Techniques and instrumentation articles within Nature Physics

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  • News & Views |

    The ability to extract information from diffuse background signals in ultrafast electron diffraction experiments now enables a direct view of the formation of topological defects during a light-induced phase transition.

    • Isabella Gierz

  • News & Views |

    Permanent deformation in solids results from atoms not aligning with the external stress causing the deformation. Detecting such non-affine atomic rearrangements and connecting them to measurable mechanical effects is now shown to be feasible by means of high-energy X-ray diffraction.

    • Saswati Ganguly

  • Article |

    The boson peak refers to an excess in the phonon density of states seen in three-dimensional amorphous materials. Helium-atom scattering experiments have now revealed a boson peak in a two-dimensional material, too, at a frequency similar to that of the bulk material.

    • Martin Tømterud
    • , Sabrina D. Eder
    •  & Bodil Holst

  • News & Views |

    Multi-colour light fields allow a nonlinear coupling between free electrons and propagating light by stimulated Compton scattering, without the need for near fields to mediate the interaction.

    • Niklas Müller
    •  & Sascha Schäfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coulomb interactions in free-electron beams are usually seen as an adverse effect. The creation of distinctive number states with one, two, three and four electrons now reveals unexpected opportunities for electron microscopy and lithography from Coulomb correlations.

    • Rudolf Haindl
    • , Armin Feist
    •  & Claus Ropers

  • Article |

    Probing strongly interacting quantum systems with high spatial resolution can be challenging. An experiment now uses disorder in nuclear spin chains as a local probe to investigate spin and energy hydrodynamics.

    • Pai Peng
    • , Bingtian Ye
    •  & Paola Cappellaro

  • News & Views |

    Atom trap trace analysis has emerged as a powerful technique for detecting trace radioisotopes of noble gases. The successful application of the method to a calcium isotope now opens the possibility of extension to other metal isotopes.

    • Rohan D. Glover

  • Article |

    The calcium isotope 41Ca is a promising candidate to complement dating methods relying on radiocarbon. Small levels of 41Ca can be measured with atom-trap trace analysis, which brings the use of 41Ca a step closer to applications.

    • T.-Y. Xia
    • , W.-W. Sun
    •  & Z.-T. Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast photon–electron spectroscopy commonly requires a driving laser. Now, an inverse approach based on cathodoluminescence spectroscopy has allowed a compact solution to spectral interferometry inside an electron microscope, without a laser.

    • Masoud Taleb
    • , Mario Hentschel
    •  & Nahid Talebi

  • Research Briefing |

    Coherent multidimensional spectroscopy with nanoscale spatial resolution was used to directly probe a plasmon polariton quantum wave packet. To reproduce these results an improved quantum model of photoemission was required, in which the coherent coupling between plasmons and electrons is accounted for with the plasmon excitations extending beyond a two-level model.

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    By recovering energy from a relativistically accelerated electron beam in a multiturn configuration, a reduction of radiofrequency power has been demonstrated. This is a milestone toward more efficient and better performing accelerators.

    • Peter Williams

  • Article |

    By combining energy recovery technology and a multi-turn accelerating scheme in a linear accelerator, high-power beams can be achieved with considerably reduced energy consumption.

    • Felix Schliessmann
    • , Michaela Arnold
    •  & Simon Weih

  • Article |

    Time-crystalline order appears in periodically driven systems with broken time-translation symmetry. Now, a protocol based on pulse drives of different frequencies is used to create and continuously observe time crystals with long lifetimes.

    • William Beatrez
    • , Christoph Fleckenstein
    •  & Ashok Ajoy

  • 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

  • Perspective |

    High-resolution imaging methods have been instrumental in advancing our understanding of the structure of materials. To move microscopy and tomography methods forwards, approaches to reassess macroscopic concepts such as symmetry are needed.

    • Sergei V. Kalinin
    • , Ayana Ghosh
    •  & Maxim Ziatdinov

  • Letter |

    Stacking monolayer WS2 on top of bilayer WSe2 creates conditions where electrons and holes can coexist in the structure. Their Coulomb interaction allows them to form bound pairs and hence an excitonic insulator state.

    • Dongxue Chen
    • , Zhen Lian
    •  & Su-Fei Shi

  • Comment |

    Emerging quantum technologies pose new measurement challenges, but also offer previously unknown measurement solutions. National metrology institutes are playing a leading role in this fast evolving world.

    • Alexander Tzalenchuk
    • , Nicolas Spethmann
    •  & Barbara L. Goldstein

  • News & Views |

    Originally suggested for the detection of gravitational waves, resonantly vibrating metal beams have been used in a recent laboratory experiment to measure Newton’s constant of gravitation and to verify Newton’s gravitational law.

    • Christian Rothleitner

  • Measure for Measure |

    The shift of the definition of the kilogram in 2019 away from an artefact to one relying on the Planck constant inspires technological innovation, as Naoki Kuramoto elucidates.

    • Naoki Kuramoto

  • Measure for Measure |

    Juris Meija takes a look at the tumultuous past of the atomic unit of mass from its beginnings as an idea to its most recent revisions in a hotel bar.

    • Juris Meija

  • Article |

    Artificial spin ice formed of nanomagnets arranged on a lattice mimics frustrated magnetism seen in condensed matter. By controlling magnetic interactions, theoretically predicted phase transitions are now observed in artificial kagome-lattice spin ice.

    • Kevin Hofhuis
    • , Sandra Helen Skjærvø
    •  & Laura Jane Heyderman

  • Editorial |

    The merits of conventional particle accelerators range from fundamental science to applications like radiotherapy. Plasma-based accelerators are getting up to speed and may overtake conventional ones in the near future.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visualizing the structural dynamics of isolated molecules would help to understand chemical reactions, but this is difficult for complex structures. Intense femtosecond X-ray pulses allow the full imaging of exploding photoionized molecules, in this case, with eleven atoms.

    • Rebecca Boll
    • , Julia M. Schäfer
    •  & Till Jahnke

  • News & Views |

    The state that forms at low temperatures in a quantum antiferromagnet on a kagome lattice has been debated for decades. Nuclear magnetic resonance has now shown the gradual emergence of entangled spin singlets in a disordered kagome antiferromagnet.

    • Martin Klanjšek

  • Measure for Measure |

    Initially used to measure the brightness of radio sources, the jansky has spread to other areas of astronomy, as Natasha Hurley-Walker recounts.

    • Natasha Hurley-Walker

  • Comment |

    Scientific progress has always been driven by the ability to build an instrument to answer a specific question. But spreading the news of how to replicate that tool is an evolving art, ripe for an open-source revolution.

    • Georg E. Fantner
    •  & Andrew C. Oates

  • News & Views |

    The virtual photons that are exchanged when a free-electron vortex beam interacts with a nanoscopic target unlock an explicit connection between polarized optical spectroscopy and the inelastic scattering of scalar electron waves.

    • David J. Masiello

  • Article |

    The functionality of electron energy loss spectroscopy can be extended to include a polarization analogue constructed via the dipole transition vector between two electronic states, bringing it closer to its optical counterpart.

    • Hugo Lourenço-Martins
    • , Davy Gérard
    •  & Mathieu Kociak

  • Measure for Measure |

    The metric system is one of the enduring achievements of the French Revolution. Martin Milton recounts how it was also intended to unite nations.

    • Martin J. T. Milton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evidence for light-induced superconductivity in K3C60 was limited to optical methods due to the short lifetime of the phase. Extending the lifetime from picoseconds to nanoseconds now allows measurement of its negligible electrical resistance.

    • M. Budden
    • , T. Gebert
    •  & A. Cavalleri

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