Phase transitions and critical phenomena articles within Nature Materials

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  • News & Views |

    A first-order phase transition between two crystalline phases of magnetic whirls sheds light on the role of topology in magnetic transitions.

    • Achim Rosch

  • News & Views |

    Strain engineering can tune a manganite film into an antiferromagnetic insulating state whose extreme photo-susceptibility allows for the ordinary ferromagnetic metal state to then be transiently realized.

    • Dragan Mihailovic

  • News & Views |

    Nanoparticles of gallium deposited on a sapphire substrate, which are now shown to remain stable in a state of solid/liquid coexistence across a temperature window wider than 600 K, may prove useful for studying the properties of solid/liquid interfaces and in plasmonic or catalytic applications.

    • Andrés Aguado

  • Feature |

    Ho-kwang Mao discusses the history of high-pressure research in China, and recent developments to ensure further success.

    • Ho-kwang Mao

  • News & Views |

    Different experimental studies based on nuclear magnetic resonance and inelastic neutron scattering reach opposing conclusions regarding the origin of magnetic nematicity in iron chalcogenides.

    • David Vaknin

  • News & Views |

    Ultrashort laser pulses create strain waves that generate highly mobile charges at an oxide interface. These charges propagate into the oxide layer destroying its antiferromagnetic ordering and insulating properties, providing insight into the physics of metal–insulator transitions.

    • Valerio Scagnoli
    •  & Urs Staub

  • Article |

    The addition of nickel and other metal atoms in the liquid droplets that drive the vapour–liquid–solid growth of silicon nanowires leads to the formation of metal silicide nanocrystals that are epitaxially incorporated inside the nanowires.

    • F. Panciera
    • , Y.-C. Chou
    •  & F. M. Ross

  • Editorial |

    Understanding the behaviour of metallic glasses requires answers to complex scientific questions, which are also critical for their successful commercialization.

  • Interview |

    There have been a number of attempts to commercialize bulk metallic glass over the past 20 years. William L. Johnson, the Mettler Professor of Materials Science at California Institute of Technology, has been a prominent figure in these efforts and gives Nature Materials his perspective on the topic.

    • John Plummer

  • News & Views |

    Fingerprints of electron pairing in a range of temperature and magnetic field above the bulk superconducting phase transition have been found, which may be evidence for the long-sought 'preformed pairs' expected in strongly coupled or very dilute superconductors.

    • Alex Edelman
    •  & Peter Littlewood

  • Commentary |

    It has long been thought impossible for pure metals to form stable glasses. Recent work supports earlier evidence of glass formation in pure metals, shows the potential for devices based on rapid glass–crystal phase change, and highlights the lack of an adequate theory for fast crystal growth.

    • A. Lindsay Greer

  • Commentary |

    Recent research has revealed considerable diversity in the short-range ordering of metallic glass, identifying favoured and unfavoured local atomic configurations coexisting in an inhomogeneous amorphous structure. Tailoring the population of these local motifs may selectively enhance a desired property.

    • Evan Ma

  • Letter |

    Obtaining reliable high-pressure data from hydrogen at elevated temperatures presents considerable experimental challenges. It is now shown that a new phase transition occurs above 200 GPa as temperature increases, possibly indicating melting.

    • Ross T. Howie
    • , Philip Dalladay-Simpson
    •  & Eugene Gregoryanz

  • Letter |

    The application of a high magnetic field is shown to induce spin-density-wave order in Sr3Ru2O7. This magnetic order correlates with the electronic nematic behaviour observed in this material.

    • C. Lester
    • , S. Ramos
    •  & S. M. Hayden

  • Article |

    In situ electron energy-loss spectroscopy in an environmental transmission electron microscope reveals that palladium nanocrystals undergo sharp phase transitions during hydrogen absorption and desorption, and that surface effects dictate the size dependence of the hydrogen absorption pressures.

    • Andrea Baldi
    • , Tarun C. Narayan
    •  & Jennifer A. Dionne

  • Letter |

    The temporal dynamics of phase transitions in strongly correlated states of matter are often dictated by the interplay between structural and electronic degrees of freedom. These are now probed in a perovskite manganite using an X-ray free-electron laser, and found to be well described by a single order parameter.

    • P. Beaud
    • , A. Caviezel
    •  & U. Staub

  • Commentary |

    Collective quantum phenomena such as magnetism, superfluidity and superconductivity have been pre-eminent themes of condensed-matter physics in the past century. Neutron scattering has provided unique insights into the microscopic origin of these phenomena.

    • Steven T. Bramwell
    •  & Bernhard Keimer

  • Letter |

    The electronic and structural components of charge density waves occurring in layered transition metal dichalcogenides are known to be interdependent, yet have only been probed in separate measurements. Now, a broadband terahertz spectroscopy approach that monitors the evolution of these two order parameters simultaneously is demonstrated.

    • M. Porer
    • , U. Leierseder
    •  & R. Huber

  • Editorial |

    New experiments and computer simulations on how water behaves when it is supercooled are poised to rekindle long-standing debates.

  • News & Views |

    Simulations of a well-studied model of water provide strong support for the coexistence of two distinct metastable liquid-water phases, a long-debated possibility that experiments on supercooled water at negative pressures may be able to confirm.

    • C. Austen Angell

  • News & Views |

    Computer simulations show that cubic and hexagonal ices nucleate through the formation of a tetragonal metastable ice phase.

    • Ben Slater
    •  & David Quigley

  • News & Views |

    X-ray scattering measurements of liquid water down to temperatures at which it spontaneously converts to ice show no signs of the much debated transition from high-density to low-density structural order.

    • Alan K. Soper

  • Letter |

    Cerium hexaboride is a canonical heavy-fermion system that has come under scrutiny because of its so-called hidden order phase. Now, detailed inelastic neutron scattering experiments reveal an intense ferromagnetic mode, thus overturning the generally accepted view that antiferromagnetic interactions dominate the low-temperature behaviour of this system.

    • Hoyoung Jang
    • , G. Friemel
    •  & D. S. Inosov

  • Review Article |

    At present, magneto-, electro- and mechanocaloric effects are intensely investigated as the basis for possible cooling applications. This Review discusses and compares the three effects from both a fundamental and an applied perspective, with an emphasis on the experimental methods used to measure them.

    • X. Moya
    • , S. Kar-Narayan
    •  & N. D. Mathur

  • Article |

    Quantum spin liquids are a state of magnetic order that, in analogy with ordinary liquids, is characterized by fluctuating, disordered spins. By means of specific heat measurements, the frustrated Kondo system Pr2Ir2O7 is shown to undergo a transition to such a state in zero magnetic field.

    • Y. Tokiwa
    • , J. J. Ishikawa
    •  & P. Gegenwart

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of a ferroelectric-like structural transition in metallic LiOsO3 identifies a new class of materials with unconventional properties, providing an exotic playground for theorists and experimentalists.

    • Veerle Keppens

  • Article |

    Although quantitative understanding of nanocrystal phase transformations is important for efficient energy conversion and catalysis, difficulties in directly monitoring nanoscale systems in reactive environments remain. Direct quantification of hydriding transformations in palladium nanocrystals now clearly reveals that the transformation rates are governed by nanocrystal dimensions.

    • Rizia Bardhan
    • , Lester O. Hedges
    •  & Jeffrey J. Urban

  • Letter |

    The insulator-to-metal transition occurring in magnetite is known as the Verwey transition, and its precise mechanism has recently come under renewed attention. Using pump–probe X-ray diffraction and optical reflectivity techniques, the dynamics of excitations known as trimerons are now examined, revealing the switching limits of this ubiquitous oxide material.

    • S. de Jong
    • , R. Kukreja
    •  & H. A. Dürr

  • Research Highlights |

    • Andrea Taroni

  • Article |

    Field-effect transistors based on molybdenum disulphide have latterly garnered significant interest. Their electrical transport characteristics are now studied for different dielectric configurations, and as a function of temperature.

    • Branimir Radisavljevic
    •  & Andras Kis

  • News & Views |

    Discrepancies in the glass-forming ability of metallic glasses have been explained in terms of the presence of local structural features in the liquid. Findings from molecular dynamics simulations now show that the structure of the crystal/liquid interface may play a bigger role than previously thought.

    • K. F. Kelton

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