Almost every material expands when heated. Well-known examples include railroad tracks and concrete roadways, which feature visible expansion gaps to accommodate this effect. However, thermal expansion poses a far more acute challenge for extremely precise technologies, such as lasers and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, where even minute dimensional changes can compromise precision.

Scientists have long sought to develop materials that maintain dimensional stability across a wide temperature range.

Now, a team led by Prof. Lin Zheshuai from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has designed a material with an exceptionally broad zero-thermal-expansion temperature window.