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Exploiting lasers for accelerating charged particles to relativistic velocities has long been theoretically considered. Now, applying a plasma mirror for injecting electrons into an intense laser field in vacuum is shown to lead to such acceleration.
An upconversion from negatively charged to neutral excitons is observed in monolayer tungsten diselenide, which could provide a route for cooling two-dimensional semiconductors using lasers.
The dynamic susceptibility of the quantum spin ice material Yb2Ti2O7 is probed by means of time-domain spectroscopic techniques, providing a handle on the conductivity of monopole excitations in this system.
A systematic spectroscopic analysis of the principal members of the iron pnictide family of superconductors reveals a substantial spin–orbit splitting.
The detection of a single photon heralds the projection of two remote spins onto a maximally entangled state. This has been demonstrated for quantum-dot hole spins, featuring a fast generation rate that could enable quantum technology applications.
A series of transport experiments on lanthanum antimonide reveal a plateau in its resistivity and an extremely large magnetoresistance that are consistent with topologically protected electronic states.
The creep motion of domain walls in magnetic metals can belong to different universality classes depending on whether they are driven by magnetic fields or spin-polarized currents.
Thouless introduced the idea of a topological charge pump: the quantized motion of charge due to the slow cyclic variation of a periodic potential. This topologically protected transport has now been realized with ultracold bosonic atoms.
Josephson junctions based on graphene exhibit tunable proximity effects. The appearance of superconducting states when changing magnetic field and carrier concentration has now been investigated—some proximity effect survives for fields above 1 T.
Experimentally probing the dynamics of laser–plasma interactions is hard, owing to the nature of the relevant temporal and spatial scales at play. Ptychography, a phase-problem solving technique, can help the analysis of such interaction measurements.
Owing to electron localization, two-dimensional materials are not expected to be metallic at low temperatures, but a field-induced quantum metal phase emerges in NbSe2, whose behaviour is consistent with the Bose-metal model.
Andreev reflection occurs at the interface of a metal and a superconductor when an incident electron in the metal gets ‘reflected’ as a hole travelling on the same path. Replace the metal with graphene and specular reflection may instead take place.
The electric-field-induced superconducting properties of MoS2 are investigated by means of magneto-transport measurements, uncovering evidence of spin–momentum locking.
Merging magnetic flux ropes, which are believed to play an important role in magnetic reconnection, have now been clearly identified. Observations show that coalescence is indeed closely related to reconnection dynamics and also to turbulence.
Stars could produce our heavy elements through a rapid neutron-capture process during a supernova or merger of binary stars, but which is it? A study of 244Pu reveals that a rare event with a high yield is more likely, favouring mergers.
A neutron scattering study of the quantum magnet BiCu2PO6 demonstrates a phenomenon known as energy-level repulsion, which occurs between a long-lived quasiparticle state and a many-particle continuum.
Kohn’s theorem states that the electron cyclotron resonance is unaffected by many-body interactions in a static magnetic field. Yet, intense terahertz pulses do introduce Coulomb effects between electrons—holding promise for quantum control of electrons.
Cassini’s encounter with Saturn’s magnetotail — the long magnetosphere region stretching into space — has revealed that plasma exits the magnetosphere through long-duration magnetic reconnection, which ejects ten times more mass than estimated.
A combination of strong spin–orbit coupling and electronic correlations in pyrochlore iridates produces a quantum insulator–metal transition that can be induced by applying a magnetic field along specific crystalline axes.