Condensed-matter physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The anomalous Hall effect in materials with complex magnetic structures has attracted significant research attention. Here the authors report anisotropic anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial NiCo2O4 films attributed to an extended toroidal quadrupole conical magnetic order.

    • Hiroki Koizumi
    • , Yuichi Yamasaki
    •  & Hideto Yanagihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    W. X. Zhao et al. study the higher-order topological insulator candidate Bi4Br4 by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and ab-initio calculation. They provide strong evidence for the higher-order topological insulator phase, including a signature of the hinge states inside the (100) surface gap.

    • Wenxuan Zhao
    • , Ming Yang
    •  & Lexian Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetoelectric coupling, where magnetic and electronic order is linked, allows for the control of magnetism via an electric field and vice versa, potentially offering new approaches to data storage, sensors, actuators and wealth of other devices. Here, using a diverse array of experimental probes, Xu et al show the emergence of both diagonal and off-diagonal magnetoelectric coupling in CoTe6O13.

    • Xianghan Xu
    • , Yiqing Hao
    •  & R. J. Cava

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Grain boundary atomic structures of crystalline materials have long been believed to be commensurate with the crystal periodicity of the adjacent crystals. Here, the authors discover an incommensurate grain boundary structure based on direct observations and theoretical calculations.

    • Takehito Seki
    • , Toshihiro Futazuka
    •  & Naoya Shibata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The microscopic mechanism of superconducting pairing in hole-doped cuprates is still debated. Here, using state-of-the-art numerical techniques, the authors examine the properties of pairs of holes in a model relevant to cuprates revealing two types of bound states involving light and heavy hole pairs.

    • A. Bohrdt
    • , E. Demler
    •  & F. Grusdt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intrinsic anomalous Hall effect has been observed in twisted graphene multilayers, but these structures are typically not energetically favorable. This study extends these observations to Bernal-stacked tetralayer graphene, which is the most stable configuration of four-layer graphene.

    • Hao Chen
    • , Arpit Arora
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Examples of 2D heavy-fermion materials are rare, and the details of their electronic structure have remained elusive. Here, Nakamura et al. report the synthesis and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of a monolayer Kondo lattice, YbCu2, on a Cu(111) surface with an estimated coherence temperature of 30 K.

    • Takuto Nakamura
    • , Hiroki Sugihara
    •  & Shin-ichi Kimura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The predicted dissipative quantum phase transition in a Josephson junction coupled to resistive environment has been examined in recent experiments. In a heat transport experiment, Subero et al. show that the junction acts as an inductor at high frequencies, while DC charge transport confirms insulating behaviour.

    • Diego Subero
    • , Olivier Maillet
    •  & Jukka P. Pekola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report a controllable third-order cusp singularity in the phase-tracked closed-loop oscillation of two coupled mechanical modes. This finding addresses the challenge of constructing and controlling higher-order singularities.

    • Xin Zhou
    • , Xingjing Ren
    •  & Hui Jing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting properties at the interface of materials is crucial for advanced materials design. Here, the authors introduce a high-throughput computational framework, InterMatch, for predicting several properties of an interface by using the databases of individual bulk materials.

    • Eli Gerber
    • , Steven B. Torrisi
    •  & Eun-Ah Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum effects due to zero-point phonon vibrations are well-explored in bulk ferroelectrics, but little is known about them in ultra-thin films. Luo et al. report atomistic simulations of ultra-thin ferroelectrics, showing that, unlike in bulk, quantum fluctuations stabilize topological structures.

    • Wei Luo
    • , Alireza Akbarzadeh
    •  & Laurent Bellaiche

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Layered thio- and seleno-phosphate ferroelectrics show promise for next-generation memory but have thermal stability issues. Using the electric field-driven phase transition in antiferroelectric CuCrP2S6, the authors introduce a robust memristor, emphasizing the potential of van der Waals antiferroelectrics in advanced neuromorphic computing.

    • Yinchang Ma
    • , Yuan Yan
    •  & Xixiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene quantum dots promise applications for spin and valley qubits; however a demonstration of phase coherent oscillations has been lacking. Here the authors report coherent charge oscillations and measurements of coherence times in highly tuneable double quantum dots in bilayer graphene.

    • K. Hecker
    • , L. Banszerus
    •  & C. Stampfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unconventional charge order with chiral response to a magnetic field was observed in kagome metals like KV3Sb5, but the mechanism is not fully understood. Tazai et al. develop a theory based on the bond order fluctuation mechanism and provide a unified view of quantum phases in this material family.

    • Rina Tazai
    • , Youichi Yamakawa
    •  & Hiroshi Kontani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    sp3 amorphous carbon exhibits exceptional mechanical, thermal, and optical properties, but cannot be synthesized using traditional processes. Here authors report a nearly pure sp3−hybridized amorphous carbon synthesized from C70 which shows more short/medium-range order and enhanced thermal conductivity compared to C60.

    • Yuchen Shang
    • , Mingguang Yao
    •  & Bingbing Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antiferromagnets exhibit high frequency magnons, in the THz regime, a point potentially useful for applications, however, it has meant that detecting spin-fluctuations in antiferromagnets is typically too fast for current experimental approaches. Here Weiss et al use femtosecond noise correlation spectroscopy to observe magnon fluctuations in Sm0.7Er0.3FeO3.

    • M. A. Weiss
    • , A. Herbst
    •  & T. Kurihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice formation on grooved surfaces is ubiquitous, but controlling orientation is difficult due to lack of mechanistic insight. Here, the authors observed oriented growth using graphene oxide nanosheets as probes, revealing the effect of groove size, and programmed ice growth to fabricate freeze-cast metamaterials.

    • Meng Li
    • , Nifang Zhao
    •  & Hao Bai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, time-reversal symmetry-breaking charge order was demonstrated in the AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) family of kagome superconductors. Here the authors extend this observation to the recently discovered kagome material ScV6Sn6 and discuss differences and similarities to other charge-ordered kagome lattices.

    • Z. Guguchia
    • , D. J. Gawryluk
    •  & H. Luetkens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experimental approaches that can directly measure spin-lattice coupling are rare. Here, authors report direct observation of the coupling of the phonon and magnon dynamics of a coherently driven electromagnon in a multiferroic hexaferrite using time-resolved X-ray diffraction. (277 characters in total).

    • Hiroki Ueda
    • , Roman Mankowsky
    •  & Urs Staub

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate a large ensemble of quantum dots which is characterized using a cryogenic multiplexer-demultiplexer circuit based on selective area growth nanowires, establishing the feasibility of scaling future quantum circuits.

    • Dāgs Olšteins
    • , Gunjan Nagda
    •  & Thomas S. Jespersen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nonlinear optical processes like higher-order harmonic generation in solids depend on several factors. Here the authors explore the optical nonlinearity of hexagonal boron nitride and find that enhanced nonlinearity is due to electron-phonon and phonon-polariton couplings.

    • Jared S. Ginsberg
    • , M. Mehdi Jadidi
    •  & Alexander L. Gaeta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A charge-density wave state was recently reported in the bilayer kagome metal ScV6Sn6, but its nature is debated. Here, using inelastic X-ray scattering, the authors observe two competing charge-density waves and find the ground state is promoted by a momentum-dependent electron-phonon interaction.

    • Saizheng Cao
    • , Chenchao Xu
    •  & Yu Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    SrTiO3-based heterostructures display intriguing low-temperature transport features. Here the authors study LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanoscale crossbar devices, revealing correlations between electron pairing without superconductivity, anomalous Hall effect, and electronic nematicity, suggesting a shared microscopic origin.

    • Aditi Nethwewala
    • , Hyungwoo Lee
    •  & Jeremy Levy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here authors explore volume diffusion within crystalline solids at the atomic scale. They use high resolution microscopy techniques to provide insights into the movement of individual atoms within a crystal lattice, revealing the intricate dynamics of volume diffusion processes.

    • Peter Schweizer
    • , Amit Sharma
    •  & Xavier Maeder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological classification of interacting electronic states has emerged as an important topic recently. Wagner at al. show that the momentum structure of the zeros of the electron Green’s function can be used to identify a topological Mott insulator phase, similarly to the single-particle dispersion.

    • N. Wagner
    • , L. Crippa
    •  & G. Sangiovanni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    External fields can control the motion of colloidal particles inducing different trajectories depending on for instance the particle size. The authors here use nonperiodic energy landscapes and topological protection to transport a collection of identical colloidal particles simultaneously and independently.

    • Nico C. X. Stuhlmüller
    • , Farzaneh Farrokhzad
    •  & Daniel de las Heras

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The presence of excitonic instability and its relationship with a structural transition in Ta2NiSe5 has been debated. Chen et al. map out the electronic bands and lattice distortion across the semimetal-to-semiconductor transition with sulfur doping, revealing the crucial role of electron-phonon coupling.

    • Cheng Chen
    • , Weichen Tang
    •  & Yu He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antiferromagnetic topological materials have attracted attention recently due to their unique quantum properties and application potential. Here the authors establish an antiferromagnetic topological insulator in NdBi and demonstrate gapped and gapless surface states in two different magnetic domains.

    • A. Honma
    • , D. Takane
    •  & T. Sato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pump-probe techniques—where a system is driven into a nonequilibrium state and then studied as a function of time—provide rich information about the behaviour of charge carriers and their interactions. Here, Yoo et al extend this class of techniques by injecting electrons at a selected energy and observing their decay in energy and momentum space.

    • H. M. Yoo
    • , M. Korkusinski
    •  & R. C. Ashoori

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Kondo effect from magnetic impurities has been proposed as a probe of fractionalized excitations in a topological quantum spin liquid. Lee et al. experimentally demonstrate the Kondo effect in a Kitaev candidate material α-RuCl3 with dilute Cr impurities.

    • S. Lee
    • , Y. S. Choi
    •  & K.-Y. Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors study transport in Nb-(Pt/Cu)-Nb Josephson junctions (JJ), where Pt/Cu is a Rashba interface. Due to the Rashba–Edelstein effect, a charge current leads to a non-equilibrium spin moment at the Pt/Cu interface, which can be measured from a shift of the Fraunhofer pattern of the JJ.

    • Tapas Senapati
    • , Ashwin Kumar Karnad
    •  & Kartik Senapati

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The utilization of Mg3(Sb,Bi)2 in thermoelectric devices is hindered by its low performance near room temperature. Here, authors report thermoelectric performance enhancement of Mg3(Sb,Bi)2 within a wide temperature range by incorporating metallic inclusions at grain boundaries. (279 in total)

    • Jing-Wei Li
    • , Zhijia Han
    •  & Jing-Feng Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong optical excitation near band extrema can drive novel correlated states. Here the authors report a non-equilibrium many-body state in graphite driven by a strong excitation near van Hove singularity, yielding a tenfold increase in optical conductivity attributed to carrier excitations in the flat bands.

    • T. P. H. Sidiropoulos
    • , N. Di Palo
    •  & J. Biegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride, recently proposed as a superconductor at near-ambient conditions, features distinct color changes from blue to pink to red as a function of pressure. Using theoretical calculations, the authors identify the pink phase as hydrogen-deficient LuH2 and find that this phase is not a phonon-mediated superconductor near room temperature. Further, the color is controlled by the concentration of hydrogen vacancies.

    • Sun-Woo Kim
    • , Lewis J. Conway
    •  & Bartomeu Monserrat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current approaches to distinguish topological phases from topologically-trivial phases have limited general applicability. Here, in a photonic-crystal context, the authors demonstrate that in trivial structures the bulk local density of states (LDOS) extends all the way to the edges and corners, while in topological structures the bulk LDOS actually avoids the edges and corners.

    • Biye Xie
    • , Renwen Huang
    •  & Shuang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-technique synchrotron measurements support the viability of solid FeO-rich structures at Earth’s mantle base. An order-disorder transition identified in the iron defect structure of FeO may lead to unique physical properties in the region.

    • Vasilije V. Dobrosavljevic
    • , Dongzhou Zhang
    •  & Jennifer M. Jackson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indirect coordination among individuals through the environment typically requires some basic levels of communication and information processing. Dias et al. introduce a coordination mechanism that emerges in a population of clueless individuals, facilitated by environmental memory, culminating in group formation.

    • Cristóvão S. Dias
    • , Manish Trivedi
    •  & Giorgio Volpe

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