High Impact Physics

That author's affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology First author institution: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology Last author institution: Shanghai Jiao Tong University

A new polaritonic optical method that uses the mid-infrared out-of-plane hyperbolic polaritons mode is described and experimentally validated to allow the examination of picometre-scale interlayer deformations, providing a bridge between nanomechanics and photonics.

That author's affiliation: School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Institution (first & last author): Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

A technique combining atomically resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy with neural-quantum-state quantum Monte Carlo simulation of disordered 2D electron Wigner solids establishes a powerful framework to enable the clear identification of two distinct defect-induced disorder regimes.

A general-purpose artificial-intelligence vision system for use in image-sensing devices has been developed by embedding fundamentals of core computer-vision operations into a light-manipulating planar material called an optical metasurface. A prototype enables accurate, real-time perception and processing across diverse tasks, suggesting that this could be a solution for rapid, low-energy, on-device vision intelligence.

That author's affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory First author institution: Pohang University of Science and Technology Last author institution: Soongsil University

Topological structures can be designed to display desired properties or functions. As now shown, a periodic structure of polar vortices can, upon piezoelectric modulation, act as a diffraction grating for nanoscale strain waves.

Whether imaginary charge density waves and their associated loop currents exist has remained an open question. Now signatures of this state have been observed in kagome metal CsV3Sb5, revealing spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Entanglement as a fairness mechanism in randomized quantum games

Restoring Heisenberg scaling in time via autonomous quantum error correction

That author's affiliation: Rice University Institution (first & last author): TU Wien

A strange metal is a strongly correlated quantum state that occurs in many different materials. Now, quantum Fisher information is shown to increase as the strange metal forms, indicating that the state has high multipartite entanglement.

Researchers report a breakthrough in ultra-broadband magnonic frequency combs by driving a nonlinear YIG resonator far off-resonance, yielding over 350 comb lines across 450 MHz with continuously tunable spacing.

Lieb–Liniger interaction via self-interacting stationary light polaritons

That author's affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory Institution (first & last author): University of British Columbia

The potential similarities in the superconductivity in nickelates and cuprates is a topic of debate. Now a distinct likeness is observed in the electronic properties of these materials, which hints that the microscopic mechanisms may be related.

Local quantum nondemolition measurements and optical manipulation of long-lived circular Rydberg atoms are demonstrated by coupling them to an auxiliary array of low-angular-momentum Rydberg atoms.

The authors report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of superconducting Sm-based infinite-layer nickelate thin films. Despite the two-fold enhancement of Tc in the Sm-based nickelates compared to their Pr-based counterparts, they find that the effective in-plane exchange coupling strength is reduced by approximately 20%.

That author's affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Institution (first & last author): Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Mapping the positions of Two-Level-Systems on the surface of a superconducting transmon qubit

Decoherence is a central obstacle to scalable quantum technologies across diverse physical platforms. Here the authors develop an anticipatory framework for real-time evolution of decoherence in quantum systems, demonstrating its internal-prediction component using machine learning, and apply it to the problem of spectral diffusion in solid-state quantum emitters.

More spin current can be produced with less energy lost at the source, thanks to inter-magnet pumping that rebalances angular momentum dissipation between sublattices in a ferrimagnetic multilayer.

That author's affiliation: National Taiwan University Institution (first & last author): National Taiwan University

Generalized Toffoli gates with customizable single-step multiple-qubit control

Bounding the computational power of bosonic systems

That author's affiliation: Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia First author institution: Eindhoven University of Technology Last author institution: Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia

The combination of viscous heat flow and thermoelastic effects leads to a non-diffusive heat transport regime in MoSe2 and MoS2. Moreover, it can be controlled through the variation in sample thickness and by choosing between continuous and pulsed heating.

How magnetic impurities influence superconductivity and electronic order in kagome metals remains unclear. Now anisotropic Kondo resonances intertwined with the superconducting gap are observed in a magnetically doped kagome superconductor.

Quantum magic dynamics in random circuits

Quantum computational sensing using quantum signal processing, quantum neural networks, and Hamiltonian engineering

Practical blueprint for low-depth photonic quantum computing with quantum dots

An ultrafast imaging technique captured the propagation of charge-decoupled excitations in twisted bilayer WSe2. Two spin–valley modes with distinct propagation behaviours were revealed, consistent with the phase and amplitude modes of a spin–valley superfluid.

That author's affiliation: University of Science and Technology of China Institution (first & last author): University of Science and Technology of China

A programmable photonic quantum processor, Jiuzhang 4.0, incorporates 1,024 high-efficiency squeezed states into a hybrid spatial–temporal encoded 8,176-mode circuit.

That author's affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institution (first & last author): Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Electron-beam control enables deterministic placement of tens of thousands of atomic defects in three-dimensional crystals, creating stable, programmable artificial matter for scalable quantum and nanoscale technologies.

That author's affiliation: University of Vienna Institution (first & last author): University of Vienna

An electron-beam technique that can precisely create thousands of atomic defects in a crystal could be used to build quantum devices.

A seemingly still crystal is alive with synchronized atomic motions. Now, angular momentum has been observed flowing coherently between distinct lattice vibrational modes, revealing a hidden propagation of rotational features inside the crystal.

Non-Hermitian systems support non-trivial topological effects, yet eigenvalue braiding remains difficult to control and observe. Now, active tuning of laser modes enables programmable and directly observable braiding on an integrated photonic chip.

How angular momentum is exchanged and conserved among lattice modes has been difficult to measure experimentally, but has now been observed via a coherent three-phonon scattering process in a topological insulator.

That author's affiliation: UNSW Sydney First author institution: UNSW Sydney Last author institution: University of Canberra

A tunable artificial crystal in a shallow GaAs quantum well is shown to enable interaction-driven insulating behaviour. Electrostatic control tunes the band structure from graphene-like to kagome-like bands.