Physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    For future optical information processing applications, including quantum computing, ever more complex quantum photonic devices are needed. Metcalf et al. present an integrated photonic device capable of three-photon quantum operation, including Hong-Ou-Mandel-type interference between three photons.

    • Benjamin J. Metcalf
    • , Nicholas Thomas-Peter
    •  & Ian A. Walmsley

  • Article |

    Atomic force microscopy provides surface topography images with atomic resolution, but a quantitative measurement of the force while imaging has been missing. Now, Platzet al. present a method based on modulating the cantilever oscillation amplitude to rapidly measure the interaction between tip and surface.

    • Daniel Platz
    • , Daniel Forchheimer
    •  & David B. Haviland

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical frequency combs are vital tools for precision measurements, and extending them further into the mid-infrared 'molecular fingerprint' range will open new avenues for spectroscopy. Using crystalline microresonators, Wang et al. demonstrate Kerr combs at 2.5 μm as a promising route into the mid-infrared.

    • C. Y. Wang
    • , T. Herr
    •  & T. J. Kippenberg

  • Article |

    Non-Abelian anyons are exotic quasiparticles envisioned to be promising candidates for solid-state quantum computation. Clarkeet al. propose a device fabricated from fractional quantum Hall states and superconductors that supports a new type of non-Abelian defect that binds parafermionic zero modes.

    • David J. Clarke
    • , Jason Alicea
    •  & Kirill Shtengel

  • Article |

    A full understanding of the heating and dynamics of the Sun's atmosphere remains elusive, but magnetohydrodynamic waves are believed to be crucial. Using observations from the ROSA imager, this study finds compressive waves in the solar chromosphere, which may provide the energy needed for coronal heating.

    • Richard J. Morton
    • , Gary Verth
    •  & Robertus Erdélyi

  • Article |

    For the ultrasensitive detection of magnetic fields either atomic transitions or superconducting circuits are used. Bal et al. combine such approaches and demonstrate a superconducting device functioning as an artificial atom for magnetic field detection with high sensitivity and spatial resolution.

    • M. Bal
    • , C. Deng
    •  & A. Lupascu

  • Article |

    In quantum communication, the noisy-storage model assumes that an attacker’s memory device is imperfect, thus enabling two parties to implement protocols securely. Using polarization-entangled photon pairs, Ng et al.analyse and verify a two-party bit commitment protocol within the noisy-storage.

    • Nelly Huei Ying Ng
    • , Siddarth K. Joshi
    •  & Stephanie Wehner

  • Article |

    Half-quantized vortices are the fundamental topological excitations of a two-component superfluid, however, probing the dynamics of their formation is challenging. Manni et al.report real-time observations of polariton vortices unbinding into half-quantized vortex pairs in an exciton-polariton condensate.

    • F. Manni
    • , K. G. Lagoudakis
    •  & B. Deveaud

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are only a few known organic ferroelectrics, particularly ones that operate at high temperatures. Here the discovery of ferroelectricity above room temperature in members of an ubiquitous family of organic molecules reveals the possibility of novel low-cost electronic applications.

    • Sachio Horiuchi
    • , Fumitaka Kagawa
    •  & Yoshinori Tokura

  • Article |

    One of the many exotic characteristics of systems that exhibit the fractional quantum Hall effect is the presence of chiral edge modes that carry energy but no net charge. Gurman et al.demonstrate the use of quantum dots to transform this energy into a measurable current, enabling them to better probe these modes.

    • I. Gurman
    • , R. Sabo
    •  & D. Mahalu

  • Review Article |

    Between low-end stellar-mass black holes and top-end supermassive black holes, lie the elusive intermediate black holes. Jenny Greene reviews the search for these black holes in galaxy centres, which should indicate if supermassive black holes grew from stellar-mass ones or if a more complex process was needed.

    • Jenny E. Greene

  • Article |

    Colloidal quantum dots may be used in a variety of emerging technologies, particularly if charged states can be stabilized. Here, cadmium selenide core-shell nanocrystals are engineered for trion emission at low temperatures, and their finite size introduces an acoustic phonon bottleneck, inhibiting spin relaxation.

    • Mark J. Fernée
    • , Chiara Sinito
    •  & Brahim Lounis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although foldable structures have found a widespread use in daily life, for example as popup tents, their mathematical properties have been difficult to describe. Mouthuyet al. here present an analytical model that reproduces quantitatively the shape and buckling behaviour of foldable items.

    • Pierre-Olivier Mouthuy
    • , Michael Coulombier
    •  & Alain M. Jonas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metamaterials can be designed with anisotropy, which tailors their optical properties to enable interesting functionalities. Here, the anisotropy of a Maltese-cross metamaterial is actively controlled by an actuator, allowing for tunable birefringence and dichroism in the terahertz frequency region.

    • W.M. Zhu
    • , A.Q. Liu
    •  & N.I. Zheludev

  • Article |

    Sub-wavelength structures can be used to convert between light and plasmon polaritons. Genevetet al. design holographic plasmonic interfaces that couple vortex light beams to surface plasmons, allowing them to detect the orbital angular momentum of the beam with a simple silicon photodiode.

    • Patrice Genevet
    • , Jiao Lin
    •  & Federico Capasso

  • Article |

    The frictional force required to move a liquid drop on a surface is known to depend upon the drop resting time. N'guessan et al. demonstrate that water drops on graphene surfaces are an exception, which is attributable to the chemical homogeneity and stability of graphene surfaces.

    • Hartmann E. N’guessan
    • , Aisha Leh
    •  & Priyanka Wasnik

  • Article |

    Polariton condensates provide an arena in which to study interesting non-equilibrium condensate dynamics. Tosi et al. generate stable vortex lattices in a polariton condensate and study their macroscopic wavefunction, uncovering a nonlinear regime for topological defects at high densities.

    • G. Tosi
    • , G. Christmann
    •  & J.J. Baumberg

  • Article |

    Intense lasers enable scientists to study the behaviour of matter under extreme pressures, but obtaining information about its atomic structure is challenging. In this work, Suggit et al. demonstrate the use of white-light X-ray diffraction to probe the structure of laser-shocked copper on nanosecond timescales.

    • Matthew J. Suggit
    • , Andrew Higginbotham
    •  & Justin S. Wark

  • Article |

    The potential use of graphene in spintronic devices is limited by its weak spin–orbit coupling. Marchenko et al. report an enhancement of the spin splitting in graphene due to hybridization with gold 5dorbitals, showing a very large Rashba spin–orbit splitting of about 100 meV.

    • D. Marchenko
    • , A. Varykhalov
    •  & O. Rader

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms whose high electron mobility offers potential for cheap, high-speed opto-electronic devices. Docherty et al.show that the terahertz frequency photoconductivity in graphene depends crucially on the type and density of environmental gas adsorbed.

    • Callum J. Docherty
    • , Cheng-Te Lin
    •  & Michael B. Johnston

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In a nonlinear medium, a pump laser beam generates and amplifies a second beam at a different frequency through stimulated Raman scattering. Sirleto et al.show this effect in silicon nanocrystals in a silicon matrix, with gain greater than four orders of magnitude compared with crystalline silicon.

    • Luigi Sirleto
    • , Maria Antonietta Ferrara
    •  & Leonid Khriachtchev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical activity resulting from electronic transitions in chiral inorganic materials is rare. Liu et al. report the synthesis of amino acid-derived amphiphile templated chiral TiO2fibres, which exhibit an optical response to polarized light resulting from valence to conduction band electronic transitions.

    • Shaohua Liu
    • , Lu Han
    •  & Shunai Che

  • Article |

    Integrated photonic devices rely on single-mode waveguides, as inter-mode coupling prevents multimode waveguides from being efficiently bent for on-chip schemes. Using transformation optics, Gabrielliet al. overcome this limitation and show a multimode waveguide bend with minimal inter-mode coupling.

    • Lucas H. Gabrielli
    • , David Liu
    •  & Michal Lipson

  • Article |

    Chaotic dynamics can arise in quantum systems as well as classical ones, leading to its own interesting phenomena. Using an all-optical approach, Lemos et al. study the quantum-kicked harmonic oscillator and its nonlinear dynamics, controlling and mapping the transition into quantum chaotic behaviour.

    • Gabriela B. Lemos
    • , Rafael M. Gomes
    •  & Fabricio Toscano

  • Article |

    Understanding charge transport and the fundamental limits on conductivity in polymer semiconductors is important for improving device performance. Wanget al. report a transport regime close to band-like conduction and the observation of the Hall effect in an electrochemically-doped polymer semiconductor.

    • Shun Wang
    • , Mingjing Ha
    •  & C Leighton

  • Article |

    Metamaterial cloaks can manipulate light to effectively hide objects from view, but they mostly rely on rigid structures that are tailored specifically for the chosen object. Shin et al.demonstrate an elastic, smart metamaterial cloak that can adapt to a range of deformations and object sizes.

    • Dongheok Shin
    • , Yaroslav Urzhumov
    •  & David R. Smith

  • Article |

    Integration of different compounds with silica is important for developing small-scale optical devices, yet the high temperatures needed to build silica waveguides impose limits. Here, a room-temperature, self-assembly approach is shown, which produces long microwires containing nanodiamonds or organic dyes.

    • Masood Naqshbandi
    • , John Canning
    •  & Maxwell J. Crossley

  • Article |

    Metamaterials using split-ring resonators can display negative refractive index, yet the same effect for closed rings has remained elusive. Kanté et al.overcome this by using closely spaced coupled nanorings that exploit symmetry breaking to show broadband negative refractive index at optical frequencies.

    • Boubacar Kanté
    • , Yong-Shik Park
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Article |

    Coherent conversion of photons from one wavelength to another is promising for future quantum communications technologies. By exploiting coupling between resonances in an optomechanical crystal nanocavity, Hillet al. demonstrate conversion between optical wavelength photons via a mechanical resonance.

    • Jeff T. Hill
    • , Amir H. Safavi-Naeini
    •  & Oskar Painter

  • Article |

    The Cooper pairs that losslessly conduct current in a superconductor can be split into two spatially separated but quantum mechanically entangled electrons. In this paper, non-local cross-correlation measurements of pairs split within a superconducting wire indicate the efficiency of this process can approach 100%.

    • Anindya Das
    • , Yuval Ronen
    •  & Hadas Shtrikman

  • Article |

    Electronic paper technology is used in displays of portable electronic devices for its low-power consumption; however, it suffers from a sub-optimal reflectance. Hagedon et al.fabricate an electrofluidic film that allows video-rate switching and magazine-quality reflectance in electronic paper.

    • M. Hagedon
    • , S. Yang
    •  & J. Heikenfeld

  • Article |

    The formation of structural ripples has been shown to control the local electronic properties in graphene. Okadaet al. use scanning tunnelling microscopy to study the effects of ripples in Bi2Te3topological insulators, and find that buckling modulates the Dirac surface-state dispersion.

    • Yoshinori Okada
    • , Wenwen Zhou
    •  & V. Madhavan

  • Article |

    Bursting of electrified drops is a fundamental physical process and important for diverse technical applications. Wanget al. find that bursting of electrified drops in polymers is sensitive to the shape of the drops, which in turn is determined by the polymer's elasticity

    • Qiming Wang
    • , Zhigang Suo
    •  & Xuanhe Zhao

  • Article |

    Crystals containing atoms with widely disparate masses can exhibit unusual lattice dynamics. Using time-of-flight neutron scattering, Aczelet al. show that at high frequencies individual nitrogen atoms in uranium nitride behave as independent quantum harmonic oscillators.

    • A.A. Aczel
    • , G.E. Granroth
    •  & S.E. Nagler

  • Article |

    Computed tomography relies on scanning to measure an object from many angles, which fails for shot-to-shot changes and ultrafast phenomena. Matliset al. demonstrate an approach based on spectral multiplexing for single-shot tomographic imaging and use it to measure femtosecond plasma filaments.

    • N.H. Matlis
    • , A. Axley
    •  & W.P. Leemans

  • Article |

    Molecules in intense laser fields have enhanced multiple ionization rates, caused by the ionic core and laser fields acting on the part of the molecule in the up-field. Here, direct proof of this model is presented by studying the instantaneous effect of the field direction during double ionization in ArXe.

    • J. Wu
    • , M. Meckel
    •  & R. Dörner

  • Article |

    Trapped ions and atoms coexist at different temperatures in mixed systems, and cooling of ions through collisions with atoms is required for the mixture to stabilize. Raviet al. study these effects using rubidium atoms and ions, and find a collisional cooling mechanism leading to stability of the mixture.

    • K. Ravi
    • , Seunghyun Lee
    •  & S.A. Rangwala

  • Article |

    The degree of polydispersity of colloidal suspensions is known to have consequences for their physical properties. Kuritaet al. present a general method for determining the sizes of individual particles, and thus the polydispersity, using only the coordinates of the centre positions of spherical particles.

    • Rei Kurita
    • , David B. Ruffner
    •  & Eric R. Weeks

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