A Fourier transform revealing spatial patterns on the surface at 300 millikelvins. A charge density wave signals the presence of the pair density wave. The background is tellurium atoms on the surface of uranium ditelluride. @University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering Physicists with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering have identified a new form of superconducting behavior. Experiments on the metal urani

Stack two atomically thin layers, rotate one slightly against the other, and a new material emerges. The resulting moiré pattern can slow electrons down so much that their interactions take over. This produces superconductivity, magnetism and exotic fractional quantum states that neither layer shows on its own. This field, known as twistronics, has become one of the most active frontiers in condensed matter physics. So far, however, it has been built on only a handful of mate

From a two-colour diffraction pattern (left), two snapshots of a helium droplet doped with xenon nanoparticles can be reconstructed (centre). These images can inform a potential 3D rendering of a xenon-doped helium nanodroplet (right). An overarching goal of ultrafast science is to enable researchers to watch structural changes in matter on their natural timescale. Experimentally, this translates into taking two snapshots of the same nanoscale object that are only femtosecond

Artistic rendering of a hyperbolic wave attractor forming in an odd-shaped cavity inside a hyperbolic material. Credit: Andrea Alu NEW YORK, September 28, 2026 — When light or sound bounces around inside an oddly shaped room, its reflections can quickly become difficult to predict. But new research led by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) shows that waves can behave very differently when they travel through a special cl

image:&nbsp;<p>A current pulse lasting only a few picoseconds passes through a superconductor before magnetic vortices have time to move. This lets the current reach far beyond the usual critical current, up to the point where Cooper pairs begin to break apart.</p> Credit: © Jörg Harms, Eryin Wang (MPSD) Superconductivity is one of the most striking collective phenomena in quantum materials. When certain materials are cooled below a characteristic transition temperature, thei

Measurements on Maxymus show (left) that the magnon amplitude does not increase uniformly at both edges of the constriction, but only at one edge. This experimental finding can only be reproduced by micromagnetic simulations if three effects that have hitherto been neglected are taken into account (right). © Advanced Materials (2026): DOI: 10.1002/adma.74547 For the first time, researchers have directly imaged the magnetisation dynamics inside a spin Hall nano-oscillator — a

Using a new technique, Paul Malinowski and other researchers in Kyle Shen’s lab found that iron selenide’s superconducting “dome” is more closely linked to resistance caused by imperfections in its crystal lattice than to the number of electrons flowing through the crystal. @Chris Kitchen/College of Arts and Sciences Cornell physicists have discovered that minimizing disorder, not varying electron count, is the key factor for controlling the superconductivity in the unique ma

Scientists have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using one of the latest 3D imaging techniques to see deep inside the crystal for the first time. High-temperature superconductivity is widely regarded as one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the past 40 years. It promises technologies built on electricity that flows with zero resistance an

Drops of various liquids and in different states of matter were allowed to slide across surfaces. The researchers were thus able to determine that even more factors play a role in the phenomenon known as “slide electrification” than previously thought. Whether on a windowpane at home or during the industrial cleaning of computer chips: Droplets sliding over solid surfaces become electrically charged. Yet the physical mechanism behind this charging remains a subject of debate

Put a drop of water into a very hot pan and it can skitter across the surface on a cushion of vapor. This is known as the Leidenfrost effect. Now, scientists have observed a related phenomenon involving ice and an extremely hot surface – on a length scale of nanometers and within nanoseconds. The effect was discovered and investigated by an international team of researchers at the FXE instrument at European XFEL and could influence, for instance, laser processing, data storag

A graphic showing the screening of magic-angle superconductivity Scientists from the National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester have demonstrated that superconductivity in magic-angle graphene can be completely switched off by screening interactions between electrons. The finding provides strong evidence that electron interactions play a central role in the phenomenon and helps address a key question that has remained unresolved since superconductivity was fi

Breakthrough from a team led by Jacob Covey, associate professor in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Department of Physics, turns helium-3’s low mass into a quantum resource