Physical sciences articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Various methods have been investigated to locally control atmospheric precipitation. In this study, field experiments show that laser-induced condensation is initiated when the relative humidity exceeds 70%, and that this effect is largely a result of photochemical HNO3formation.

    • S. Henin
    • , Y. Petit
    •  & J.-P. Wolf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining the direction of the magnetic field of light is important for optical applications. Here, scattering of light from a subwavelength aperture in a metal plane is shown to be governed by its magnetic vector, providing the magnetic field orientation independently of the electric field.

    • H.W. Kihm
    • , S.M. Koo
    •  & D.-S. Kim

  • Article |

    Multiple scattering complicates femtosecond optics such that phase conjugation allows spatial focusing and imaging through a multiple scattering medium, but temporal control is problematic. McCabeet al. report the full spatio-temporal characterization and recompression of a femtosecond speckle field.

    • David J. McCabe
    • , Ayhan Tajalli
    •  & Béatrice Chatel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At extreme temperature and pressure, materials can form new dense phases with unusual physical properties. Here, laser-induced microexplosions are used to produce a superdense, stable, body-centred-cubic form of aluminium, which was previously predicted to exist at pressures above 380GPa.

    • Arturas Vailionis
    • , Eugene G. Gamaly
    •  & Saulius Juodkazis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-power mechanical energy harvesting could be an alternative to batteries, but efficient energy conversion technology has been missing. Here, a novel mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion method is described that is based on reverse electrowetting and is uniquely suited for high-power energy harvesting.

    • Tom Krupenkin
    •  & J. Ashley Taylor

  • Article |

    The development of practical photonic quantum technologies will be aided by the spatial control of entangled photons. Lenget al. achieve on-chip spatial control of entangled photons by using domain engineering, rather than by using external optical elements.

    • H.Y. Leng
    • , X.Q. Yu
    •  & S.N. Zhu

  • Article |

    Composites of carbon nanotubes and superconductors provide technologically important new, or improved, functionalities. Here, with a chemical solution approach, well-aligned carbon nanotube forests embedded in a superconducting NbC matrix are shown to effectively enhance the superconducting properties of NbC.

    • G.F. Zou
    • , H.M. Luo
    •  & Q.X. Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Being able to determine the wetting properties of individual nanoparticles would aid the preparation of particles with controlled surface properties. Isaet al. develop an in situ freeze-fracture shadow-casting method and use this to determine structural and thermodynamic properties of various 10 nm particles at fluid interfaces.

    • Lucio Isa
    • , Falk Lucas
    •  & Erik Reimhult

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An electron pocket exists in the Fermi-surface of the high temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy, but its origin is unknown. Here, YBa2Cu3Oy and La1.8−xEu0.2SrxCuO4 are both shown to exhibit Fermi-surface reconstruction, and in the latter, this is due to stripe order, suggesting that the same mechanism exists in YBa2Cu3Oy.

    • F. Laliberté
    • , J. Chang
    •  & Louis Taillefer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnesium is an ideal rechargeable battery anode material, but coupling it with a low-cost sulphur cathode, requires a non-nucleophilic electrolyte. Kimet al. prepare a non-nucleophilic electrolyte from hexamethyldisilazide magnesium chloride and aluminium trichloride, and show its compatibility with a sulphur cathode.

    • Hee Soo Kim
    • , Timothy S. Arthur
    •  & John Muldoon

  • Article |

    Ferromagnetic systems produced by the transition metal doping of semiconductors may be used as components of spintronic devices. Here, a new ferromagnet, Li1+y(Zn1-xMnx)As, is prepared in bulk quantities and shown to have a critical temperature approaching 50 K.

    • Z. Deng
    • , C.Q. Jin
    •  & Y.J. Uemura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single atoms can be detected using optical resonators that extend the lifetime of the photon. Here, the authors demonstrate fast, high-fidelity detection of very low atom densities using a microfabricated optical cavity to couple the detection light with the atoms.

    • J. Goldwin
    • , M. Trupke
    •  & E.A. Hinds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical manipulation of fullerenes has allowed the production of heptagon-containing fullerenes, but they have not been synthesised using bottom-up approaches. Here, a heptagon-containing fullerene[68] is obtained as C68Cl6from a carbon arc plasma.

    • Yuan-Zhi Tan
    • , Rui-Ting Chen
    •  & Lan-Sun Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High critical temperature superconductors could be used to produce ideal electric power lines, but the misalignment of crystalline grain boundaries reduces current density. Here, pnictide superconductors are found to be more tolerant to misaligned grain boundaries than cuprates.

    • Takayoshi Katase
    • , Yoshihiro Ishimaru
    •  & Hideo Hosono

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum-mechanical predictions are generally probabilistic. Here, assuming freely chosen measurements, it is shown that enhanced predictions are not possible and, thus, randomness is inherent in quantum theory: a result that has applications in fields such as quantum cryptography.

    • Roger Colbeck
    •  & Renato Renner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum computing has advantages over conventional computing, but the complexity of quantum algorithms creates technological challenges. Here, an architecture-independent technique, that simplifies adding control qubits to arbitrary quantum operations, is developed and demonstrated.

    • Xiao-Qi Zhou
    • , Timothy C. Ralph
    •  & Jeremy L. O'Brien

  • Article |

    Brillouin interactions between sound and light can excite mechanical resonances in photonic microsystems, with potential for sensing and frequency reference applications. The authors demonstrate experimental excitation of mechanical resonances ranging from 49 to 1,400 MHz using forward Brillouin scattering.

    • Gaurav Bahl
    • , John Zehnpfennig
    •  & Tal Carmon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flux-closure patterns are rarely observed in ferroelectric materials and almost exclusively form at the nanoscale. McQuaidet al. report mesoscopic dipole closure patterns formed in free-standing single-crystal lamellae of BaTiO3, thought to result from an unusual set of experimental conditions.

    • R.G.P. McQuaid
    • , L.J. McGilly
    •  & J.M. Gregg

  • Article |

    Single-molecule magnets could be useful for the development of spintronic devices. Here single-molecule magnets are encapsulated in carbon nanotubes without affecting the properties of the guest molecules, which may be useful in the development of spintronic or high-density magnetic storage devices.

    • Maria del Carmen Giménez-López
    • , Fabrizio Moro
    •  & Andrei N. Khlobystov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In some iron-based materials, unconventional superconductivity can emerge near a quantum phase transition where long-range magnetic order vanishes. Giovannettiet al.show that the magnetic quantum phase transition in an iron pnictide superconductor is very close to the quantum tricritical point.

    • Gianluca Giovannetti
    • , Carmine Ortix
    •  & José Lorenzana

  • Article |

    Pagerank is widely used to rank web content; however, it is unknown how network topology affects its performance. The authors demonstrate that, in random networks, pagerank is sensitive to perturbations in topology, whereas scale-free networks contain a few super-stable nodes whose ranking is exceptionally stable.

    • Gourab Ghoshal
    •  & Albert-László Barabási

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interacting electrons in one dimension are predicted to have independent spin and charge excitations. Wakehamet al. show evidence of this behaviour in a bulk conductor by measuring a ratio of thermal to electrical conductivity orders of magnitude larger than in conventional three-dimensional metals.

    • Nicholas Wakeham
    • , Alimamy F. Bangura
    •  & Nigel E. Hussey

  • Article |

    Covalent reactions on carbon nanotube surfaces typically occur at random positions on the hexagonal lattice. Denget al. show that Billups–Birch reductive alkylation takes place at, and propagates from, sp3defect sites, leading to confinement of the reaction fronts in the tubular direction.

    • Shunliu Deng
    • , Yin Zhang
    •  & YuHuang Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fractional quantum Hall effect occurs when electrons move in Landau levels. In this study, using a theoretical flat-band lattice model, the fractional quantum Hall effect is observed in the presence of repulsive interactions when the band is one third full and in the absence of Landau levels.

    • D.N. Sheng
    • , Zheng-Cheng Gu
    •  & L. Sheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical computing, involving on-chip integrated logic units, could provide improved performance over semiconductor-based computing. Here, a binary NOR gate is developed from cascaded OR and NOT gates in four-terminal plasmonic nanowire networks; the work could lead to new optical computing technologies.

    • Hong Wei
    • , Zhuoxian Wang
    •  & Hongxing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-qubit operation is an essential part of quantum computation, but implementation has been difficult. Gotoet al.introduce optically controllable internuclear coupling in semiconductors providing a simple way of switching inter-qubit couplings in semiconductor-based quantum computers.

    • Atsushi Goto
    • , Shinobu Ohki
    •  & Tadashi Shimizu

  • Article |

    A quantum simulator can follow the evolution of a prescribed model, whose behaviour may be difficult to determine. Here, the emergence of magnetism is simulated by implementing a quantum Ising model, providing a benchmark for simulations in larger systems.

    • R. Islam
    • , E.E. Edwards
    •  & C. Monroe

  • Article |

    Interactions between charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in correlated electron systems have resulted in predictions of new electronic phases of matter. Carlson and Dahmen propose two protocols for detecting disordered electron nematics in condensed matter systems using non-equilibrium methods.

    • E.W. Carlson
    •  & K.A. Dahmen

  • Article |

    The unoccupied electronic levels of graphene are modified by corrugation, doping and presence of impurities. Here, the authors map discrete electronic domains within a single graphene sheet using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy and provide insight into the modification of unoccupied levels.

    • Brian J. Schultz
    • , Christopher J. Patridge
    •  & Sarbajit Banerjee

  • Article |

    Waveplates are used in optoelectronics to alter the polarization of light, but they do not typically perform achromatically, which is important for applications such as three-dimensional displays. Here, biologically inspired periodically multilayered structures are produced, which function as achromatic visible-light waveplates.

    • Yi-Jun Jen
    • , Akhlesh Lakhtakia
    •  & Jyun-Rong Lai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bubble at an air–liquid interface can form a liquid jet upon bursting, spraying aerosol droplets into the air. Leeet al. show that jetting is analogous to pinching-off in liquid coalescence, which may be useful in applications that prevent jet formation and in the improved incorporation of aerosols in climate models.

    • Ji San Lee
    • , Byung Mook Weon
    •  & Wah-Keat Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light–matter interactions can be used to manipulate magnetization in solids, but light-controlled magnetization vector motion has not been demonstrated. Here, two-dimensional magnetic oscillations in NiO are manipulated with optical pulses leading to vectorial control of magnetization by light.

    • Natsuki Kanda
    • , Takuya Higuchi
    •  & Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami

  • Article |

    Optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers are used to study the chaotic behaviour of nonlinear systems. Here chaos is observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit with potential for new directions in the study of chaos in quantum systems.

    • Ferdinand Albert
    • , Caspar Hopfmann
    •  & Ido Kanter

  • Article |

    Anyons are particles with fractional statistics that interpolate between bosons and fermions, and are thought to exist in low-dimensional systems. Keilmannet al. propose an experimental system to create anyons in one-dimensional optical lattices using assisted Raman tunnelling.

    • Tassilo Keilmann
    • , Simon Lanzmich
    •  & Marco Roncaglia

  • Article |

    Single nanoparticles are known to emit light intermittently, or 'blink', but the mechanisms describing this phenomenon are not fully understood. This study demonstrates that, for small clusters of blinking nanoparticles, the number of particles within a cluster dramatically influences blinking time.

    • Siying Wang
    • , Claudia Querner
    •  & Marija Drndic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Negative thermal expansion—contraction upon heating—is an unusual process that may be exploited to produce materials with zero or other controlled thermal expansion values. Azumaet al. observe negative thermal expansion in BiNiO3which is a result of Bi/Ni charge-transfer transitions.

    • Masaki Azuma
    • , Wei-tin Chen
    •  & J. Paul Attfield

  • Article |

    A quantum key distribution system allows two remote parties to communicate in secret by a shared key code. This work demonstrates a complete and undetected eavesdropping attack on a quantum key distribution connection, highlighting the need for further security updates on secure communication systems.

    • Ilja Gerhardt
    • , Qin Liu
    •  & Vadim Makarov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how the high-energy physics of Mott-like excitations affects condensate formation is a key challenge in high-temperature superconductivity. Giannettiet al. clarify the relationship of many-body CuO2excitations and the onset of superconductivity using a new optical pump supercontinuum-probe technique.

    • Claudio Giannetti
    • , Federico Cilento
    •  & Fulvio Parmigiani

  • Article |

    SiO2 glass and helium are important in various fields of science and engineering. Sato et al. show SiO2glass to be less compressible in helium under high pressure, which may be relevant for the interpretation of high-pressure experiments and in the design of new materials.

    • Tomoko Sato
    • , Nobumasa Funamori
    •  & Takehiko Yagi

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Physical sciences across other nature.com journals