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Ultra-thin sodium films offer low-cost alternative to gold and silver in optical technologies

From solar panels to next-generation medical devices, many emerging technologies rely on materials that can manipulate light with extreme precision. These materials—called plasmonic materials—are typically made from expensive metals like gold or silver. But what if a cheaper, more abundant metal could do the job just as well or better?

That’s the question a team of researchers set out to explore. The challenge? While is abundant and lightweight, it’s also notoriously unstable and difficult to work with in the presence of air or moisture—two unavoidable parts of real-world conditions. Until now, this has kept it off the table for practical optical applications.

Researchers from Yale University, Oakland University, and Cornell University have teamed up to change that. By developing a new technique for structuring sodium into ultra-thin, precisely patterned films, they found a way to stabilize the and make it perform exceptionally well in light-based applications.

Researchers demonstrate substrate design principles for scalable superconducting quantum materials

Silicides—alloys of silicon and metals long used in microelectronics—are now being explored again for quantum hardware. But their use faces a critical challenge: achieving phase purity, since some silicide phases are superconducting while others are not.

The study, published in Applied Physics Letters by NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Brookhaven National Laboratory, shows how substrate choice influences phase formation and interfacial stability in superconducting vanadium silicide films, providing design guidelines for improving material quality.

The team, led by NYU Tandon professor Davood Shahrjerdi, focused on vanadium silicide, a material that becomes superconducting (able to conduct electricity without resistance) when cooled below its transition temperature of 10 Kelvin, or about −263°C. Its relatively high superconducting makes it attractive for quantum devices that operate above conventional millikelvin temperatures.

Novel method for controlling Faraday rotation in conductive polymers

Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have developed a novel method for controlling the optical rotation of conductive polymer polythiophene in a magnetic field at low voltage. This method combines the “Faraday rotation” phenomenon, in which a polarizing plane rotates in response to a magnetic field, with the electrochemical oxidation and reduction of conductive polymers.

The study is published in the journal Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals.

Conductive polymers possess various properties in addition to conductivity, with applications in light-emitting devices, electromagnetic wave shielding, and anticorrosion materials.

The Nearest Alien Civilization Could Be 33,000 Light-Years Away

New research suggests that technological civilizations in the Milky Way are extremely rare, with the closest potentially 33,000 light-years away. According to new research presented at the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki, the nearest technological civilization in the Milky Way might be as

Astronomers Stunned by Black Hole Growing Beyond Known Limits

A black hole in a distant quasar is growing faster than the usual limit, according to Chandra observations. This may explain how the first supermassive black holes emerged. Astronomers have identified a black hole growing at one of the fastest rates ever observed. The finding, made with NASA’s Ch

“Something Extraordinary Was Happening” — Scientists Solve Quantum Metal Mystery

Japanese researchers have revealed how weak magnetic fields can instantly control the direction of electrical flow in quantum metals. Quantum metals are materials in which quantum effects, usually confined to the atomic scale, become strong enough to influence their large-scale electrical behavio

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