Physical sciences

Stochastic cooling at optical frequencies is demonstrated in an experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Integrable Optics Test Accelerator, substantially increasing the bandwidth of stochastic cooling compared with conventional systems.

A cascade of gate-tunable correlated insulating and metallic phases is observed in trigonally warped Bernal bilayer graphene at large electric fields.

Slow nonlinearities of a free-running microresonator-filtered fibre laser are shown to transform temporal cavity solitons into the system’s dominant attractor, leading to reliable self-starting oscillation of microcavity-solitons that are naturally robust to perturbations.

An optically coupled Bose–Einstein condensate of potassium atoms is used to engineer chiral interactions and perform the quantum simulation of a one-dimensional reduction of the topological Chern–Simons gauge theory.

An iron–cobalt–nickel–tantalum–aluminium multicomponent alloy with ferromagnetic matrix and paramagnetic coherent nanoparticles is described, showing high tensile strength and ductility, along with very low coercivity.

Fabrication of a low-dimensional metal halide perovskite superlattice by chemical epitaxy is reported, with a criss-cross two-dimensional network parallel to the substrate, leading to efficient carrier transport in three dimensions.

A synthetic cell-cell adhesion logic using swarming E. coli with 4 bits of information is introduced, enabling the programming of interfaces that combine to form universal tessellation patterns over a large scale.

An additive manufacturing strategy is used to produce dual-phase nanolamellar high-entropy alloys that show a combination of enhanced high yield strength and high tensile ductility.

The PiezoMem membrane responsive to hydraulic pressure is introduced, showing the ability to convert pressure pulses into electroactive responses for in situ self-cleaning and enabling broad-spectrum antifouling action towards a range of membrane foulants.

Using a sol–gel passivation method, the fabrication of blue InGaN nanorod-LEDs with the highest external quantum efficiency value ever reported for LEDs in the nanoscale is demonstrated.

It is experimentally demonstrated that the non-Hermitian skin effect can convert localized topological modes into extended modes of unconventional shapes while preserving the topological characteristics, which presents opportunities for topological manipulations of waves and light.

Environmental transmission electron microscopy is used to reveal that mismatch dislocations modulate the interfacial transformation of copper oxide to copper metal in an intermittent manner.

A general and efficient approach to evaporatively cool ultracold polar molecules through elastic collisions to create a degenerate quantum gas in three dimensions is demonstrated using microwave shielding.

An alternating stack of a candidate spin liquid and a superconductor shows a spontaneous vortex phase in the superconducting state without magnetism in the normal state. This indicates the presence of  unconventional magnetic ordering independent of the superconductor.

This study demonstrates the experimental realization of a complete protocol for quantum key distribution using entangled trapped strontium ions with device-independent quantum security guarantees.

The current status and future perspectives for quantum simulation are overviewed, and the potential for practical quantum computational advantage is analysed by comparing classical numerical methods with analogue and digital quantum simulators.

Experiments and theory show that transmission peak degeneracies near exceptional points in an electromechanical accelerometer can be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensor.

A system based on trapped rubidium atoms for generating quantum secure keys between distant users is presented, which could operate in a device-independent fashion.

Direct observation of the physical dual a.c. Josephson effect, a series of quantized current steps in a superconducting nanowire, is reported and may offer a way to establish new metrological standards for currents.

Full, perpendicular and bidirectional spin–orbit torque switching of chiral antiferromagnetic order using an electrical current is experimentally demonstrated with epitaxial heterostructures.

Signatures of non-equilibrium Floquet SPT phases with a programmable superconducting quantum processor are observed in which the discrete time translational symmetry only breaks at the boundaries and not in the bulk.

Concerted proton–electron transfer mediators enable facile electrochemical metal hydride formation and thus improve CO₂ reduction to useful chemicals, and could benefit a range of catalytic reactions involving metal hydride intermediates.

A dynamical topological phase with edge qubits that are dynamically protected from control errors, cross-talk and stray fields, is demonstrated in a quasiperiodically driven array of ten ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ hyperfine qubits in a model trapped-ion quantum processor.

By examining three model pyroelectric materials with different bonding characters along the out-of-plane direction, it is shown that their pyroelectric coefficients increase rapidly when the thickness of free-standing sheets becomes small.

Observations by the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope on AstroSat reveal ten blue compact dwarf galaxies with excess far-ultraviolet emission in their outer region, indicating star formation in accreting disks.

A nanoscale rotary motor made of DNA origami, driven by ratcheting and powered by an external electric field, shows the ability to wind up a spring and has mechanical capabilities approaching those of biological motors.

Analysis of the pulse profile of a fast radio burst showed sub-second periodicity, providing evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event and favouring emission arising from the magnetosphere.

Individually addressable ‘T centre’ photon-spin qubits are integrated in silicon photonic structures and their spin-dependent telecommunications-band optical transitions characterized, creating opportunities to construct silicon-integrated, telecommunications-band quantum information networks.

Using integrated differential phase contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy, the atomic imaging of single pyridine and thiophene molecules identifies host–guest interactions in zeolite ZSM-5 and their adsorption and desorption behaviours can be studied.

Control loops generically produce braids of eigenfrequencies, and these braids form a non-Abelian group that reflects the non-trivial geometry of the space of degeneracies; these features are demonstrated experimentally using a cavity optomechanical system.

An anti-reflection structure is used to eliminate all back scattering of light passing through a diffusive medium.

Precision laser spectroscopy measurements of neutron-rich indium isotopes were performed to investigate the validity and identify limitations of theoretical descriptions of nuclei based on simple single-particle approaches.

Experiments show that swimming starfish embryos spontaneously assemble into large chiral crystals that exhibit self-sustained chiral oscillations and unconventional deformation responses characteristic of odd elastic materials.

The phase diagram of the unconventional superconductor Sr₂RuO₄ in both normal and superconducting states is mapped out using high-precision measurements of the elastocaloric effect, showing similarities to other unconventional superconductors as well as unique features.

Attosecond size-resolved cluster spectroscopy is introduced and the effect that the addition of single water molecules has is measured, indicating a direct link between electronic structure and attosecond photoionization dynamics.

Vortices in an electron fluid are directly observed in a para-hydrodynamic regime in which the spatial diffusion of electron momenta is enabled by small-angle scattering rather than electron–electron scattering.

The discovery of graphite–diamond hybrid carbon, Gradia, which consists of graphite and diamond nanodomains interlocked through coherent interfaces, clarifies the long-standing mystery of how graphite turns into diamond.

Iron atoms in a synthetic metal–sulfur cluster can capture nitrogen and catalyse its silylation, demonstrating successful nitrogen reduction by iron atoms in a sulfur-rich environment.

 Rare, converging cold flows gave birth to the massive black holes that were the seeds of the first quasars.

Heralded entanglement between two independently trapped single rubidium atoms is generated over long telecom fibre links using quantum frequency conversion in an important step towards the realization of large-scale quantum network links.

The electric polarization of a multiferroic is reversed by the application and subsequent removal of a magnetic field, resulting in topologically protected unidirectional magnetoelectric switching.