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By exploiting the optical Stark effect, the valley degree of freedom in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides can be selectively manipulated and detected using all-optical methods.
The central densities of protons and neutrons in stable atomic nuclei are saturated. More exotic nuclei — with imbalanced proton and neutron numbers — may have depleted central densities. Experiments now suggest such depletion for the 34Si nucleus.
The emergence of optically silent phonons show that strong interlayer electron–phonon coupling can arise in van der Waals heterostructures, with the vibrational modes in one layer coupling to the electronic states in a neighbouring layer.
Light can be used to directly excite phonon modes in condensed matter. Simultaneously exciting several modes in an antiferromagnetic rare-earth orthoferrite drives behaviour that mimics the application of a magnetic field.
The discovery of intermediate high-spin multiexciton states with surprisingly long lifetimes provides new opportunities for engineering singlet fission, which may also provide an intriguing route to quantum information and spintronic applications.
Cold collisions between hydrogen molecules and helium atoms reveal how the change from spherical to non-spherical symmetry creates a quantum scattering resonance.
Critical phenomena are well understood in a wide range of physical systems. The dynamics of snap-through instabilities, a widespread phenomenon in their own right, are now shown to display critical scaling properties.
Atom–molecule interactions are orientation-dependent. Now the anisotropy of He–H2 interactions has been probed by measuring how the associated quantum scattering resonances respond to tuning of the H2 rotational state.
Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.
Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.
Not in all superconductors do Cooper pairs respect the lattice symmetry of the crystal in which they move. Now, work finds such 'picky' Cooper pairs in the presence of strong electron–spin interaction — and gives rise to an entire host of new questions.
When light and matter are strongly coupled, they lose their distinct character and merge into a hybrid state. Three experiments explore this exotic regime using artificial atoms, with promise for quantum technologies.
A circuit that pairs a flux qubit with an LC oscillator via Josephson junctions pushes the coupling between light to matter to uncharted territory, with the potential for new applications in quantum technologies.
A superconducting artificial atom coupled to a 1D waveguide tests the limits of light–matter interaction in an unexplored coupling regime, which may enable new perspectives for quantum technologies.
In a nematic liquid crystal, electron orbitals align themselves along one axis, as rods. Thermodynamic observations of such rod-like alignments in CuxBi2Se3 provide evidence for a nematic superconductor.
Drawing microscopic information out of the diffusive dynamics of complex processes often requires an assumption of ergodicity. Precision experiments on a single atom in a periodic potential suggest that this may be too simplistic in many cases.
