering a promising platform for future spintronic devices and clean-energy technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-kind-polymer-electron.html Polymers Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:20:04 EDT news706446002 Chiral phonons are groups of atoms that move in a circular direction when excited by an energy source, such as heat. As the phonons move through a material, they propagate that circular motion, or angular momentum, through the material. The angular momentum serves as the source of spin, and the chirality dictates the direction of the spin, enabling spin control in spintronics. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-electric-field-reverses-phonon-chirality.html Condensed Matter Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:00:06 EDT news705151382 Quantum technologies promise revolutionary advances in computing, sensing and information processing. However, controlling individual quantum bits (qubits) at the atomic scale remains a major challenge because conventional approaches rely on magnetic fields, which are difficult to confine to a single molecule. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-electrical-molecule-quantum-states.html Quantum Physics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:30:03 EDT news703407599 Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a new way to use molecules as tiny data storage devices with a new manganese-based material. Until now, this was possible only with iron-containing molecular materials, which require very low temperatures—ranging from 100 to a maximum of 130 Kelvin (minus 173 to minus 143°C)—making their application significantly more difficult. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-states-manganese-ions-path-molecular.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:20:08 EDT news701953803 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 has proven difficult. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a data-driven approach that identifies and models key synthesis parameters to optimize their performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-roadmap-boost-gen-spintronics.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news701626681 A newly developed method allows researchers to dynamically switch chirality—a particular lack of mirror symmetry—to generate spin currents in semiconductors, researchers from Science Tokyo report. Their approach relies on the reversible insertion and removal of small chiral molecules from the interlayer gaps of a layered, nonchiral semiconductor material using electrochemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-reversible-chirality-mos-generates-currents.html Condensed Matter Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:40:05 EDT news700909861 Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and collaborators have developed a predictive design strategy for creating graphene-like molecules with multiple interacting spins and enhanced resilience to magnetic perturbations, opening new avenues for molecular-scale quantum information technologies and next-generation spintronics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hourglass-nanographenes-strong-robust-multi.html Nanophysics Wed, 06 May 2026 19:30:01 EDT news697306681 An international research team led by DTU has developed a new magnetic material that features a stable internal magnetic structure, almost no external magnetic field, and retains these properties above room temperature. These characteristics may be important for future generations of electronic technologies, for example, within fields where magnetic properties are used instead of electrical charge to process information—so-called spintronics. The results have been published in the journal Nature Chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-magnet-external-field-reshape-future.html Materials Science Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:00:01 EDT news696169462 In a major advance, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have devised a method to grow high-quality 2D magnetic materials (2D-MMs) over centimeter-scale wafers. Earlier approaches in the field were limited to growing micrometer-sized flakes. This advance paves the way for their integration into next-generation electronics and spintronics materials used in hard drives and sensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-wafer-scale-2d-magnetic-emerge.html Nanomaterials Sun, 19 Apr 2026 16:00:09 EDT news695573455 Multiferroic metals are materials that exhibit both electric polarization and magnetic order in the same crystal—a state known as multiferroicity. Because these properties coexist, they can interact through magnetoelectric (ME) coupling, allowing electric fields to influence magnetism. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-room-temperature-dimensional-multiferroic-metal.html Condensed Matter Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:00:01 EDT news692627941 An international team of scientists from IBM, The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any previously known—one whose electrons travel through its structure in a corkscrew-like pattern that fundamentally alters its chemical behavior. The work appears in Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-molecule-exotic-nature-quantum.html Condensed Matter Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:50:05 EST news691951501 Altermagnets are a newly recognized class of antiferromagnets whose magnetic structure behaves very differently from what is found in conventional systems. In conventional antiferromagnets, the sublattices are linked by simple inversion or translation, resulting in spin-degenerate electronic bands. In altermagnets, however, they are connected by unconventional symmetries such as rotations or screw axes. This shift in symmetry breaks the spin degeneracy, allowing for spin-polarized electron currents even in the absence of net magnetization. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hidden-magnetism-altermagnets.html Condensed Matter Fri, 26 Dec 2025 15:00:01 EST news685267090 A way to electrically modify the chirality of organic–inorganic hybrid materials, in which chiral molecules adsorb onto inorganic surfaces, has been demonstrated by researchers at Science Tokyo. By using an electric double-layer transistor with a chiral electrolyte, specific chirality was imposed on an otherwise achiral molybdenum disulfide surface. This reversible method enables tunable chiral electronic states and opens new possibilities for advanced spintronic devices and the emerging field of "chiral iontronics." https://phys.org/news/2025-12-chirality-electricity-voltage-driven-method.html Nanophysics Sun, 21 Dec 2025 11:00:01 EST news685367966 Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) have definitively resolved a two-decade-long controversy regarding the direction of electron spin on the surface of gold. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-imaging-year-debate-gold.html Condensed Matter Tue, 18 Nov 2025 09:10:06 EST news682679402 A research group at The University of Tokyo has discovered a new principle by which helical chiral molecules acquire spin through molecular vibrations, enabling them to adhere to magnets. Until now, it was believed that chiral molecules could only exhibit magnetic properties when an electric current was applied. This discovery overturns that conventional understanding. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-discovery-principle-chiral-molecules-adhere.html Condensed Matter Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:00:01 EDT news680949241 Polaritons are quasiparticles emerging from strong interactions between light particles (i.e., photons) and matter excitations (e.g., excitons). Over the past few years, researchers have found that these quasiparticles can alter fundamental chemical and physical processes. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-polaritons-enable-tunable-efficient-molecular.html Condensed Matter Wed, 03 Sep 2025 07:00:01 EDT news676036386 For the first time, chemists at ETH Zurich have successfully used extremely short, rotating flashes of light to measure and manipulate the different movements of electrons in mirror-image molecules. They showed that the chirality of molecules is not just a structural but also an electronic phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-electrons-reveal-handedness-attosecond.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 27 Aug 2025 11:41:04 EDT news675513661 Establishing robust isolated spins on solid surfaces is crucial for fabricating quantum bits or qubits, sensors, and single-atom catalysts. An isolated spin is a single spin that is shielded from external interactions. Because isolated spins can maintain their state for long periods, they are ideal for use as qubits, the basic units of quantum computation, and for ultrafast spintronic memory. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-robust-isolated-quantum-magnetic-substrate.html Nanophysics Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:29:52 EDT news674922588 Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a supramolecular co-assembly platform that produces chiral soft materials with strong and stable full-color circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) across the visible spectrum, including in red, which has historically been a difficult target. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-strategy-robust-circularly-polarized-luminescence.html Condensed Matter Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:38:59 EDT news674480331 Researchers at Kumamoto University and Nagoya University have developed a new class of two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using triptycene-based molecules, marking a breakthrough in the quest to understand and enhance the physical properties of these promising materials. The work is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-high-quality-crystals-enable-insights.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:41:04 EDT news673260062 Researchers are creating new moiré materials at the nanometer scale using advanced DNA nanotechnology. DNA moiré superlattices form when two periodic DNA lattices are overlaid with a slight rotational twist or positional offset. This creates a new, larger interference pattern with completely different physical properties. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-programmable-dna-moir-superlattices-material.html Nanophysics Thu, 17 Jul 2025 11:52:25 EDT news671971940 Modern low-power solutions to computer memory rely heavily on the manipulation of the magnetic properties of materials. Understanding the influence of the chemical properties of these materials on their magnetization ability is of key importance in developing the field. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-magnetism-recharged-method-thin.html Condensed Matter Thu, 03 Jul 2025 14:41:03 EDT news670772462 In a new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities discovered surprising magnetic behavior in one of the thinnest metallic oxide materials ever made. This could pave the way for the next generation of faster and smarter spintronic and quantum computing devices. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ultra-thin-metallic-oxide-reveals.html Condensed Matter Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:37:35 EDT news669296252 Scientists studying a promising quantum material have stumbled upon a surprise: within its crystal structure, the material naturally forms one of the world's thinnest semiconductor junctions—a building block of most modern electronics. The junction is just 3.3 nanometers thick, about 25,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-scientists-world-thinnest-semiconductor-junctions.html Condensed Matter Tue, 20 May 2025 17:18:03 EDT news666980281 The rules about magnetic order may need to be rewritten. Researchers have discovered that chromium selenide (Cr2Se3)—traditionally non-magnetic in bulk form—transforms into a magnetic material when reduced to atomically thin layers. This finding contradicts previous theoretical predictions, and opens new possibilities for spintronics applications. This could lead to faster, smaller, and more efficient electronic components for smartphones, data storage, and other essential technologies. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-magnetic-materials-atomically-thin.html Condensed Matter Thu, 08 May 2025 09:56:39 EDT news665916997 An international team of researchers has developed a new method for parameterizing machine-learning interatomic potentials (MLIP) to simulate magnetic materials, making the prediction of their properties much more reliable and accurate. A key feature of the new approach is that the models of interatomic interactions are trained on so-called "magnetic forces." https://phys.org/news/2025-04-magnetic-ai-material-simulations.html Condensed Matter Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:24:45 EDT news664017879