80-year-old mystery in static electricity finally solved

Historically, contact electrification (CE) was humanity's first and only source of electricity up until around the 18th century, yet its true nature is still elusive. Today it is considered a core component of technologies ...

Electron slow motion: Ion physics on the femtosecond scale

How do different materials react to the impact of ions? This is a question that plays an important role in many areas of research—for example, in nuclear fusion research, when the walls of the fusion reactor are bombarded ...

Study finds nickelate superconductors are intrinsically magnetic

Electrons find each other repulsive. Nothing personal—it's just that their negative charges repel each other. So getting them to pair up and travel together, like they do in superconducting materials, requires a little ...

How ultrathin polymer films can be used for storage technology

Precisely applied mechanical pressure can improve the electronic properties of a widely used polymer material. This requires that the material be mechanically processed to an accuracy of a few nanometers, a team from Martin ...

New metrological technique uses stress for nanotomography

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues in Russia and Spain have reported a proof-of-concept demonstration of a new radiation-safe method for mapping the internal structure and stress distribution in samples of materials ...

Spintronics: How an atom-thin insulator helps transport spins

An intermediate layer consisting of a few atoms is helping to improve the transport of spin currents from one material to another. Until now, this process involves significant losses. A team from Martin Luther University ...

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