Physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Morphological characterization of organic photovoltaic active layers is restricted by the lack of accurate chemical mapping tools. Here, the authors demonstrate an energy-filtered scanning electron microscopy technique, which enables sub-nanometre resolution imaging of an organic photovoltaic blend.

    • Robert C. Masters
    • , Andrew J. Pearson
    •  & Cornelia Rodenburg

  • Article |

    A stable plasma state with a high ratio of plasma to magnetic pressures is likely to be a key requirement for any future magnetic fusion reactor. Here, the authors create such a plasma using a field reversed configuration and active plasma boundary control and demonstrate its stability.

    • H. Y. Guo
    • , M. W. Binderbauer
    •  & E. Trask

  • Article |

    Quantum repeaters have been conceived as a means to extend the range of quantum secure communications, but can handle only distillable entangled states. Here, the authors introduce and study quantum key repeaters, devices which may allow long-distance quantum key distribution with non-distillable states.

    • Stefan Bäuml
    • , Matthias Christandl
    •  & Andreas Winter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mass spectral analysis is used to map the composition of materials and surfaces in numerous fields. Here, the authors report a mass spectral technique based on extreme ultraviolet laser ablation that allows three-dimensional imaging of chemical composition in addition to giving highly sensitive nanoscale resolution.

    • Ilya Kuznetsov
    • , Jorge Filevich
    •  & Carmen S. Menoni

  • Article |

    A challenging problem is to identify the most central agents in interconnected multilayer networks. Here, De Domenico et al. present a mathematical framework to calculate centrality in such networks—versatility—and rank nodes accordingly.

    • Manlio De Domenico
    • , Albert Solé-Ribalta
    •  & Alex Arenas

  • Article |

    Multilayer networks have been used to capture the structure of complex systems with different types of interactions, but often contain redundant information. Here, De Domenico et al. present a method based on quantum information, to identify the minimal configuration of layers to retain.

    • Manlio De Domenico
    • , Vincenzo Nicosia
    •  & Vito Latora

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The current methods of fabricating three-dimensional particles include photolithography, layer-by-layer printing and several others. Here, Paulsen et al. demonstrate an optofluidic approach, whereby masked ultraviolet light is illuminated on photosensitive fluids whose cross-sections are shaped by fluid inertia.

    • Kevin S. Paulsen
    • , Dino Di Carlo
    •  & Aram J. Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charge screening dominates the behaviour of high-energy plasmas, which exist in stars and possibly in future fusion technology. Here, the authors describe a theoretical framework for charge screening that goes beyond the conventional model and demonstrate its importance in analysing experimental data.

    • D. A. Chapman
    • , J. Vorberger
    •  & D. O. Gericke

  • Article |

    Polarons are hybrid particles comprising a charged particle coupled to lattice vibrations. Here, the authors identify a hole-based polaron of intermediate coupling strength in zinc oxide using infrared reflection–absorption spectroscopy and first-principles-based electronic structure theory calculations.

    • Hikmet Sezen
    • , Honghui Shang
    •  & Christof Wöll

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shale gas and oil are trapped in nanoscale porous networks of ultra-low permeability. Here, the authors develop a molecular model of alkane transport through nanoporous materials, showing that the mechanisms controlling flow at the nanoscale lead to a simple scaling of permeance with hydrocarbon size and density.

    • Kerstin Falk
    • , Benoit Coasne
    •  & Lydéric Bocquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Owing to its electronic and optical properties, graphene holds potential for flat display systems. Here, Li et al. write wide-angle, full-colour, three-dimensional holographic images using subwavelength, multilevel index modulation of athermally reduced graphene oxide by a single femtosecond pulse.

    • Xiangping Li
    • , Haoran Ren
    •  & Min Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic clocks are increasingly important for many applications in scientific research and technology. Here, Nicholson et al. present a series of developments allowing them to achieve a new record in atomic clock performance, with a systematic uncertainty of just 2.1 × 10−18 for their 87Sr atomic clock.

    • T.L. Nicholson
    • , S.L. Campbell
    •  & J. Ye

  • Article |

    Nucleation is the fundamental relaxation mechanism that leads to the emergence of a new phase or structure via first-order phase transitions. Here, the authors study nucleation and growth of two-dimensional phases on curved surfaces, and show how the curvature influences its inhomogeneity and speed.

    • Leopoldo R. Gómez
    • , Nicolás A. García
    •  & Daniel A. Vega

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transmission of light through opaque media is a complex process, owing to the many scattering processes of light. Here, the authors develop a method to determine the transmission eigenchannels through an opaque medium as a solution of diffusion equations.

    • Matthieu Davy
    • , Zhou Shi
    •  & Azriel Z. Genack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonic lasers offer ultrasmall mode confinement via nanoscale structures, but their reliance on solid-state gain media makes tunability difficult. Yang et al, present a laser based on gold nanoparticle arrays in a microfluidic channel, whose liquid gain media enable dynamic tuning of the lasing wavelength.

    • Ankun Yang
    • , Thang B. Hoang
    •  & Teri W. Odom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Raman microscopes suffer from the compromise between speed and spectral information and are often unsuited for fibre beam delivery. Karpf et al.overcome these limitations using continuous-wave rapidly wavelength-swept probe lasers and a short-duty-cycle actively modulated pump laser in an all-fibre setup.

    • Sebastian Karpf
    • , Matthias Eibl
    •  & Robert Huber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The conversion dynamics of nuclear-spin isomers has only been observed for a small number of molecules, generally with rotational symmetry. Here, the authors observe the separation of nuclear-spin isomers of gaseous methanol and show a decreased interconversion at higher pressures.

    • Zhen-Dong Sun
    • , Meihua Ge
    •  & Yujun Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In astronomy, interferometry between telescopes enables high-resolution imaging but optical links are limited by atmospheric turbulence. Here, the authors show how this can be circumvented, producing diffraction-limited images using an array of electronically connected optical telescopes.

    • Dainis Dravins
    • , Tiphaine Lagadec
    •  & Paul D. Nuñez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser-driven plasmas can accelerate electrons in set-ups far smaller than conventional particle accelerators, but beam divergence is a problem. Here, the authors demonstrate a laser-plasma lens that can focus the beam thanks to field gradients five order of magnitude larger than using traditional optics.

    • C. Thaury
    • , E. Guillaume
    •  & V. Malka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum repeaters are needed for long-distance quantum communication but it is thought that they require matter quantum memories. Azuma et al. introduce an all-photonic quantum repeater based on flying qubits that scales polynomially with the channel distance without the need for matter quantum memories.

    • Koji Azuma
    • , Kiyoshi Tamaki
    •  & Hoi-Kwong Lo

  • Article |

    Quasi-one-dimensional substructures have distinctive properties, but the lattice dynamics are poorly understood. Here, Chen et al.use inelastic neutron scattering and density functional theory to discover that numerous low-energy optical vibrational modes including a twisting polarization are present in higher manganese silicides.

    • Xi Chen
    • , Annie Weathers
    •  & Li Shi

  • Article |

    Domain walls in ferroelectrics can lead to phenomena different from the bulk. Here the authors achieve polarization control of charged domain walls in improper ferroelectrics by magnetic fields that convert neutral into charged domain walls.

    • Naëmi Leo
    • , Anders Bergman
    •  & Dennis Meier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The inherent strangeness of quantum mechanics means it is possible to detect objects using single-quantum particles even if they do not interact directly. Peise et al. realize such an ‘interaction-free measurement’ by exploiting the quantum Zeno effect in a BEC, obviating the need for single-particle sources.

    • J. Peise
    • , B. Lücke
    •  & C. Klempt

  • Article |

    The spins in quantum magnets couple to each other through an exchange interaction. Here, the authors show that a weak coupling between neighbouring spins called the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction can give rise to topological behaviour in the archetypal quantum magnet strontium copper borate.

    • Judit Romhányi
    • , Karlo Penc
    •  & R. Ganesh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carrier injection from a metallic electrode into an oxide insulator component is made difficult by the large energy level offset between the two. Here, the authors show that an intermediary zinc-oxide layer enables an Ohmic electrical contact between a metal and an oxide insulator layer.

    • Eungkyu Lee
    • , Jinwon Lee
    •  & Youn Sang Kim

  • Article |

    Thin films of carbon nanotubes are been considered for energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices but their energy transfer pathways are largely unknown. Here, Mehlenbacher et al. use two-dimensional white-light spectroscopy to investigate the ultrafast energy redistribution in carbon nanotube films.

    • Randy D. Mehlenbacher
    • , Thomas J. McDonough
    •  & Martin T. Zanni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photothermal interferometry systems using free-space optics have limits in terms of light–matter interaction efficiency, size, optical alignment and integration. Here, Jin et al. use a gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre to demonstrate an all-fibre gas sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and dynamic range.

    • Wei Jin
    • , Yingchun Cao
    •  & Hoi Lut Ho

  • Article |

    Gamma-ray bursts are short-lived luminous explosions at cosmological distances caused by jets from the deaths of massive stars. Bustamante et al. study neutrino, gamma-ray and cosmic-ray production by internal shocks, and find that multi-messenger observations are crucial to understand the evolving outflows.

    • Mauricio Bustamante
    • , Philipp Baerwald
    •  & Walter Winter

  • Article |

    Although graphene promises long spin coherence lengths in spintronic devices, state-of-the-art performance has been limited to exfoliated flakes, limiting industrial scalability. Here, Kumalakar et al. demonstrate long-distance spin transport in large-scale chemical vapour-deposited graphene.

    • M. Venkata Kamalakar
    • , Christiaan Groenveld
    •  & Saroj P. Dash

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrons in atoms exhibit many-body collective behaviours that can be studied by highbrightness X-rays from FELs. Here, the authors examine two-photon above threshold ionization of xenon and find that nonlinearities in the response uncover that more than one state underpins the 4dgiant resonance.

    • T. Mazza
    • , A. Karamatskou
    •  & R. Santra

  • Article |

    Heat transfer typically occurs by conduction via phonons and radiation via photons, but the distinction between them blurs as surfaces come into contact. Chiloyan et al.study heat transfer between surfaces at sub-nanometre separation and explore the behaviour of phonons as the surfaces approach each other.

    • Vazrik Chiloyan
    • , Jivtesh Garg
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article |

    Taking full advantage of photons as quantum information carriers requires faithful control of their lifetime, emission direction and orbital angular momentum. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate a technique for directionally coupling classical, circular dipoles to the modes of a photonic-crystal waveguide.

    • B. le Feber
    • , N. Rotenberg
    •  & L. Kuipers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum parameter estimation aims to improve on classical statistical precision where uncertainty decreases proportionally with the square root of the repetition number. Here, Liu et al.demonstrate entanglement-enhanced phase estimation at room-temperature in a nitrogen-vacancy centre in pure diamond.

    • Gang-Qin Liu
    • , Yu-Ran Zhang
    •  & Xin-Yu Pan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At interfaces between systems with topologically distinct band structure, robust symmetry protected states emerge. Here, Poli et al.control such states in a coupled dielectric resonator chain with parity-time symmetry and exploit their topological nature to protect them from absorptive losses.

    • Charles Poli
    • , Matthieu Bellec
    •  & Henning Schomerus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing the resolution of fluorescence microscopy is a fundamental need for modern cell biology. Lanzanò et al.demonstrate that arbitrary spatial resolution is, in principle, possible by encoding the fluorophore's spatial distribution information in the temporal dynamics of the fluorophore's transition.

    • Luca Lanzanò
    • , Iván Coto Hernández
    •  & Giuseppe Vicidomini

  • Article |

    Thermoelectric devices convert waste heat to electrical power but suffer from low efficiency. Roche et al.create a mesoscopic heat engine comprising capacitively coupled hot and cold electrical circuits in which thermal fluctuations in the former are converted to potential fluctuations in the latter

    • B. Roche
    • , P. Roulleau
    •  & D.C. Glattli

  • Article |

    The transmission of quantum information through channels is a fundamental step for future quantum communication technologies. Cubitt et al.now show that there exist channels whose potential for transmitting quantum information requires an unbounded number of usages to be detected.

    • Toby Cubitt
    • , David Elkouss
    •  & Sergii Strelchuk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The alloy bismuth-palladium is a candidate material for observing topological superconductivity. Here, the authors study the interplay of spin–orbit interactions and superconductivity in this noncentrosymmetric compound using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy and relativistic first-principles calculations.

    • Zhixiang Sun
    • , Mostafa Enayat
    •  & Peter Wahl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electronic interactions underlie the exchange interaction responsible for the magnetic ordering and dynamics of magnetic materials. Here, Mentink et al. theoretically demonstrate the ultrafast and reversible tuning of the exchange interaction in Mott insulators driven by a time-periodic electric field.

    • J. H. Mentink
    • , K. Balzer
    •  & M. Eckstein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Giant Pairing Vibration is a collective mode in an atomic nucleus caused by coherence between particle-particle excitations, which has so far eluded detection. Cappuzzello et al. present signatures for its existence via heavy-ion-induced two-neutron transfer reactions in carbon nuclei.

    • F. Cappuzzello
    • , D. Carbone
    •  & A. Vitturi

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