Physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The advent of isolated attosecond XUV pulse sources marks a new era in attosecond science, pivotal for the investigation of core electron dynamics. Here the authors discover that the coherent Raman coupling between the cation states leads to extra timedelay between different transition channels by applying the attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy on the investigation of complex dynamics of strong field ionization of Krypton.

    • Li Wang
    • , Guangru Bai
    •  & Zengxiu Zhao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Moiré patterns have been experimentally observed in heterostructures comprised of topological insulator films. Here, the authors propose that topological insulator-based moiré heterostructures could be a host of isolated topologically non-trivial moiré minibands for the study of the interplay between topology and correlation.

    • Kaijie Yang
    • , Zian Xu
    •  & Chao-Xing Liu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wave scattering can be described with a diffusion model in which the velocity is randomized by scattering. Here the authors find that the velocities of different transmission eigenchannels are distinct on all length scales.

    • Azriel Z. Genack
    • , Yiming Huang
    •  & Zhou Shi
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Usual multiqubit entangled states can be described using the graph formalism, where each edge connects only two qubits. Here, instead, the authors use a reprogrammable silicon photonics chip to showcase preparation, verification and processing of arbitrary four-qubit hypergraph states, where hyperedges describe entanglement within a subset of many qubits.

    • Jieshan Huang
    • , Xudong Li
    •  & Jianwei Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active matter systems, such as zebrafish groups, demonstrate similar collective dynamics to assemblies of particles, or interacting agents. The authors show that majority of dynamics patterns seen in large zebrafish groups are exhibited by a minimal group of three fish.

    • Alexandra Zampetaki
    • , Yushi Yang
    •  & C. Patrick Royall
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rhombohedral multilayer graphene has emerged as an exciting solid-state platform for studying correlated electron physics. Here, the authors demonstrate field-tunable layer-polarized ferromagnetism and isolated surface flat bands engineered with a moiré potential.

    • Wenqiang Zhou
    • , Jing Ding
    •  & Shuigang Xu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying bounds on the speed of information propagation across interacting boson systems is notoriously difficult. Here, the authors find tight bounds for both the transport of boson particles and information propagation, for arbitrary time-dependent Bose-Hubbard-type Hamiltonians in arbitrary dimensions.

    • Tomotaka Kuwahara
    • , Tan Van Vu
    •  & Keiji Saito
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulating quantum information encoded in a bosonic mode requires sizeable and controllable nonlinearities, but superconducting devices’ strong nonlinearities are normally static. Here, the authors use a SNAIL to suppress static nonlinearities and use drive-dependent ones to reach universal control of a bosonic mode.

    • Axel M. Eriksson
    • , Théo Sépulcre
    •  & Simone Gasparinetti
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron–phonon interactions are a crucial aspect of high-quality graphene devices. Here, the authors show that graphene resistivity grows strongly in the direction of the carrier flow when the drift velocity exceeds the speed of sound due to the electrical amplification of acoustic terahertz phonons.

    • Aaron H. Barajas-Aguilar
    • , Jasen Zion
    •  & Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interplay between stacking configurations and atom intercalation in van der Waals materials has been rarely characterized at the microscopic level. Here, the authors report an electron microscopy study of stacking-selective self-intercalation in Nb1+xSe2 films, showing potential for nanoscale engineering of electronic properties in van der Waals materials and devices.

    • Hongguang Wang
    • , Jiawei Zhang
    •  & Hidenori Takagi
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solvated electrons can be formed through photo-induced charge-transfer-to-solvent electronic states of halide ions in water. Here, the authors use machine learning accelerated molecular dynamics simulations to follow the evolution of these states for aqueous iodide in detail.

    • Jinggang Lan
    • , Majed Chergui
    •  & Alfredo Pasquarello
  • Article
    | Open Access

    For reservoir computing, improving prediction accuracy while maintaining low computing complexity remains a challenge. Inspired by the Granger causality, Li et al. design a data-driven and model-free framework by integrating the inference process and the inferred results on high-order structures.

    • Xin Li
    • , Qunxi Zhu
    •  & Wei Lin
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently superconductivity with Tc of about 80 K was discovered in a bilayer nickelate La3Ni2O7 under high pressure. Here the authors report a density functional theory and random phase approximation study of structural and electronic properties as a function of pressure and discuss the pairing mechanism.

    • Yang Zhang
    • , Ling-Fang Lin
    •  & Elbio Dagotto
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ensuring high-fidelity quantum gates while increasing the number of qubits poses a great challenge. Here the authors present a scalable strategy for optimizing frequency trajectories as a form of error mitigation on a 68-qubit superconducting quantum processor, demonstrating high single- and two-qubit gate fidelities.

    • Paul V. Klimov
    • , Andreas Bengtsson
    •  & Hartmut Neven
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic type-II Weyl semimetals host a variety of intriguing physical phenomena due to the combination of magnetic ordering and the electronic properties of the Weyl nodes. Herein, the authors explore the ultrafast spin dynamics of the magnetic Weyl semimetal, Co3Sn2S2, observing a transient enhanced magnetization as a result of laser excitation.

    • Xianyang Lu
    • , Zhiyong Lin
    •  & Yongbing Xu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interplay between electron-phonon and spin-orbit interactions has led to the concept of a spin-orbit polaron. Here the authors show that such a regime is realized in a spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulator, leading to a new polaron quasiparticle, and study its effect on the Mott metal-insulator transition.

    • Lorenzo Celiberti
    • , Dario Fiore Mosca
    •  & Cesare Franchini
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present Nernst measurements on a 2D film of amorphous MoxGe1−x, which shows a magnetic-field-induced superconductor-metal-insulator transition. The intermediate metal phase is known as the “anomalous metal” (AM) state. The authors conclude that the AM state originates from broadening of the superconductor-insulator transition.

    • Koichiro Ienaga
    • , Yutaka Tamoto
    •  & Satoshi Okuma
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological properties of a photonic environment are crucial to engineer robust photon-mediated interactions between quantum emitters. Here, the authors find general theorems on the topology of photon-mediated interactions, unveiling the phenomena of topological preservation and reversal.

    • Federico Roccati
    • , Miguel Bello
    •  & Angelo Carollo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some materials host multiple charge density wave states, however, their dynamics and the nature of phase transitions are often unclear. Here, using temperature and orientation resolved ultrafast spectroscopy, the authors reveal charge density waves of different dimensionality in CuTe and elucidate their mechanism.

    • Nguyen Nhat Quyen
    • , Wen-Yen Tzeng
    •  & Chih-Wei Luo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The strong ionic bond in salt is broken by electrostatic interactions with water, but direct observation at the level of a single ion is challenging. Here, the authors have visualized the preferential dissolution of an anion by manipulating a single water molecule.

    • Huijun Han
    • , Yunjae Park
    •  & Hyung-Joon Shin
  • Article
    | Open Access

    T centers in silicon are promising candidates for quantum applications yet suffer from weak optical transitions. Here, by integrating with a silicon nanocavity, the authors demonstrate an enhancement of the photon emission rate for a single T center.

    • Adam Johnston
    • , Ulises Felix-Rendon
    •  & Songtao Chen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors propose that screw or edge dislocations can trap Majorana zero modes in the absence of an external magnetic field. They predict that the Majoranas will appear as second-order topological modes on the four corners of an embedded 2D subsystem defined by the cutting plane of the dislocation.

    • Lun-Hui Hu
    •  & Rui-Xing Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, signatures of quantum spin liquid have been reported in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides. Here the authors report evidence of such state in 1T-NbSe2 via the measurements of the Kondo effect in a 1T-1H heterostructure, further supported by measurements for magnetic molecules on 1T-NbSe2.

    • Quanzhen Zhang
    • , Wen-Yu He
    •  & Yeliang Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors theoretically propose a simple microscopic mechanism for light-induced superconductivity based on a boson coupled to an electronic interband transition. The electron-electron attraction needed for the superconductivity can be resonantly amplified when the boson’s frequency is close to the energy difference between the two electronic bands. The model can be engineered using a 2D heterostructure.

    • Christian J. Eckhardt
    • , Sambuddha Chattopadhyay
    •  & Marios H. Michael
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally demonstrate the anomalous and Chern topological phases in a hyperbolic non-reciprocal scattering network, establishing unidirectional channels to induce new and exciting wave transport properties in curved spaces.

    • Qiaolu Chen
    • , Zhe Zhang
    •  & Romain Fleury
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strongly interacting interlayer excitons and the interplay between excitons and electronic states have recently been studied in moire superlattices. Here the authors study moire WS2/WSe2 heterobilayer with tuneable electron and exciton populations and find signatures of an excitonic Mott insulating state.

    • Beini Gao
    • , Daniel G. Suárez-Forero
    •  & Mohammad Hafezi
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gapped quantum antiferromagnets can undergo field or pressure induced phase transitions to the magnetically ordered state, which have distinct critical exponents. While there are many examples of field induced transitions, thus far the pressure induced case has proven difficult to realize. Herein, the authors demonstrate such a pressure driven phase transition in the quantum antiferromagnet, DTN.

    • Kirill Yu. Povarov
    • , David E. Graf
    •  & Sergei A. Zvyagin
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van Hove singularities (VHS) are believed to exist in one and two dimensions, but rarely found in three dimensions (3D). Here the authors report the discovery of 3D VHS in a topological magnet EuCd2As2 by magneto-infrared spectroscopy.

    • Wenbin Wu
    • , Zeping Shi
    •  & Xiang Yuan
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vortex string, hypothetical topological defects in cosmology, are predicted to support massless chiral modes. The authors successfully mimicked vortex-string physics in a metamaterial system and experimentally observed the chiral modes within it.

    • Jingwen Ma
    • , Ding Jia
    •  & Xiang Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Miniaturized and efficient optical modulators are desired for data transmission, processing and communication. Here, the authors report the fabrication of exciton-polariton Mach–Zehnder modulators based on thin WS2 waveguides with a footprint of ~30 μm², modulation ratio up to −6.20 dB and nanosecond response times.

    • Seong Won Lee
    • , Jong Seok Lee
    •  & Su-Hyun Gong
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contractile rings are formed from cytoskeletal filaments, specific crosslinkers and motor proteins during cell division. Here, authors form micron-scale contractile DNA rings from DNA nanotubes and synthetic crosslinkers, with both simulations and experiments showing ring contraction without motor proteins, offering a potential first step towards synthetic cell division machinery.

    • Maja Illig
    • , Kevin Jahnke
    •  & Kerstin Göpfrich
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding machine learning models’ ability to extrapolate from training data to unseen data - known as generalisation - has recently undergone a paradigm shift, while a similar understanding for their quantum counterparts is still missing. Here, the authors show that uniform generalization bounds pessimistically estimate the performance of quantum machine learning models.

    • Elies Gil-Fuster
    • , Jens Eisert
    •  & Carlos Bravo-Prieto
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The understanding of salty water droplet freezing is limited. The authors examine the formation of brine film on top of frozen salty droplets and discover a new ice crystal growth pattern sprouting from the bottom of the brine film.

    • Fuqiang Chu
    • , Shuxin Li
    •  & Nenad Miljkovic
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polaritons, light-matter hybridized quasiparticles, are the fundamental excitation of strong coupling systems and are widely applicable in information technologies. Here the authors applied the concept of time-of-flight measurement in terahertz induced second harmonic generation experiments in various systems to comprehensively study the dispersion relation of phonon-polaritons and reveal potential spin-lattice couplings.

    • Tianchuang Luo
    • , Batyr Ilyas
    •  & Nuh Gedik
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interfacing single-photon emitters (SPEs) with high-finesse cavities can prevent decoherence processes, especially at elevated temperature, but its implementation remains challenging. Here, the authors report room-temperature strong coupling of SPEs in hexagonal boron nitride with a dielectric cavity based on bound states in the continuum, showing a Rabi splitting of ~ 4 meV.

    • T. Thu Ha Do
    • , Milad Nonahal
    •  & Son Tung Ha
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently there has been a surge of interest in using magnons, the quasi-particles of spin-waves in magnetic systems, for information processing, driven by the potentially very low energy consumption. Here, by adjusting the magnetic compensation in a ferrimagnet, Li et al demonstrate magnon–magnon coupling, and controllable spin wave mediated spin current transmission.

    • Yan Li
    • , Zhitao Zhang
    •  & Xixiang Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forecasting the future behaviors based on observed data remains a challenging task especially for large nonlinear systems. The authors propose a data-driven approach combining manifold learning and delay embeddings for prediction of dynamics for all components in high-dimensional systems.

    • Tao Wu
    • , Xiangyun Gao
    •  & Jürgen Kurths
  • Article
    | Open Access

    R. Khasanov et al. report thermodynamic and muon-spin-rotation measurements on the Mo5Si3−xPx superconducting family. They find that a flat band reaches the Fermi level at x ≃ 1.3, leading to enhancement of electronic correlations and an abrupt change of the superconducting properties.

    • Rustem Khasanov
    • , Bin-Bin Ruan
    •  & Zurab Guguchia
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spin texture of a magnetic system can host a variety of topological spin textures, the most famous of these being skyrmions. Here, Volkov et al demonstrate higher order vorticity in magnetic wireframe nanostructures and introduce a general protocol for the creation of arbitrary numbers of vortices and antivortices in such wireframe structures.

    • Oleksii M. Volkov
    • , Oleksandr V. Pylypovskyi
    •  & Denys Makarov