Condensed-matter physics articles from across Nature Portfolio

An intrinsic magnetic topological insulator with gapped surface states would be very useful for both fundamental and application prospects. Now, the use of the time-periodic drive of a laser makes these states not only possible, but also tunable.

To act as nodes in quantum networks, solid-state quantum dots must combine their high performance as quantum emitters with a quantum memory. Now, nuclear spins around a gallium arsenide quantum dot have been used as a many-body quantum memory register.

Understanding the behaviour of viscous liquids close to the glass transition is a century-old problem. The microscopic underpinnings of their mechanical response have now been made clearer by a unified percolation description, in both two and three dimensions.

Polar skyrmions are a topological polarization texture. While they have now been detected in numerous material systems, near universally these have required careful strain engineering. Here, Xue, Zhang, Zheng, Tong, Wang and coauthors observe polar skyrmions in the van der Waals ferroelectric CuInP2S6, without strain-engineering.

Understanding superconductivity in low carrier density metals near polar quantum critical point, such as SrTiO3, has been challenging. Here, using inelastic neutron scattering, the authors reveal a correlation between the superconducting dome and the spatial length scale of polarization fluctuations.

Understanding phase transitions in open quantum systems is challenging. This work explores a driven-dissipative exciton polariton system undergoing an interaction-driven phase transition and reveals a relationship between the power-law decay of spatial coherence, the effective temperature of the system, and its coherent fraction, in surprising analogy to the conservative case.

Controlling stoichiometry and electronic reconstruction at the interface of transition metal oxide heterostructures offers a new way to tune their unique properties, leading to behaviors distinct from the bulk components. Using atomically resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy, element specific x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we have demonstrated that the presence of local oxygen deficiency across the interface and charge transfer to the empty conduction band of SrTiO₃ at the interface are the primary drivers for the modified interfacial magnetism in the manganite thin films and Ti³⁺ induced ferromagnetism at the La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrTiO₃ interface.

An intrinsic magnetic topological insulator with gapped surface states would be very useful for both fundamental and application prospects. Now, the use of the time-periodic drive of a laser makes these states not only possible, but also tunable.

Analysis pokes holes in protocol that underpins Microsoft’s claim to have created the first topological qubits.

To act as nodes in quantum networks, solid-state quantum dots must combine their high performance as quantum emitters with a quantum memory. Now, nuclear spins around a gallium arsenide quantum dot have been used as a many-body quantum memory register.

Understanding the behaviour of viscous liquids close to the glass transition is a century-old problem. The microscopic underpinnings of their mechanical response have now been made clearer by a unified percolation description, in both two and three dimensions.

Moiré superlattices formed from semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides have become an exciting platform for visualizing Hubbard physics in hybrid fermionic and bosonic systems.

To avoid a replication crisis in physics, physicists need to understand how ever-changing social forces shape scientific practice — and even the underlying notions of replicability and objectivity.