Chemical physics articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Article |

    As amorphous solids, glasses and gels are similar, but the origins of their different elastic properties are unclear. Simulations now suggest differing free-energy-minimizing pathways: structural ordering for glasses and interface reduction for gels.

    • Yinqiao Wang
    • , Michio Tateno
    •  & Hajime Tanaka

  • News & Views |

    A promising pathway towards the laser cooling of a molecule containing a radioactive atom has been identified. The unique structure of such a molecule means that it can act as a magnifying lens to probe fundamental physics.

    • Steven Hoekstra

  • News & Views |

    Determining the melting temperature and electrical conductivity of ammonia under the internal conditions of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune is helping us to understand the structure and magnetic field formation of these planets.

    • Kenji Ohta

  • Article |

    Dynamic arrest in amorphous gels has so far been ascribed to glass transition. Now, experiments reveal a hierarchical structural ordering in dilute colloidal gels driven by the local potential energy, making this type of gel distinct from amorphous glasses.

    • Hideyo Tsurusawa
    •  & Hajime Tanaka

  • Article |

    Glasses relax internally even when their structure is frozen. Observations of a two-dimensional glass former now show that although structure relaxation freezes with the glass transition, non-constrained bonds survive; this accounts for persisting internal relaxation.

    • Yanshuang Chen
    • , Zefang Ye
    •  & Peng Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Lindemann criterion states that crystals melt when thermal vibrations overcome binding forces. It is now found that this picture does not hold for glasses, and that there is a universal relationship between glass temperature and thermal expansion.

    • Peter Lunkenheimer
    • , Alois Loidl
    •  & Konrad Samwer

  • News & Views |

    Computer simulations have revealed the topological nature of the liquid–liquid phase transition in colloidal water. This finding might lead to an experimental observation of this topological transition with colloids as building blocks.

    • Camille Scalliet

  • Letter |

    The isotropy of a spherical droplet’s surface causes uniform distribution of adsorbed molecules. However, wrapping the droplet by a crystalline monolayer induces structural defects, enabling temperature-controllable positioning of adsorbates.

    • Subhomoy Das
    • , Alexander V. Butenko
    •  & Eli Sloutskin

  • Article |

    The relation between physical properties and structure in amorphous materials is poorly understood. Simulations now show that vibrations of string-like dynamical defects likely govern the low-temperature dynamics in these systems.

    • Yuan-Chao Hu
    •  & Hajime Tanaka

  • News & Views |

    Controlling chemistry at the single-collision level is one of the main goals of experiments at ultralow temperatures. A method based on quantum logic techniques has now been shown to detect inelastic collisions in a hybrid ion–atom platform.

    • Michał Tomza

  • Article |

    The study of single-atom collisions in ultracold gases has so far been limited to certain atomic and molecular species. A more general scheme based on quantum logic techniques has now been realized in a hybrid cold ion–atom platform.

    • Or Katz
    • , Meirav Pinkas
    •  & Roee Ozeri

  • News & Views |

    The transition from chemistry to evolvable molecular systems is at the core of origins of life studies. Now, the acidic dew–liquid water dynamic cycling inside simulated Hadean rock pores is found to possibly provide a confined environment for strand separation, replication, mutation, and the evolution of nucleic acids.

    • Sudha Rajamani
    •  & Elisa Biondi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detailed microfluidics experiments and numerical simulations are used to analyse the role played by dew in the origin of life, and demonstrate that it can drive the first stages of Darwinian evolution for DNA and RNA.

    • Alan Ianeselli
    • , Miguel Atienza
    •  & Dieter Braun

  • Measure for Measure |

    The laws governing electrolysis developed by Michael Faraday, who originally trained as a bookbinder, led to the determination of the Faraday constant, as Daren Caruana recounts.

    • Daren Caruana

  • Article |

    Following an impulsive laser excitation of a single molecule, a dispersed vibrational wave-packet is partially rephased by a second pulse, and a wave-packet echo is observed. This wave-packet echo probes ultrafast intramolecular processes in the isolated molecule.

    • Junjie Qiang
    • , Ilia Tutunnikov
    •  & Jian Wu

  • Letter |

    The many phases of water ice continue to be fertile ground for surprising discoveries. This latest study reveals that ice II vanishes from the phase diagram of water upon the addition of small amounts of ammonium fluoride.

    • Jacob J. Shephard
    • , Ben Slater
    •  & Christoph G. Salzmann

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of intermediate high-spin multiexciton states with surprisingly long lifetimes provides new opportunities for engineering singlet fission, which may also provide an intriguing route to quantum information and spintronic applications.

    • Michael R. Wasielewski

  • Article |

    Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.

    • Leah R. Weiss
    • , Sam L. Bayliss
    •  & Jan Behrends

  • Article |

    Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.

    • Murad J. Y. Tayebjee
    • , Samuel N. Sanders
    •  & Dane R. McCamey

  • Article |

    Reducing the signal-to-noise ratio is a never-ending challenge for many types of experiments. Now, improved ratios are reported for nuclear magnetic resonance set-ups combining an external high-Q resonator and a low-Q input coil.

    • Martin Suefke
    • , Alexander Liebisch
    •  & Stephan Appelt

  • News & Views |

    Light has long been used to detect the chirality of molecules but high-order harmonic generation now provides access to these chiral interactions on ultrafast timescales.

    • Minhaeng Cho

  • Letter |

    Molecules that are mirror images of each other usually behave identically, unless they are interacting with other chiral objects. High-harmonic generation can provide access to the dynamics of chiral interactions on ultrafast timescales.

    • R. Cireasa
    • , A. E. Boguslavskiy
    •  & V. R. Bhardwaj

  • Research Highlights |

    • Abigail Klopper

  • News & Views |

    The photons that make up visible light are indivisible. But certain organic materials can use singlet fission to divide the energy from one photon equally between two molecules. Experiments now reveal the molecular dynamics behind this phenomenon.

    • Troy Van Voorhis

  • News & Views |

    The transfer of protons across a high barrier only occasionally occurs through quantum-mechanical tunnelling. Low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy shows concerted tunnelling of four protons within chiral cyclic water tetramers supported on an inert surface.

    • Christof Drechsel-Grau
    •  & Dominik Marx

  • Letter |

    Many-body tunnelling is a complex but important phenomenon. Scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments with a Cl-terminated tip on a cyclic cluster of hydrogen-bonded water molecules now demonstrate controllable concerted tunnelling of four protons.

    • Xiangzhi Meng
    • , Jing Guo
    •  & Ying Jiang

  • News & Views |

    Liquid–liquid phase separation is counted among the peculiar phenomena attributed to pure water, but rapid crystallization has rendered its existence hard to prove. Evidence of a 'naked' liquid–liquid transition in a system unencumbered by crystallization encourages us to keep searching.

    • Francis W. Starr

  • Letter |

    To better understand the mechanisms of double ionization following the absorption of one photon, a combination of experimental techniques has been developed to probe the electron emission times in xenon on the attosecond timescale.

    • Erik P. Månsson
    • , Diego Guénot
    •  & Mathieu Gisselbrecht

  • Research Highlights |

    • Iulia Georgescu

  • News & Views |

    Hybrid traps for laser-cooled ions and neutral atoms make excellent cold-chemistry laboratories. Experiments now show that engineering quantum states can provide additional control for accessing and manipulating chemical reaction rates.

    • Paul S. Julienne

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