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The ability to access experimentally the quantum-mechanical nature of the interaction between single atomic spins opens windows onto the most fundamental magnetic phenomena.
The hoped-for enhancement of the properties of polymer–nanotube composites have remained elusive, owing in part to the difficulties in obtaining well-dispersed mixtures. A chemical modification of the nanotube surface offers a new handle for controlling the dispersion.
Nanoscale core–shell precipitates within multicomponent alloys are known to confer strength and thermal stability beyond that expected from the constituent materials. Their formation mechanism has finally been revealed to involve a combination of thermodynamic and kinetic processes.
The integration of different technological platforms is leading to multifunctional materials with an improved interface with the human body. The approach has started to pay back as applications have appeared in regenerative medicine.
A new study suggests that the highest transition temperatures in cuprate superconductors occur when the materials are on the edge of instability to another, non-superconducting, ordered 'stripe' phase.
Quantum dots have emerged as powerful materials to image processes and structures in biological systems. They have now been shown to produce photoinduced charge separation within cells which may become a tool for probing the redox state of cells.
The approximation that a single potential energy surface can describe the reactivity of molecules is known to work well in the gas phase. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment for H2 reacting on a platinum surface now shows that this approximation is also valid for some reactions on metal surfaces.
Pushing a sewing needle into a colloidal crystal may seem a crude experiment. On the contrary, combined with laser diffraction microscopy and confocal microscopy, it provides a valuable analogy to nanoindentation and promises a deeper understanding of the mechanical response of crystalline materials.
With silicon microelectronics approaching fundamental limits, new concepts for high-density memory devices are sought. The individual switching of dislocations in oxides may offer just the right alternative.
The long spin-coherence time of electrons in semiconductor quantum dots has strong potential for quantum information processing. A new study shows a way to further enhance it by controlling the interaction of electrons with light.
The successful demonstration that magnetic flux lines in a superconductor can be moved by time-dependent drives instead of spatially asymmetric structures suggests a versatile new approach to control the motion of nanoscale objects.
The device properties of polymer semiconductors are heavily dependent on the morphology of the constituent materials. Some of the morphological characteristics of thiophene-based polymers are now being unravelled.
The observation of quantum optical effects in engineered semiconductor structures creates the opportunity to harvest these phenomena in designer devices.
Atomic-scale microscopy of perovskite heterostructures not only provides an understanding of the origin of interface roughness, but also a recipe for improved electronic devices.
What exactly happens inside a crumpled sheet? New simulations, taking into account that the sheet can't pass through itself, reveal that crumpled sheets are more rigid than one might have guessed.
