Physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drones are an effective and flexible tool for safety assessment of aging infrastructure, especially in locations with challenging accessibility. Here, authors demonstrate a phase-based sampling moiré technique with a drone for measurement of millimeter-scale infrastructural displacement in bridges.

    • Shien Ri
    • , Jiaxing Ye
    •  & Norihiko Ogura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Jets have been found in Earth’s magnetosheath for two decades and, more recently, also in Mars. Yet, their universal existence in planetary magnetosheath remains an open question. Here, authors report the presence of anti-sunward and sunward jets at Jupiter and compare them to Earth and Mars.

    • Yufei Zhou
    • , Savvas Raptis
    •  & Lan Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interaction of flexoelectric polarization arising from strain gradients with ferroelectricity impacts tribological properties and facilitates fine physical lithography without masks or chemicals, with potential applications in various fields.

    • Seongwoo Cho
    • , Iaroslav Gaponenko
    •  & Seungbum Hong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The sign of longitudinal piezoelectric coefficients is typically positive. Here, the authors tune the sign of the linear piezoelectric coefficient of HfO2 from positive to negative via epitaxial strain, finding nonlinear and parabolic piezoelectric behaviors at tensile epitaxial strain.

    • Hao Cheng
    • , Peijie Jiao
    •  & Yurong Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gate-defined superconducting moiré devices offer high tunability for probing the nature of superconducting and correlated insulating states. Here, the authors report the Little–Parks and Aharonov–Bohm effects in a single gate-defined magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene device.

    • Shuichi Iwakiri
    • , Alexandra Mestre-Torà
    •  & Klaus Ensslin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient characterisation of quantum many-body Hamiltonians has important applications for benchmarking NISQ devices. Here, the authors propose a method employing Chebyshev regression to learn the full Hamiltonian of a quantum system, with a sample complexity that scales efficiently with the system size.

    • Andi Gu
    • , Lukasz Cincio
    •  & Patrick J. Coles

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Learning Hamiltonians or Lindbladians of quantum systems from experimental data is important for characterization of interactions and noise processes in quantum devices. Here the authors propose an efficient protocol based on estimating time derivatives using multiple temporal sampling points and robust polynomial interpolation.

    • Daniel Stilck França
    • , Liubov A. Markovich
    •  & Johannes Borregaard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Under strong surface or geometric constraints, achiral nematic liquid crystals can form chiral structures. Using pressure driven flow, Zhang et al. show a pathway to mirror symmetry breaking that does not require such constraints and that occurs in nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals.

    • Qing Zhang
    • , Weiqiang Wang
    •  & Irmgard Bischofberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Periodically driven quantum systems have been extensively studied but with a predominant focus on long-time dynamics. Here, the authors study short-to-intermediate-time dynamics of an isolated many-body system, showing that its response to driving is supressed for the initial state close to thermal equilibrium.

    • Lennart Dabelow
    •  & Peter Reimann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin and charge dynamics are inevitably linked, the study of the one often illuminating the other. Here, the authors study spin relaxation in ambipolar polymers and, backed by simulations, show how charge dynamics and wavefunction localization together set relaxation times up to room temperature.

    • Remington L. Carey
    • , Samuele Giannini
    •  & Henning Sirringhaus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The thermal Hall effect has been reported in several materials, but it is not expected in triangular lattice systems due to chirality cancellation. Kim et al. report the thermal Hall effect attributed to topological spin fluctuations in the supposedly paramagnetic phase of YMnO3 with a trimerized triangular lattice.

    • Ha-Leem Kim
    • , Takuma Saito
    •  & Je-Geun Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The second order nonlinear Hall effect leads to a direct voltage generated from the rectification effect. While this rectification property is appeal for use in devices, most materials exhibiting a second order nonlinear hall effect are constrained to low temperatures. Here, Lu et al demonstrate a second order nonlinear transport behaviour that persists above room temperature in BiTeBr, and construct a prototype rectifier based on this effect.

    • Xiu Fang Lu
    • , Cheng-Ping Zhang
    •  & Kian Ping Loh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A. G. Eaton et al. directly probe the Fermi surface of the candidate triplet superconductor UTe2 by measuring magnetic quantum oscillations in ultra-pure crystals. By comparison with model calculations, the data are found to be consistent with a Fermi surface that consists of two cylindrical sections of electron and hole-type respectively.

    • A. G. Eaton
    • , T. I. Weinberger
    •  & M. Vališka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally realize the electrical tuning of branched flow of light in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties and the polarization effect of the branched flow of light in the film are systematically studied adding fundamental insights on branched flow of light.

    • Shan-shan Chang
    • , Ke-Hui Wu
    •  & Jin-hui Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors showcase 3D direct laser writing to fabricate optically interfaced mechanical resonators. The membrane-type structures are placed inside fiber Fabry-Perot cavities to realize a miniaturized optical cavity. Further, the optomechanical properties reveal the coupling mechanism and a significant tuning of the mechanical resonator frequency.

    • Lukas Tenbrake
    • , Alexander Faßbender
    •  & Hannes Pfeifer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metasurfaces show variable scattering with frequency sequence. This frequency-hopping response breaks a conventional linear frequency concept and markedly expands available frequency channels from a linear number to its factorial number.

    • Hiroki Takeshita
    • , Ashif Aminulloh Fathnan
    •  & Hiroki Wakatsuchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The superconductor UTe2 exhibits a reentrant superconducting phase at magnetic fields above 40 T for particular field angles. Here, from high-field Hall-effect measurements, T. Helm et al. find evidence for a partial compensation between the applied field and an exchange field, pointing to the Jaccarino-Peter effect as a possible mechanism for the reentrant superconductivity.

    • Toni Helm
    • , Motoi Kimata
    •  & Jean-Pascal Brison

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Probing molecules in excited vibrational states requires precise methods to extract the spectroscopic parameters. Here the authors demonstrate optical-optical double-resonance spectroscopy of excited-bands of methane using single pass high power continuous wave pump and cavity-enhanced frequency comb probe.

    • Vinicius Silva de Oliveira
    • , Isak Silander
    •  & Aleksandra Foltynowicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Positronium decay events can be used to test violation of fundamental symmetries. Here, the authors use events in the J-PET to improve existing limits on P, T and CP invariance in positronium decays, thanks to a method that does not require to measure the positronium spin but determining polarization of the annihilation photons instead.

    • Paweł Moskal
    • , Eryk Czerwiński
    •  & Wojciech Wiślicki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic waveguide lattices implementing continuous quantum walks have a wide range of applications yet remain based on static devices. Here, the authors demonstrated a fully programmable waveguide array by implementing various Hamiltonians.

    • Yang Yang
    • , Robert J. Chapman
    •  & Alberto Peruzzo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Isotope engineering can enhance spin coherence of solid-state defects, such as NV centers in diamond but progress for defects in hBN has been limited. Gong et al. report the optimization of isotopes in hBN and demonstrate improved coherence and relaxation times for the negatively charged boron vacancy centers.

    • Ruotian Gong
    • , Xinyi Du
    •  & Chong Zu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By combining real and diffraction space data recorded in electron microscopes, ptychography retrieves specimen details with super-resolution. Here, the inverse problem is solved in the presence of thermal diffuse scattering and applied to measure ferroelectric displacements with picometer precision.

    • Benedikt Diederichs
    • , Ziria Herdegen
    •  & Knut Müller-Caspary

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neural wavefunctions have become a highly accurate approach to solve the Schrödinger equation. Here, the authors propose an approach to optimize for a generalized wavefunction across compounds, which can help developing a foundation wavefunction model.

    • Michael Scherbela
    • , Leon Gerard
    •  & Philipp Grohs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identification of nodes that play a crucial role in the complex network functionality is of high relevance for supply, transportation, and epidemic spreading networks. The authors propose a metric to evaluate nodal dominance based on competition dynamics that integrate local and global topological information, revealing fragile structures in complex networks.

    • Marcus Engsig
    • , Alejandro Tejedor
    •  & Chaouki Kasmi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    M. Valentini et al. study superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) where the weak link of the Josephson junctions is a germanium 2D hole gas. They report signatures of the tunneling of pairs of Cooper pairs. For a particular microwave drive power, they observe a 100% efficient superconducting diode effect.

    • Marco Valentini
    • , Oliver Sagi
    •  & Georgios Katsaros

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating microfluidic droplets with application-specific desired characteristics is hard. Here the authors report fluid-agnostic machine learning models capable of accurately predicting device geometries and flow conditions required to generate stable single and double emulsions.

    • Ali Lashkaripour
    • , David P. McIntyre
    •  & Polly M. Fordyce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of calcium carbonate formation has been of interest for decades, but additive-controlled systems are poorly understood. Here the authors show that polycarboxylates facilitate bicarbonate entrapment and thereby inhibit nucleation. Distinct water environments in amorphous calcium carbonate nanoparticles arise from colloidal formation pathways and lead to mineral conductivity.

    • Maxim B. Gindele
    • , Sanjay Vinod-Kumar
    •  & Guinevere Mathies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-induced hydrophilicity of TiO2 and ZnO surfaces rely on the same physics and involve excitation of electron-hole pairs. Here, the authors propose and test a model for the photowetting of TiO2 and ZnO thin films. The results suggest design rules for materials exhibiting photocatalytic wetting.

    • Rucha Anil Deshpande
    • , Jesper Navne
    •  & Rafael Taboryski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Halide perovskites exhibit largely tunable spin-orbit interactions, and long carrier lifetimes, making this class of materials promising for spintronic applications. Here, Xu et al present first principles calculations to determine the spin lifetimes, and identify the dominant spin-relaxation and dephasing processes.

    • Junqing Xu
    • , Kejun Li
    •  & Yuan Ping

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At the microscopic level, the localized spins arise due to the electron-electron interactions. Here, the authors show how a topological phase of the Haldane spin chain emerges in a two-orbital Hubbard model with increasing interaction strength.

    • A. Jażdżewska
    • , M. Mierzejewski
    •  & J. Herbrych

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gas sensors typically detect only few specific gases; the authors show a broad-spectrum sensor based on correlated 2-dimensional electron gas (C-2DEG), which detects various gases quantitatively and measures partial pressures, through a purely physical mechanism.

    • Yuhao Hong
    • , Long Wei
    •  & Zhaoliang Liao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Approaches for assessing epidemic risks meet challenges when dealing with high-resolution data available nowadays, that includes behaviors, disease progression, and interventions. The authors propose an analytical framework to compute the epidemic threshold for arbitrary models of diseases, interventions, and hosts contact patterns.

    • Eugenio Valdano
    • , Davide Colombi
    •  & Vittoria Colizza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neutron stars contain matter at extremely high densities, the properties of which are reflected in the corresponding equation of state (EoS). Here, the authors argue that the inferred properties of the neutron-star-matter EoS point to the likely presence of deconfined quark matter in the cores of the most massive stable neutron stars.

    • Eemeli Annala
    • , Tyler Gorda
    •  & Aleksi Vuorinen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several solid-state defect platforms have been proposed for application as a spin-photon interface in quantum communication networks. Here the authors report spin-selective optical transitions and narrow inhomogeneous spectral distribution of V centers in isotopically-enriched SiC emitting in the telecom O-band.

    • Pasquale Cilibrizzi
    • , Muhammad Junaid Arshad
    •  & Cristian Bonato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors identify real-space contributions to the characteristics of high-harmonic generation in ReS2 and demonstrate the possibility of laser-controlled emission. They find that the spectrum is not just determined by the band structure, but also by the interference between HHG signals coming from different atoms within the unit cell.

    • Álvaro Jiménez-Galán
    • , Chandler Bossaer
    •  & Giulio Vampa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scalable training of parametrised quantum circuit approaches is usually hindered by the barren plateau issue. Here, the authors show how initializing parametrised quantum circuits starting from scalable tensor-network based algorithms could ameliorate the problem.

    • Manuel S. Rudolph
    • , Jacob Miller
    •  & Alejandro Perdomo-Ortiz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Skyrmion crystals, where skyrmions are arranged close packed in a triangular lattice arise due to the superposition of three magnetic spin spirals, each with a distinct wave vector, Q. Such skrymion crystals have been found in a diverse array of materials. Here, Park et al find a short wavelength (or dense skyrmion) limit of this skyrmion crystal structure in Co1/3TaS2, a metallic triangular lattice antiferromagnet, in the form of a triple Q magnetic ordering, with four magnetic sublattices.’

    • Pyeongjae Park
    • , Woonghee Cho
    •  & Je-Geun Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing quantum networks would require reliable sources of coherent quantum light at telecom wavelengths. Here, the authors employ elastic scattering of excitation laser photons on InAs/InP quantum dots to demonstrate the emission of telecom photons with coherence times longer than the Fourier limit.

    • L. Wells
    • , T. Müller
    •  & A. J. Shields

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing efficient reservoir computing hardware that combines optically excited acoustic and spin waves with high spatial density remains a challenge. In this work, the authors propose a design capable of recognizing visual shapes drawn by a laser within remarkably confined spaces, down to 10 square microns.

    • Dmytro D. Yaremkevich
    • , Alexey V. Scherbakov
    •  & Manfred Bayer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventionally, a continuous motion or “dynamic friction” is expected to take place after the initial rupture under friction. Here, the authors perform direct measurement of real contact and slip at the frictional interface and show that the secondary rupture takes place after each initial rupture.

    • Songlin Shi
    • , Meng Wang
    •  & Jay Fineberg

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