Reviews & Analysis

A demonstration of a 'two terminal' single-electron transistor governed by the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic electrodes connected to a metal quantum dot could give birth to a new field of single-electron spintronics.

The observation of Hall quantization and complete lifting of the degeneracy in bilayer graphene at magnetic fields an order of magnitude lower than previously reported has important implications for an understanding of the role of many-body interactions in the exotic behaviour of bi- and monolayer graphene.

Quantum computers can outperform their classical counterparts at some tasks, but the full scope of their power is unclear. A new quantum algorithm hints at the possibility of far-reaching applications.

Cold atoms and photons confined together in high-quality optical resonators self-organize into complicated crystalline structures that have an optical-wavelength scale. Complex solid-state phenomena can be studied in real time on directly observable scales.

Proliferation of so-called anyonic defects in a topological phase of quantum matter leads to a critical state that can be visualized as a 'quantum foam', with topology-changing fluctuations on all length scales.

The discovery of iron-based pnictide superconductors may have reinvigorated the field of high-temperature superconductivity, but the cuprate superconductors are still in the game.

Coating nanowires with lipid bilayers allows the use of biological ion channels as biosensors.

One way to collect data about black holes is to analyse the X-rays emitted from the surrounding plasmas heated to extreme temperatures by the flux of photons flowing into them. The use of intense lasers to recreate these conditions in the lab provides a potentially valuable tool for understanding what these data mean.

The metal–insulator Mott transition, which has been extensively studied by means of charge transport, is now detected through the electron spins in a two-dimensional organic conductor.

In semiconductor quantum dots, single electron spins are surrounded by a bath of nuclear spins. Controlling the nuclear magnetization is difficult, but two experiments now demonstrate locking of the average nuclear field to a particular value and narrowing of the nuclear randomness.

Formulating a consistent framework for relativistic thermodynamics has been the subject of intense debate over the past century. Defining quantities with respect to the observer's past lightcone could open new vistas.

Bound entanglement represents an irreversible form of quantum correlation: bound-entangled states require entanglement for their preparation, but no pure-state entanglement can be extracted from them. A recent experiment reports the first experimental realization of a bound-entangled state.

The burgeoning field of quantum information science is not only about building a working device. Already we can learn a lot by thinking about how computation works under the rule of quantum mechanics.

Large ensembles of atoms can be buffer-gas loaded into a magnetic trap and further evaporatively cooled all the way down to quantum degeneracy. The approach has now been shown to provide an alternative — and potentially general — route to Bose–Einstein condensation.