Articles in 2008

High-resolution electron microscope images collected in real time demonstrates the occurrence of multiple intermediary phases during the crystallization of a metal phosphate. The observations represent the first atomic-scale demonstration of Wilhelm Ostwald’s ‘rule of stages’ proposed over a century ago.

An accurate determination of the size and diffusion length of excitons generated with single-walled nanotubes supports the Wannier–Mott picture of their behaviour, and improves the outlook for the use of nanotubes in optoelectronics and biosensing applications.

Low-temperature thermal-transport measurements of a frustrated organic magnet in which a quantum spin-liquid is believed to exist, suggest that the emergence of this state is accompanied by a spin-gap. This contradicts previous studies conducted at higher temperatures, suggesting that our understanding of this system should be re-evaluated.

The ability to wiggle and stretch individual superconducting vortices with nanoscale precision enables unprecedented insight into their dynamics and the properties of the superconductor that supports them.

In quantum mechanics, measurement has a fundamentally different role than in classical physics. Now a general method has been devised to characterize a quantum measurement device, completing the suite of so-called tomography techniques required to fully specify an experiment.

Analysis of the ejection of electrons in a plane perpendicular to an incident electron beam reveals unexpected differences between the ionization behaviour of atoms and molecules. For molecules that have nuclei at their centres of mass, the angular distribution of emitted electrons is similar to that of atoms. But for those that don’t, the shape of this distribution is qualitatively different.

In many real-world processes that can be mapped onto complex networks—from cell signalling to transporting people—communication between distant nodes is surprisingly efficient, considering that no node has a full view of the entire network. A framework sets out to explain why ‘navigability’ is so efficient in these networks.

An algorithm that reconstructs the structure of an object in flight from the diffraction pattern generated by exposing it to an ultrashort burst of X-rays should enhance the potential of free-electron lasers for studying individual molecules, virus and nanoparticles.

High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements of the Fermi-surface and superconducting gap of high-quality C₆Ca crystals should help resolve the nature of the high-temperature superconducting behaviour of this and related intercalated graphite materials.

Transport measurements in a high-temperature superconductor provide evidence that the so-called pseudogap phase ends at a quantum critical point located inside the superconducting dome in the phase diagram of cuprates.

Two independent experiments demonstrate that quantum entanglement that has been lost in decoherence processes can be recovered. For the first time such ’entanglement distillation’ has been achieved for states of light that are entangled in continuous variables, which should help to increase the distance over which quantum information can be distributed.

Two independent experiments demonstrate that quantum entanglement that has been lost in decoherence processes can be recovered. For the first time such ‘entanglement distillation’ has been achieved for states of light that are entangled in continuous variables, which should help to increase the distance over which quantum information can be distributed.

The Bush administration has failed to engage with science and deliver on funding — that should change under the new President of the United States.

Theories of the spin Hall effect suggest that spin currents generated by electric fields accumulate spin polarization at the sample edges. Now an experiment has observed this conversion in real time.

The theory of quantum entanglement shares a number of analogies with the laws of thermodynamics, but still there are some differences. New results reveal a more complete thermodynamic structure behind entanglement.