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Category: particle physics

Layered crystal embeds atom-thin iron selenide can improve waste heat conversion

Developing thermoelectric materials that efficiently convert waste heat into electricity remains challenging because high electrical performance and low thermal conductivity are difficult to achieve simultaneously. Researchers at Science Tokyo developed a layered crystal, TlFe1.6 Se2, that embeds atomically thin iron selenide (FeSe) layers within a bulk material. The crystal combines a high thermoelectric power factor with exceptionally low thermal conductivity, demonstrating a promising strategy for designing next-generation materials for waste heat energy recovery.

Thermoelectric technology, which converts waste heat from factories, automobiles and power plants into electricity, is expected to play an important role in building a carbon-neutral society. In thermoelectric power generation, electricity is produced using a temperature difference across a material.

To achieve high power generation performance, materials must efficiently convert heat into electrical power while maintaining the temperature difference that drives power generation. However, these two requirements are generally difficult to satisfy simultaneously. Establishing new material design strategies that combine high thermoelectric performance with low thermal conductivity has therefore been a major challenge.

Scientists built a camera that can track invisible particles in 3D

Unlike an ordinary camera, which mainly records the intensity of incoming light, a light field camera also captures information about the direction from which the light arrived. This allows it to recover depth and reconstruct a scene in three dimensions.

The technology relies on a micro-lens array (MLA) placed between the camera’s main lens and imaging sensor. Each microscopic lens acts like a tiny camera, recording the same scene from a slightly different angle. When the information from all of these lenses is combined, the system can reconstruct a light field, which describes the intensity, position, and direction of the incoming light.

Quantum teleportation could reduce photon loss in long-distance communications

Quantum technologies, which leverage the principles of quantum mechanics, have been found to outperform their classical counterparts on specific tasks. Among other things, past studies have highlighted the potential of quantum systems that can enable long-distance communication, using photons (i.e., particles of light) to carry quantum information.

Despite their promise, quantum communication systems are often prone to photon loss, the scattering, absorption or disappearance of traveling photons. This photon loss becomes increasingly pronounced as transmission distances increase.

One proposed approach for reducing photon loss relies on a process known as quantum teleportation. This process entails the transfer of a quantum state from one particle to another without moving the particle to a different location, via a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.

Cold radioactive molecules prepped and readied for physics discoveries

For the first time, researchers have developed a way to create chilled molecules containing the radioactive element radium. The resulting laboratory concoctions, generated in part through steps similar to those used to make candy, are poised to help researchers solve one of the biggest mysteries of our universe: How did matter in the early universe come to dominate over its antimatter counterpart?

Early in the universe, matter and antimatter were created in equal proportions. The negative electron, for example, has an antimatter twin called the positron, which is positively charged. An electron and positron can be created from energy in perfect pairs, yet when the two meet, they annihilate each other back into pure energy. Just what happened to all the antimatter remains one of the biggest mysteries in physics. Some kind of difference, or asymmetry, between matter and antimatter must exist to explain why matter was favored during the creation of our universe.

A few years ago, researchers led by Nick Hutzler, professor of physics at Caltech, began investigating radium molecules as a probe for studying this mystery. Their goal is to use lasers to look for subtle changes in the radium molecules that would indicate new particles and forces behind the matter/antimatter mystery. Radium is ideal for these experiments because its nucleus is shaped like a pear.

Scientists create stable ‘boron graphene’ and uncover quantum liquid crystal state

Graphene has long been regarded as one of the most promising materials for future electronics, but its relatively weak electron interactions have limited its potential for applications such as high-temperature superconductivity. Now, researchers from Tohoku University have overcome a major obstacle by creating a stable version of the long-sought “boron graphene” on the surface of a three-dimensional crystal, revealing a new quantum state that could lead to more energy-efficient electronic devices. The findings were published in Science Advances on July 2, 2026.

“We demonstrated a fundamentally new way of creating two-dimensional quantum materials,” says Takafumi Sato of Tohoku University’s Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR). “Rather than attempting to produce an unstable free-standing sheet of boron atoms, we exposed a naturally occurring honeycomb boron layer that already exists within a stable three-dimensional crystal called LaRh3B2.”

For years, scientists have been interested in borophene—a two-dimensional sheet of boron atoms—because its stronger electron interactions could produce exotic quantum phenomena not seen in graphene. However, borophene’s ideal honeycomb structure is extremely unstable, making it almost impossible to manufacture.

Scientists achieve all-electrical control of single-molecule quantum states

Quantum technologies promise revolutionary advances in computing, sensing and information processing. However, controlling individual quantum bits (qubits) at the atomic scale remains a major challenge because conventional approaches rely on magnetic fields, which are difficult to confine to a single molecule.

A research team at the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS), led by Director Andreas Heinrich at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), together with collaborators at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has demonstrated that the quantum state of an individual magnetic molecule can instead be controlled electrically using a newly identified exchange-mediated mechanism. The study published in Nature Physics provides a new strategy for electrically controlling molecular quantum systems and could help pave the way for more scalable quantum technologies.

Magnetic molecules are considered attractive building blocks for future quantum technologies because they are only a few nanometers in size, can self-assemble into ordered structures and can be chemically tailored to possess desired quantum properties. These characteristics make them promising candidates for molecular quantum computing, quantum sensing and spintronic applications.

Braided, exotic particles could build reliable, universal quantum computers

A truly useful quantum computer must be able to run any algorithm, with the same versatility an ordinary laptop offers. Physicists have now shown a new way to give a quantum computer exactly that flexibility, harnessing the capabilities of exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons.

A team of scientists from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME), Harvard, Stony Brook University and Quantinuum built and tested a complete toolkit of operations using non-Abelian anyons, proving for the first time the broad utility of this approach.

“We demonstrated a so-called universal gate set—meaning that if you store information in these emergent versions of quarks, and you move them around, you can do any quantum computation you might want to do,” said Ruben Verresen, assistant professor of molecular engineering at UChicago PME and a co-author of the new study published in Nature.

Plasma agriculture makes strides toward super-seeding conventional methods

Occasionally, the sun unleashes powerful flares and coronal mass ejections, which hurl plasma and energetic particles into space. On the infant Earth, this solar activity drove cascades of atmospheric chemical reactions that may have helped form the building blocks of life. More recently, scientists have discovered that applying plasma to seeds in a controlled way can trigger similar activity, making them faster-growing and more resilient. Researchers at Nagoya University and Kyushu University in Japan have compiled a comprehensive review of this new field—termed “plasma agriculture”—as a potential sustainable solution to address global food shortages.

The word plasma brings to mind a hot, ionized inferno that makes up the fourth state of matter. But the plasma used here is different. By applying high voltage to air or any gas, electrons are stripped from a tiny fraction of its molecules and gain very high energies. These electrons zipping around can effectively mimic the behavior of plasma even though the bulk of the gas remains at room temperature.

This low-temperature plasma can be applied directly to seeds without burning them. Excessive use of chemicals and genetic modification of plants cause concern for many people. Instead, plasma agriculture can offer similarly high crop yields without invasive intervention.

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