Semiconductors articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Article |

    The conducting surface states of 3D topological insulators are two-dimensional. In an analogous way, the edge states of 2D topological insulators are one-dimensional. Direct evidence of this one-dimensionality is now presented, by means of scanning tunnelling spectroscopy, for bismuth bilayers—one of the first theoretically predicted 2D topological insulators.

    • Ilya K. Drozdov
    • , A. Alexandradinata
    •  & Ali Yazdani

  • Editorial |

    Half a century on, the Kondo effect continues to inspire.

  • Article |

    Graphene and topological-insulator surfaces are well known for their two-dimensional conic electronic dispersion relation. Now three-dimensional hyperconic dispersion is shown for electrons in a HgCdTe crystal—once again bridging solid-state physics and quantum electrodynamics.

    • M. Orlita
    • , D. M. Basko
    •  & M. Potemski

  • Letter |

    Monolayer and few-layer materials present interesting spin and pseudospin states. A study of the coupling between spin, valley and layer degrees of freedom in bilayer WSe2 reveals coherent superpositions of distinct valley configurations and suggests the possibility of electrical control of the spin states.

    • Aaron M. Jones
    • , Hongyi Yu
    •  & Xiaodong Xu

  • Article |

    Double quantum dots are proving themselves to be an excellent test bed for many-body physics. These artificial atoms now demonstrate a phenomenon in which the capacitive coupling between them causes the spin and charge degrees of freedom of the electrons in the system to become entangled—the so-called SU(4) Kondo effect.

    • A. J. Keller
    • , S. Amasha
    •  & D. Goldhaber-Gordon

  • Article |

    An electron and a hole trapped in the same quantum dot couple together to form an exciton. Conventionally the hole involved is a heavy hole. Light-hole excitons are now observed by applying elastic stress to initially unstrained gallium arsenide-based dots. The quasiparticles are identified by their optical emission signature, and could be used in future quantum technologies.

    • Y. H. Huo
    • , B. J. Witek
    •  & O. G. Schmidt

  • News & Views |

    An electrically controllable spin–orbit interaction at the surface of transition-metal dichalcogenides highlights the wealth of unexpected physics that two-dimensional systems can offer.

    • Alberto F. Morpurgo

  • News & Views |

    Distinguishing between different sources of noise in quantum dots could help to develop single-photon devices that are suitable for long-range entanglement.

    • Hendrik Bluhm

  • Article |

    Charge noise and spin noise lead to decoherence of the state of a quantum dot. A fast spectroscopic technique based on resonance fluorescence can distinguish between these two deleterious effects, enabling a better understanding of how to minimize their influence.

    • Andreas V. Kuhlmann
    • , Julien Houel
    •  & Richard J. Warburton

  • Article |

    A magnetic field can lift the spin degeneracy of electrons. This Zeeman effect is an important route to generating the spin polarization required for spintronics. It is now shown that such polarization can also be achieved without the need for magnetism. The unique crystal symmetry of tungsten selenide creates a Zeeman-like effect when a monolayer of the material is exposed to an external electric field.

    • Hongtao Yuan
    • , Mohammad Saeed Bahramy
    •  & Yoshihiro Iwasa

  • News & Views |

    Through carefully controlled deposition of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride, an experimental system is created with which to probe the quantum physics of electrons in two dimensions — allowing experimental access to the elusive 'Hofstadter butterfly'.

    • Dieter Weiss

  • News & Views |

    Faraday and Dirac constructed magnetic monopoles using the practical and mathematical tools available to them. Now physicists have engineered effective monopoles by combining modern optics with nanotechnology. Part matter and part light, these magnetic monopoles travel at unprecedented speeds.

    • Steven T. Bramwell

  • Letter |

    An analogue of a magnetic monopole is now observed in a condensed state of light–matter hybrid particles known as cavity polaritons. Spin-phase excitations of the polariton fluid are accelerated along the cavity under the influence of a magnetic field—just as if they were single magnetic charges.

    • R. Hivet
    • , H. Flayac
    •  & A. Amo

  • Article |

    Spin–orbit interaction induces spin-polarization decay in semiconductor quantum wells. But this decay can be suppressed in favour of a helical spin mode by tuning the interaction. Optical pump–probe measurements provide direct evidence of the resulting helix—a signature that has so far only been inferred from transport measurements.

    • M. P. Walser
    • , C. Reichl
    •  & G. Salis

  • News & Views |

    In most electrical conductors, we expect charge and heat to be transported in the same direction. However, in certain two-dimensional electron systems, fractional quantum Hall states can cause charge and heat to flow in opposite directions.

    • Stefan Heun

  • Article |

    In most electrical conductors, heat is transported by charge carriers and so both usually flow in the same direction; but in two-dimensional electron systems subject to strong magnetic fields, certain fractional quantum Hall states can cause charge and heat to flow in opposite directions.

    • Vivek Venkatachalam
    • , Sean Hart
    •  & Amir Yacoby

  • Article |

    Spin transfer torque—the transfer of angular momentum from a spin-polarized current to a ferromagnet’s magnetization—has already found commercial application in memory devices, but the underlying physics is still not fully understood. Researchers now demonstrate the crucial role played by the polarization of the laser light that generates the current; a subtle effect only evident when isolated from other influences such as heating.

    • P. Němec
    • , E. Rozkotová
    •  & T. Jungwirth

  • Letter |

    An experiment demonstrates that the motion of so-called skyrmions—topologically quantized magnetic whirls—causes an emergent electric field that inherits the topological quantization of the skyrmions and is directly visible in the Hall effect.

    • T. Schulz
    • , R. Ritz
    •  & A. Rosch

  • News & Views |

    Mechanical oscillations of microscopic resonators have recently been observed in the quantum regime. This idea could soon be extended from localized vibrations to travelling waves thanks to a sensitive probe of so-called surface acoustic waves.

    • Aashish Clerk

  • Article |

    Mechanical oscillations of microscopic resonators have recently been observed in the quantum regime. This idea could soon be extended from localized vibrations to travelling waves thanks to a sensitive probe of so-called surface acoustic waves.

    • Martin V. Gustafsson
    • , Paulo V. Santos
    •  & Per Delsing

  • Article |

    Superfluorescence—the emission of coherent light from an initially incoherent collection of excited dipoles—is now identified in a semiconductor. Laser-excited electron–hole pairs spontaneously polarize and then abruptly decay to produce intense pulses of light.

    • G. Timothy Noe II
    • , Ji-Hee Kim
    •  & Junichiro Kono

  • News & Views |

    A macroscopic quantum pendulum has now been created by confining a polariton condensate in a parabolic optical trap. Spectacular images of multiparticle wavefunctions are obtained by purely optical means.

    • Alexey Kavokin

  • Letter |

    Polaritons—quasiparticles made up of a photon and exciton strongly coupled together—can form macroscopic quantum states even at room temperature. Now these so-called condensates are imaged directly. This achievement could aid the development of semiconductor-based polariton-condensate devices.

    • G. Tosi
    • , G. Christmann
    •  & J. J. Baumberg

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