News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have discovered the relaxation dynamics of a zero-field state in skyrmions, a spinning magnetic phenomenon that has potential applications in data storage and spintronic devices.

A collaborative research effort between the departments of chemistry at the University of Oxford and University of Jyväskylä has resulted in the discovery of a gold compound exhibiting nucleophilic behavior hitherto unknown for molecular gold. The research enables new opportunities in applying gold compounds, for example, as catalysts in novel chemical reactions.

An international research team led by the University of Liverpool and McMaster University has made a significant breakthrough in the search for new states of matter. In a study published in the journal Nature Physics, researchers show that the perovskite-related metal oxide, TbInO3, exhibits a quantum spin liquid state, a long-sought-after and unusual state of matter.

For the first time, a team led by Prof. Jian-Wei Pan and Prof. Bo Zhao at the University of Science and Technology of China, have successfully observed scattering resonances between atoms and molecules at ultralow temperatures, shedding light on the quantum nature of atom-molecule interactions that have so far only been discussed in theory.

Molecules are usually formed in reaction vessels or laboratory flasks. An Empa research team has now succeeded in producing molecules between two microscopically small, movable gold tips -- in a sense as a 'hand-knitted' unique specimen. The properties of the molecules can be monitored in real time while they are being produced. The research results have just been published in Nature Communications.

An international research group has developed a new X-ray spectroscopy method based on the classical double-slit experiment to gain new insights into the physical properties of solids.

Experimental proof of a decades-old prediction opens a pathway to recreate possible conditions of the early universe here on earth.

One of the most important aims of contemporary scientific research is finding out what makes the production of entropy predominate. This aim explains the current interest in studying mesoscopic systems, which are not as small as individual atoms but nevertheless display well-defined quantum behavior.