Nanoscience and technology articles within Nature Physics

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  • News & Views |

    Electrons with fractional dimension have been observed in an artificial Sierpiński triangle, demonstrating their quantum fractal nature.

    • Dario Bercioux
    •  & Ainhoa Iñiguez

  • Letter |

    Electrons are confined to an artificial Sierpiński triangle. Microscopy measurements show that their wavefunctions become self-similar and their quantum properties inherit a non-integer dimension between 1 and 2.

    • S. N. Kempkes
    • , M. R. Slot
    •  & C. Morais Smith

  • Letter |

    Spin current is generated by pumping from nuclear spin waves. The nuclear magnetic resonance is used to transfer angular momentum from the nuclei of an antiferromagnet to a propagating spin current that is subsequently collected in a distant electrode.

    • Yuki Shiomi
    • , Jana Lustikova
    •  & Eiji Saitoh

  • Letter |

    The entropy of a few-electron quantum system is measured for the first time by tracking the movement of charge in and out of the system. This could allow the unambiguous detection of Majorana fermions in solid state devices.

    • Nikolaus Hartman
    • , Christian Olsen
    •  & Joshua Folk

  • Article |

    Quantum fluctuations in space and time can now be directly imaged using a scanning superconducting quantum interference device. The technique allows access to the local dynamics of a system close to a quantum phase transition.

    • A. Kremen
    • , H. Khan
    •  & B. Kalisky

  • Letter |

    Fluid transport at the nanoscale is important for understanding a range of phenomena in biological and physical systems. A theory accounting for transport through fluctuating channels is presented, providing a framework for designing active membranes.

    • Sophie Marbach
    • , David S. Dean
    •  & Lydéric Bocquet

  • News & Views |

    Energy levels in superconducting quantum devices are highly sensitive to charge fluctuations. Generally, this is considered a bug, but new work transforms this sensitivity into the defining feature of a novel device.

    • Leonid Glazman

  • News & Views |

    It’s still unclear which problems can be solved by near-term quantum computers that are beyond the reach of their classical counterparts. A new analysis makes a practical assessment of how sampling the output of a quantum circuit leaves supercomputers in the dust.

    • Barbara M. Terhal

  • Article |

    The charge–phase duality in superconductors implies that the well-known SQUID has an analogue based on the interference of fluxons. Such a ‘charge quantum interference device’ (or CQUID) has now been experimentally demonstrated.

    • S. E. de Graaf
    • , S. T. Skacel
    •  & O. V. Astafiev

  • Comment |

    The variety of emergent phenomena occurring at oxide interfaces has made these systems the focus of intense study in recent years. We argue that spin–orbit effects in oxide interfaces provide a versatile handle to generate, control and convert spin currents, with a view towards low-power spintronics.

    • J. Varignon
    • , L. Vila
    •  & M. Bibes

  • News & Views |

    Quantized Majorana conductance is a hallmark of topological superconductors, but its fragility has made it difficult to observe. Device improvements have now enabled its measurement, making everyone eager to see the next step — topological qubits.

    • Marcel Franz
    •  & Dmitry I. Pikulin

  • Perspective |

    As part of a Focus on antiferromagnetic spintronics, this Perspective examines the opportunities afforded by synthetic, as opposed to crystalline, antiferromagnets.

    • R. A. Duine
    • , Kyung-Jin Lee
    •  & M. D. Stiles

  • Editorial |

    The fledgling field of antiferromagnetic spintronics looks set to bring exotic forms of magnetism into the realm of practical applications.

  • Letter |

    Coupling strengths differ between neighbours in square artificial spin ices, resulting in the loss of degeneracy. Introducing mesospins on vertices of the array alleviates this problem, by tuning the strength and ratio of the interaction energies.

    • Erik Östman
    • , Henry Stopfel
    •  & Björgvin Hjörvarsson

  • News & Views |

    Device-independent quantum cryptography promises unprecedented security, but it is regarded as a theorist's dream and an experimentalist's nightmare. A new mathematical tool has now pushed its experimental demonstration much closer to reality.

    • Artur Ekert

  • Commentary |

    As we move beyond the twentieth anniversary of the teleportation of a quantum state, it's clear that the coming years will be just as fruitful.

    • Anton Zeilinger

  • Article |

    Nanomagnets are often used to build artificial systems that are geometrically frustrated, but when quasiperiodic ordering is introduced, an unusual ground state can form, with an ordered skeletal structure surrounding groups of degenerate macrospins.

    • Dong Shi
    • , Zoe Budrikis
    •  & Christopher H. Marrows

  • Letter |

    Atomically thin chromium tri-iodide is shown to be a 2D ferromagnetic insulator with an optical response dominated by ligand-field transitions, emitting circularly polarized photoluminescence with a helicity determined by the magnetization direction.

    • Kyle L. Seyler
    • , Ding Zhong
    •  & Xiaodong Xu

  • Letter |

    A study of the strong coupling of different exciton species in two-dimensional molybdenum diselenide in a cavity uncovers the rich many-body physics and may lead to new devices.

    • S. Dhara
    • , C. Chakraborty
    •  & A. N. Vamivakas

  • News & Views |

    A type of optics experiment called a boson sampler could be among the easiest routes to demonstrating the power of quantum computers. But recent work shows that super-classical boson sampling may be a long way off.

    • Andrew M. Childs

  • News & Views |

    A crystalline organic semiconductor that combines the long spin-relaxation times of organic semiconductors with the high charge-carrier mobilities typically found in inorganic semiconductors provides unprecedented prospects for organic spintronics.

    • Christoph Boehme

  • Letter |

    Semiconductor nanowires with superconducting leads are considered promising for quantum computation. The current–phase relation is systematically explored in gate-tunable InAs Josephson junctions, and is shown to provide a clean handle for characterizing the transport properties of these structures.

    • Eric M. Spanton
    • , Mingtang Deng
    •  & Kathryn A. Moler

  • Letter |

    Physical rotation can create fictitious magnetic fields, a phenomenon that stems from Larmor's theorem. The effect on a nuclear spin ensemble was measured using the spin–echo of nitrogen–vacancy centres in rapidly spinning diamond. Interestingly, the rotationally induced magnetic fields can cancel a conventional magnetic field for the nuclear spins.

    • A. A. Wood
    • , E. Lilette
    •  & A. M. Martin

  • Progress Article |

    Spins can act as mediators to interconvert electricity, light, sound, vibration and heat. This Progress article gives an overview of the recent advances associated with nanoscale spin conversion.

    • YoshiChika Otani
    • , Masashi Shiraishi
    •  & Shuichi Murakami

  • Letter |

    In different applications the Gouy phase is used to describe broadband lasers, but new 3D measurements of the spatial dependence of a focused laser pulse show serious deviations from the Gouy phase.

    • Dominik Hoff
    • , Michael Krüger
    •  & Peter Hommelhoff

  • Letter |

    Attosecond streaking is used to study the dynamics of electron scattering in dielectric nanoparticles in real time. Revealing the mechanisms involved is the first step towards understanding electron scattering in more complex dielectrics.

    • L. Seiffert
    • , Q. Liu
    •  & M. F. Kling

  • News & Views |

    Standard rheology tells us how a cell responds to deformation. But ramping up the frequency reveals more about its internal dynamics and morphology, mapping a route to improved drug treatments — and possible insight into the malignancy of cancers.

    • Klaus Kroy

  • Letter |

    Van der Waals heterostructures provide a tunable platform for probing the Andreev bound states responsible for proximity-induced superconductivity, helping to establish a connection between Andreev physics at finite energy and the Josephson effect.

    • Landry Bretheau
    • , Joel I-Jan Wang
    •  & Pablo Jarillo-Herrero

  • Letter |

    Microrheology of cells suggests that the dynamics of single filaments in the cytoskeleton dominate at high frequencies. This response can be used to detect differences between cell types and states — including benign and malignant cancer cells.

    • Annafrancesca Rigato
    • , Atsushi Miyagi
    •  & Felix Rico

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