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‘Squeezed light’ enables quantum noise in one aspect of light to be reduced by increasing the noise, or more accurately the quantum uncertainty, of a complementary aspect. This has now been used to push the detectors at the heart of the GEO600 gravitational wave observatory to unprecedented levels of sensitivity.
Electrons at an interface between two insulating oxides are now shown to exhibit ferromagnetism — a collective electronic state not seen in the bulk of either individual oxide.
When the insulators lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate are brought together, the interface between them forms a two-dimensional superconductor. Moreover, magnetic imaging of this interface shows that superconductivity and ferromagnetism coexist in separated nanoscale domains.
A single quantum system comprising a nitrogen-vacancy in diamond is now coupled to a nanowire cantilever. Magnetic fields can then couple the nitrogen-vacancy spin and the oscillator enabling read-out of the nanometre-scale motion.
Lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate are insulators, but when you bring them together, the interface between them becomes a two-dimensional superconductor. Even more surprising, magnetometry and transport measurements show that this superconducting state coexists with magnetic order.
A survey of researchers has canvassed opinion on the 'grand challenges' to be faced in physics research — asking what might become achievable if more collaborative efforts are supported.
A comprehensive map of the spin fluctuations in high-temperature superconductors is emerging through the application of a novel experimental technique — and the surprising results are challenging theorists.
Surfaces inherently lack inversion symmetry. This property is now shown to promote the spontaneous formation of a lattice of spin vortices in a thin magnetic film, a finding that suggests a simple route towards new spintronics applications.