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Direct measurement of the exciton binding energy shows that the impressive performance of perovskite solar cells arises from the spontaneous generation of free electrons and holes after light absorption.
Gravity and quantum mechanics are expected to meet at extreme energy scales, but time dilation could induce decoherence even at low energies affecting microscopic objects—a prospect that could be tested in future matter-wave experiments.
A unidirectional magnetoresistance observed in bilayer metal films could be used to add directional sensitivity to conventional magnetic sensors based on anisotropic magnetoresistance.
Materials expected to support a quantum-spin-liquid phase are typically characterized by geometrical frustration. A new candidate has a distorted lattice that compensates for diminished frustration with reduced dimensionality.
A computer based on droplets moving in microfluidic channels requires synchronous manipulation of the droplets. Such synchronous logic is now shown for a system of ferrofluid droplets, with a rotating magnetic field providing the computer clock rate.
The spin-dependent Seebeck effect converts thermal gradients into spin currents. It is now shown that this effect can be used to drive spin-transfer torques on picosecond timescales using the heat currents created by ultrafast pulses of laser light.
The mobility edge characterizes the transition from localization to diffusion. This key parameter in Anderson localization was measured for a system of ultracold atoms in a tunable disordered potential created by laser speckles.
Anderson localization has recently attracted renewed interest in strongly correlated quantum systems. Now, local adiabatic manipulations are shown to lead to a nonlocal response, with implications for quantum control in disordered environments.
An algorithm that provably finds the ground state of any one-dimensional quantum system is presented, providing a promising alternative to the widely used, but heuristic, density matrix renormalization group approach.
Understanding the physical mechanisms of photon–atom interactions on ultrafast timescales is challenging, but a new theoretical framework enables the interpretation of attoclock experiments measuring tunnelling times in hydrogen.
Gauge/gravity duality is normally reserved for the study of black holes, but it can be applied to the study of out-of-equilibrium quantum systems in arbitrary dimension.
The spin Hall effect induces spin currents in nonmagnetic layers, which can control the magnetization of neighbouring ferromagnets. The transparency of the interface is shown to strongly influence the efficiency of such manipulation.
The fractional quantum Hall effect, occurring for rational Landau-level filling factors, is commonly observed in GaAs heterostructures. Now, unusual even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states are reported for an oxide 2D electron system.
It is impossible to distinguish between causal correlation and common cause based on classical correlations alone. An experiment now shows that for quantum variables it is sometimes possible to infer the causal structure just from observations.
A vibrational wavepacket generated in a spin singlet is shown to be transferable to spin triplets during singlet fission in organic semiconductors, providing a link between multi-molecular singlet fission and single-molecular internal conversion.
Perovskite photovoltaics are the fastest-advancing solar technology but the mechanisms responsible for their performance are not clear. The observation of magnetic field effects in hybrid perovskites may help to explain their high efficiencies.
Rogue waves in a sea of photons can localize light beyond the diffraction limit, but their rarity makes them difficult to study. These events can now be controllably triggered in a photonic crystal resonator.
By pushing both time and frequency resolution in optical spectroscopy it is now possible to resolve antiferromagnetic fluctuations in a copper oxide superconductor, which are believed to mediate the pairing of charge carriers.
Quantum communication relies on the ability to entangle quantum states. Experiments now show that this is possible in a bulk material, with unpaired spins at the ends of antiferromagnetic spin chains entangled over long distances.
Whether the wavefunction corresponds to reality or represents our limited knowledge of a quantum system is still under debate. A photonic experiment provides evidence for the former.