Materials science articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Research Briefing |

    An experimental platform comprising two disordered superconductors separated by a thermally conducting electrical insulator represents a controllable physical system of interdependent networks. This system is modelled by thermally coupled networks of Josephson junctions. This platform could provide insights into theoretical multiscale phenomena, such as cascading tipping points or self-organized branching processes.

  • News & Views |

    Calculations support experiments in predicting the existence and properties of point defects in solids but often do not correctly capture their details. A different method can significantly improve the prediction of defect structures and properties.

    • Arun Mannodi-Kanakkithodi

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    The combination of magnetic and non-magnetic layers in (MnBi2Te4)(Bi2Te3) is predicted to produce topologically protected states on the surface. Experiments now show that the nature of the topmost layer controls the location of these states.

    • Matthew Brahlek
    •  & Robert G. Moore

  • Article |

    Layering quantum materials can produce interesting phenomena by combining the different behaviour of electronic states in each layer. A layer-sensitive measurement technique provides insights into the physics of a magnetic topological insulator.

    • Woojoo Lee
    • , Sebastian Fernandez-Mulligan
    •  & Shuolong Yang

  • Article |

    Large-system molecular dynamics simulations of films of glass-forming polymers reveal spatially long-range tails of interface-driven gradients of the glass transition temperature, suggestive of a combined local caging and long-range collective elasticity origin of relaxation and vitrification in glass-forming liquids.

    • Asieh Ghanekarade
    • , Anh D. Phan
    •  & David S. Simmons

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-state systems are established candidates to study models of many-body physics but have limited control and readout capabilities. Ensembles of defects in diamond may provide a solution for studying dipolar systems.

    • E. J. Davis
    • , B. Ye
    •  & N. Y. Yao

  • News & Views |

    Local magnetometry measurements on a magnetic Chern insulator suggest that the Berry curvature of the topological band — responsible for the intrinsic magnetism — also enables ultra-low current switching of the magnetization.

    • Yonglong Xie

  • News & Views |

    Oil-coated bubbles bursting across interfaces enhance aerosol formation and transmission by producing jets that are smaller and faster than those formed by pristine bubbles.

    • Samantha A. McBride

  • Article |

    A bursting bubble produces a jet drop previously estimated to be too large to contribute to aerosolization. Oil-coated bubbles produce fast and thin jets, which break up into much smaller drops with potential implications for airborne transmission.

    • Zhengyu Yang
    • , Bingqiang Ji
    •  & Jie Feng

  • World View |

    Bibliometric evaluation causes competition and stalls scientific progress. We need to abandon it and encourage collaboration.

    • Jakub Železný

  • News & Views |

    Phase-change processes, such as condensation or freezing, are known to compromise a surface’s water-repelling capability. It now turns out that tuning the freezing conditions can enable the spontaneous expulsion of water droplets.

    • Jonathan B. Boreyko

  • Article |

    Premelting refers to the formation of a thin liquid film on a crystal’s surface before it properly melts. Now, a similar mechanism is shown to occur before solid–solid transitions in colloidal crystals: the formation of a polymorphic crystalline layer.

    • Xipeng Wang
    • , Bo Li
    •  & Yilong Han

  • Letter |

    When electrons in a crystal interact with the surrounding lattice, they can form quasiparticles known as polarons. A computational approach to studying polarons in two-dimensional materials explains why they are rarely observed in these systems.

    • Weng Hong Sio
    •  & Feliciano Giustino

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    A scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscope is used to image ferroelectric domains in piezoelectric and improper ferroelectric samples with high sensitivity. The technique relies on the nitrogen-vacancy’s Stark shift produced by the samples’ electric field.

    • William S. Huxter
    • , Martin F. Sarott
    •  & Christian L. Degen

  • 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

  • Article |

    The protein VASP can undergo liquid–liquid phase separation. The interplay between the surface tension of the VASP droplet and actin polymerization controls the bundling of actin filaments, a necessary step for many cellular processes.

    • Kristin Graham
    • , Aravind Chandrasekaran
    •  & Jeanne C. Stachowiak

  • Article |

    The ultrafast structural dynamics in 2D perovskites are an important part of their non-equilibrium properties. Now, their visualization reveals a light-induced reduction in the antiferro-distortion initiated by the electron–hole plasma.

    • Hao Zhang
    • , Wenbin Li
    •  & Aditya D. Mohite

  • Article |

    The concept of quasiparticles helps to describe various quantum phenomena in solids. It is now shown that certain properties of a classical system of hydrodynamically interacting particles can also be described by means of quasiparticles.

    • Imran Saeed
    • , Hyuk Kyu Pak
    •  & Tsvi Tlusty

  • Article |

    Superconductivity can emerge from a strange-metal state, but the exact relationship between them is unknown. Now, quantitative measurements reveal the dependence of resistivity in the strange metal on the superconducting transition temperature.

    • Xingyu Jiang
    • , Mingyang Qin
    •  & Zhongxian Zhao

  • News & Views |

    Liquid crystal defect structures with topology similar to a Möbius strip can rotate, translate and transform into one another under an applied electric field.

    • Lisa Tran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological defect structures that swim have been realized in liquid crystals. Now, a range of structures with topology reminiscent of a Möbius strip swim and transform into one another.

    • Hanqing Zhao
    • , Jung-Shen B. Tai
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The intermediate states in photo-excited phase transitions are expected to be inhomogeneous. However, ultrafast X-ray imaging shows the early part of the metal–insulator transition in VO2 is homogeneous but then becomes heterogeneous.

    • Allan S. Johnson
    • , Daniel Perez-Salinas
    •  & Simon E. Wall

  • Letter |

    The Luttinger liquid is a theoretical concept used to describe interacting fermions in a 1D system. Now it is shown that the model also describes electron physics in η-Mo4O11, a quasi-2D material in which 1D chains cross each other.

    • X. Du
    • , L. Kang
    •  & L. X. Yang

  • Letter |

    A continuum active solid system is realized in a bacterial biofilm. Self-sustained elastic waves are observed, and two modes of collective motion with a sharp transition between them are identified.

    • Haoran Xu
    • , Yulu Huang
    •  & Yilin Wu

  • News & Views |

    Superconductivity with an anisotropy is revealed in a layered material. This result points towards a version of superconductivity where spin–orbit interactions produce a material that is resilient to external magnetic fields.

    • Joseph Falson

  • News & Views |

    Optical experiments reveal nematicity and broken time-reversal symmetry in the charge density waves in kagome metals.

    • Luyi Yang

  • Article |

    Hexagonal boron nitride is a common component of 2D heterostructures. Defects implanted in boron nitride crystals can be used to perform spatially resolved sensing of properties, including temperature, magnetism and current.

    • A. J. Healey
    • , S. C. Scholten
    •  & J.-P. Tetienne

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    The notion of chirality in dynamical systems with broken spatial symmetry but preserved time inversion symmetry has led to the concept of truly chiral phonons. These have now been observed in bulk HgS using circularly polarized Raman spectroscopy.

    • Kyosuke Ishito
    • , Huiling Mao
    •  & Takuya Satoh

  • Article |

    The transition from a glassy to a liquid phase is normally assumed to take place cooperatively across the whole material. But now, experiments show that, under certain conditions, isolated regions of liquid can form in the glassy matrix first.

    • Ana Vila-Costa
    • , Marta Gonzalez-Silveira
    •  & Javier Rodriguez-Viejo

  • Letter |

    The superconducting critical temperature of monolayer materials is often lower than their bulk counterparts. Now, intercalation is shown to induce two-dimensional superconducting properties while maintaining the bulk critical temperature.

    • Haoxiong Zhang
    • , Awabaikeli Rousuli
    •  & Shuyun Zhou

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