News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Keio University investigated the excitation and detection of photogenerated coherent phonons in polar semiconductor GaAs through an ultrafast dual pump-probe laser for quantum interferometry.

Physicists have demonstrated a new way to obtain the essential details of an isolated quantum system through direct observation. The method gives information about the likelihood of finding atoms at specific locations in the system with unprecedented spatial resolution far better than an optical microscope can provide. With this technique, scientists can obtain details on a scale of tens of nanometers -- smaller than the width of a virus.

Researchers provide the first direct evidence for a rare kind of atomic nucleus. The special nickel nucleus (78Ni) is an isotope of typical nickel (58Ni), meaning they share the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. Usually more neutrons make isotopes less stable, but this isotope is special. 78Ni is more tough or rigid than other nickel isotopes with similar numbers of neutrons -- it takes more energy to excite 78Ni into a different state.

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues from Germany and the Netherlands have achieved material magnetization switching on the shortest timescales, at a minimal energy cost. They have thus developed a prototype of energy-efficient data storage devices.

Machine learning can be used to predict the properties of a group of materials which, according to some, could be as important to the 21st century as plastics were to the 20th.

Professor Li Jia and Gao Yuanhong from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators developed a novel hybrid-layered architecture to improve the overall photodetection performance of organic phototransistors by simultaneously taking advantages of the charge-trapping effect and efficient carrier transport.

Solar cells made of perovskite hold much promise for the future of solar energy. However, the material degrades quickly, severely limiting its efficiency and stability over time. Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, energy research institute DIFFER, Peking University and University of Twente have discovered that adding a small amount of fluoride to the perovskite leaves a protective layer, increasing stability of the materials and the solar cells significantly.

An international collaboration involving European, Israeli, and US scientists realize for the first time strong and directionally dependent interactions in quantum liquids of excitons, which contrasts with the spatial isotropy of the coupling between charged particles. This spatial anisotropy affects the way particles arrange themselves in space and opens routes to artificially created exotic states of matter. The results were published in Physical Review X.