Browse Physics

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.

Calculations show that combining polymers can improve their dielectic properties and reveal the atomic rearrangements that make this possible.

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.

Transport measurements suggest that a lithium-based metal may be a candidate material for thermomagnetic cooling.

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

Quantum interference of pairs of photons emitted by nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond paves the way for entanglement of distant qubits.

Researchers have observed a new phase transition as the geophysically important mineral FeO becomes metallic when compressed in a diamond anvil cell.

Bundles of nearly identical carbon nanotubes have properties that are well-suited for making electricity from light.

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

The behavior of the increasingly thin ice found in the Arctic Ocean can be modeled as a two-dimensional, granular gas.

A compound that shrinks when heated has a type of atomic vibration that hasn’t been observed in any other material and doesn’t conform to the usual “springlike” rules.

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

The symmetry of a molecule may affect how it adsorbs on a surface.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the discovery of quasicrystals, in which atoms are ordered over long distances but not in the periodically repeating arrangement of traditional crystals.

Hydrogen storage on carbon materials is strongly affected by the presence of oxygen.

Measurements of the world’s first x-ray laser show that it produces the most coherent (laser-like) and the purest (monochromatic) x-ray beam ever measured.

Shock waves in solids can propagate as a single structure made up of two zones with different mechanical properties.

Under very high pressures hydrogen may combine with platinum to produce new structural phases and high-temperature superconductivity.

New research explains how a novel type of rechargeable battery is able to sequester defects, so that ions can move more easily between electrodes.