Browse Physics

An x-ray free electron laser setup converts the diffraction pattern of randomly positioned and oriented particles into an image of a single particle.

Controlling the rotation and tilt of oxygen octahedra in perovskite structures provides a new route towards room-temperature multiferroics.

Successful legwork to find a new insulator for spintronics applications sends a material running up the ladder of research and development.

A new analysis clears some of the remaining hurdles to a completely rigorous density-functional theory for calculating the properties of materials at finite temperature.

Spectroscopic mapping of the luminescence of aromatic single molecules reveals the spatial distribution of radiative transitions at submolecular resolution.

When electronic instabilities give rise to three coexisting density waves, interference between them may lock into a state with helicity.

Experiments show that it may be possible to achieve control of magnetization by an external electric field in a material by altering the balance between competing physical processes.

New experiments may resolve earlier differences in melting point measurements of the transition metal tantalum under pressure.

Diffraction techniques are making progress in tackling the difficult problem of solving the structures of nanoparticles and nanoscale materials.

The magnetic state of a multiferroic device can be controlled purely by an electric field—a property that could greatly reduce overheating in data storage devices.

An old problem in solid-state physics is the difficulty of theory to account accurately for the heat capacity of solids close to their melting points. Ab initio calculations that can now better reconcile theory with experiment are poised to make such accurate predictions about new materials, it may not even be necessary to grow them.