materials-science

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers built a magneto-optical, phase-change metagrating that decouples heat absorption from emission and retains its state without power.

The U.S. Commerce Department will fund AI-driven work on PFAS-free chemicals, catalysts, rare earth-free magnets, and backup batteries, and take a minority equity stake in return.

Researchers self-assembled custom 14-sided silver nanoparticles into superlattices that freeze a transitional phase between FCC and BCC metal structures, and report deep-strong light-matter coupling at room temperature.

University of Hong Kong team shows ultrathin polycrystalline diamond membranes generate voltage when bent, overturning the century-old classification of diamond as non-piezoelectric.

Teams at Imperial College London, University of Michigan, and Tufts University transformed natural silk threads into plastic-like materials that outperform metal alloys, resist punctures like carbon-fiber composites, and polarize terahertz light for potential 6G telecommunications use.

Using atomic-resolution spectroscopy on Ni3In, researchers from Rice and Weizmann experimentally confirmed compact molecular orbitals as the drivers of flat-band quantum criticality.

University of Pennsylvania researchers demonstrated strongly nonlinear exciton-polaritons that switch optical signals at 4 femtojoules—a record low for 2D polariton systems—using a MoSe₂ monolayer inside a photonic crystal nanocavity.

A 120-qubit simulation finished in two minutes versus more than 100 hours classically, with the team also reporting direct observation of spin-charge separation on 62 qubits.

Using multi-slice electron ptychography on a PMN-PT alloy, MIT-led researchers directly imaged a hierarchy of polar and chemical structures, finding that polarization regions are much smaller than leading simulations predicted.

A Nature Energy paper from Nanchang University achieves 26.61% certified efficiency with cesium doping, while a private Chinese cell surpasses all single-junction silicon cells at 27.98%.

Researchers from TU Delft, HKU, and SUSTech published separate Nature Materials studies showing that interface engineering and controlled lattice distortion can simultaneously boost strength past 3 GPa and preserve meaningful ductility in martensitic alloys.

A PNAS paper from XPANCEO and Nobel laureate Konstantin Novoselov shows the van der Waals crystal As2S3 undergoes a refractive-index shift of 0.3 and expands up to 7% under ordinary light, enough to write 50,000-dpi patterns without lithography.