Articles in 2011

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has reached unprecedented resolution and can provide structural information down to the single atomic level. It is now shown that a properly designed experimental analysis also allows the charge distribution around a single atomic dopant to be monitored, demonstrating the possibility of TEM to provide electronic as well as structural information.

Metallic glasses are strong but at the same time are brittle once they yield. A new Pd-based metallic glass now shows significantly enhanced fracture toughness. The unique combination of yield strength and toughness makes this glass comparable to the toughest as well as strongest materials known.

Phase-change materials are key components in rewritable optical disks and are promising for non-volatile electronic memories. The very different structure and ultrafast recrystallization dynamics of another class of phase-change materials, Sb–Te-based alloys, now suggests their use in future memory applications.

Actin networks are an excellent model system for studying the mechanical properties of the cell cytoskeleton. Using microscopic methods, actin bundle networks formed in the presence of the crosslinking protein fascin show age-dependent changes in their viscoelastic properties and spontaneous relaxation dynamics in a similar way to glassy, soft materials.

Phase-change materials are used in computer memories for their switching between amorphous and crystalline phases. However, even the crystalline state shows disorder, with extremely small electron mean free paths. The discovery that, depending on annealing temperature, this disorder leads to a metal–insulator transition in the crystalline phase provides a completely new look at the transport properties of these compounds.