Browse Physics

A new experimental scheme allows the controlled generation and observation of magnetic avalanches, a cascade of spin flips that propagates through a magnetic sample like a three-dimensional fire.

A model shows that as the size of a brittle material grows, the probability that it will fracture from a single crack approaches $100\%$.

A study reveals the optimal balance of forces needed to make the cleanest cuts in soft solids.

Fluidlike folding instabilities of solid surfaces complicate the machining of metals to perfection

Numerical simulations are revealing general properties of jammed states of matter.

A new model for DNA-covered nanoparticles predicts their stable crystal structures and may one day help in finding the optimal building blocks for self-assembling materials.

New experiments on an organic ferroelectric verify that its electric polarization is driven primarily by an electron shift, rather than the ion shift that characterizes most other ferroelectrics.

Fast excitations of lattice vibrations in a substrate can alter the electronic properties of an oxide thin film.

In some transition metal oxides, disorder makes  the dielectric constant highly sensitive to an applied magnetic field over a broad range of temperatures.

Magnetically accelerated metal plates are used to compress water to high pressures and temperatures like those inside Neptune and Uranus, permitting measurements that aid in the development of models of planetary interiors.

The discovery of ferroelecticity in mammalian tissue makes researchers wonder what its purpose is and what it may be useful for.

Helicoidal magnetic order induces a record high electrical polarization.

An NMR technique tracks the diffusion of water molecules to obtain micron-scale structural information about a porous material.

Ferroelectric domain patterns enable voltage-induced magnetization reversal in a magnetic alloy.

Electromagnons open up new opportunities to control electric and magnetic properties.

Colloids containing ellipsoidal particles have two distinct glass transitions.

Experiments suggest that the celebrated “boson peak”—a low-frequency vibrational feature characteristic of amorphous materials—may be related to a well-known phonon singularity in ordered crystalline materials.

Simulations provide a guide to identifying atoms in high-resolution images of carbon nanomaterials.

Thermodynamic arguments and a one-dimensional model help explain why the grain boundaries in an annealed polycrystalline material have an unexpectedly simple statistical distribution.

To better interpret the information in images, electron microscopists are looking more closely at how an electron beam scatters inside of a specimen.