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Category: physics

New method realize ohmic contacts in n-type MoS₂ transistors at cryogenic temperatures

Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a class of layered materials exhibiting unique optoelectronic properties that could be leveraged to develop transistors, sensors and other nanoelectronics. Despite their advantages, creating robust ohmic contacts that connect a metal electrode in transistors to semiconducting TMDs at cryogenic temperatures has proved challenging.

This has so far limited the use of these materials for either studying or developing nanoelectronics that operate at low temperatures.

In a paper in Nature Electronics, researchers at the Liaoning Academy of Materials, Shanxi University and other institutes introduced a new technique for realizing ohmic contacts to the TMD molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) at , and found that in those transistors can be surprisingly high.

New window insulation blocks heat, but not your view

Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have designed a new material for insulating windows that could improve the energy efficiency of buildings worldwide—and it works a bit like a high-tech version of Bubble Wrap.

The team’s material, called Mesoporous Optically Clear Heat Insulator (MOCHI), comes in large slabs or thin sheets that can be applied to the inside of any window. So far, the team only makes the material in the lab, and it’s not available for consumers. But the researchers say MOCHI is long-lasting and is almost completely transparent.

That means it won’t disrupt your view, unlike many insulating materials on the market today.

Study links vanishing of specific heats at absolute zero with principle of entropy increase

In a new publication, Professor José-María Martín-Olalla, from the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Seville, has described the direct link between the vanishing of specific heats at absolute zero—a general experimental observation established in the early 20th century—and the second law of thermodynamics.

The study, published in Physica Scripta, reinterprets a 100-year-old problem and completes the consequences of the principle of increasing entropy in the universe.

The new study follows another published in the European Physical Journal Plus in June 2025, in which Professor Martín-Olalla linked Nernst’s theorem (the other general property of matter at absolute zero) with the second law of thermodynamics, correcting an original idea of Einstein’s.

Slow changes in radio scintillation can nudge pulsar timing by billionths of a second

For 10 months, a SETI Institute-led team watched pulsar PSR J0332+5434 (also called B0329+54) to study how its radio signal “twinkles” as it passes through gas between the star and Earth. The team used the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to take measurements between 900 and 1,956 MHz and observed slow, significant changes in the twinkling pattern (scintillation) over time.

The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Pulsars are spinning remnants of massive stars that emit flashes of radio waves, a type of light, in very precise and regular rhythms, due to their high rotation speed and incredible density. Scientists can use sensitive radio telescopes to measure the exact times at which pulses arrive in the search for patterns that can indicate phenomena such as low-frequency gravitational waves.

Rare high-resolution observations of a flare-prolific solar active region

Scientists have captured an exceptionally rare, high-resolution view of an active region that produced two powerful X-class solar flares—an achievement rarely possible from Earth. Using the GREGOR solar telescope in Tenerife, researchers recorded the explosive activity of the sun’s most energetic sunspot group of 2025, revealing twisted magnetic structures and the early stages of flare ignition with unprecedented detail. The flares triggered fast coronal mass ejections that lit up Earth’s skies with vivid auroras in the nights that followed.

Challenges of observing solar flares High-resolution observations of strong solar flares are extremely rare and difficult to obtain with ground-based solar telescopes.

“Strong flares occur either on the backside of the sun, or during the night, or when the weather is cloudy, or when the seeing conditions are poor, or when they are just outside the field of view, where the telescope is pointing,” says Prof. Carsten Denker head of the Solar Physics section at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and first author of the study published in Research Notes of the AAS.

Gravitational Waves Expose Hidden Dark Matter Around Black Holes

Researchers have created a fully relativistic model showing that gravitational waves might carry hidden clues about dark matter near massive black holes. New research from scientists at the University of Amsterdam outlines how gravitational waves produced by black holes could offer a way to detec

Imaging Uncovers Hidden Structures in Exploding Stars

“Novae are more than fireworks in our galaxy — they are laboratories for extreme physics,” said Dr. Laura Chomiuk.

What can imaging supernovae (plural for supernova) explosions teach astronomers about their behavior and physical characteristics? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the mechanisms behind the thermonuclear eruptions that supernovae cause. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand supernovae, as they are hypothesized to be responsible for spreading the chemical elements and molecules needed for life throughout the universe.

For the study, the researchers used the Georgia State University CHARA Array to observe exploding supernovae from two separate white dwarfs: nova V1674 Her and nova V1405 Cas, which are located approximately 16,200 and 5,500 light-years from Earth, and were observed days 2 & 3 and days 53, 55, & 67 after first light of eruption, also known as t0, respectively. For nova V1674 Her, the researchers observed outflows during days 2 & 3, while they observed this same behavior for nova V1405 Cas during days 53, 55, & 67. The researchers note these contrasting observations challenge longstanding hypotheses regarding supernovae behavior during their eruption periods.

A new nuclear ‘island’ where magic numbers break down

For decades, nuclear physicists believed that “Islands of Inversion”—regions where the normal rules of nuclear structure suddenly break down—were found mostly in neutron-rich isotopes. In these unusual pockets of the nuclear chart, magic numbers disappear, spherical shapes collapse, and nuclei unexpectedly transform into strongly deformed objects. So far, all such islands have been exotic nuclei such as beryllium-12 (N = 8), magnesium-32 (N = 20), and chromium-64 (N = 40), all of which are far away from the stable nuclei found in nature.

Scientists Unveil the Most Realistic Black Hole Accretion Model Ever Created

Using cutting-edge algorithms and exascale supercomputers, researchers have created the most realistic simulations yet of matter flowing into black holes. Building on decades of research, a group of computational astrophysicists has reached an important breakthrough: they have created the most de

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