Browse Physics

A new vanadium compound exhibits the telltale features of a quantum spin liquid—a material that resists magnetic ordering down to absolute zero.

Cylindrically shaped trap allows Bose-Einstein condensate to move freely in all three directions.

Plasmonic nanostructures can be used to generate optical vortices with varying amounts of angular momentum.

Natural defect states can render nanomechanical oscillators nonlinear and allow creation of nonclassical mechanical states.

Experiments pinpoint the effects of lanthanum composition on the conducting properties of the LaAlO3-SrTiO3 interface.

The circular swimming motion of self-propelled, L-shaped microparticles may provide insight into microorganisms that are similarly lacking in symmetry.

Thousands of coupled lasers offer a new way to study how frustrated systems behave.

Researchers unveil the first chemically sensitive transmission electron microscope with single-atom resolution.

Cosmic-ray-induced discharges from tiny bits of water or ice in thunderclouds may explain how a lightning strike is initiated.

Nanoscale crystals pass through narrow constrictions in carbon nanotubes by shuttling atoms from their back end to their front end, according to new experiments.

To make graphene behave more like a semiconductor, researchers propose vibrating the lattice in a specific rotating pattern.

Atom interferometry may enable ways to measure gravitational waves without the destructive influence of laser fluctuations.

Experiments probe how specific base-pair sequences within a DNA strand behave when the molecule is twisted.

A modified form of Lagrange’s equations of motion will make it easier to account for energy loss in a mechanical system.

Experiments demonstrate the possibility of engineering stable, nanometer-scale magnetic structures in thin magnetic films by firing laser pulses at them.

A magnetometer based on laser measurements of atomic energy levels can detect a magnetic field one hundred billion times smaller than the Earth’s.

A new standard for measuring the relative size of a quantum object could help in comparing different experiments at the quantum-classical boundary.

The composition of cells in tissues can be found using statistical fluctuations of cell types.

Shaken or stirred? Suspended beads stir themselves when shaken in a new experiment using magnetic levitation.

The so-far disappointingly short lifetime of spin-polarized currents in graphene may be the result of magnetic defects.