CMP Journal 2025-09-01
Statistics
Nature Materials: 2
Nature Physics: 2
Nature Reviews Physics: 1
arXiv: 63
Nature Materials
Peptide codes for organ-selective mRNA delivery
Original Paper | Biomedical engineering | 2025-08-31 20:00 EDT
Tie Chang, Yifan Zheng, Mingrui Jiang, Siqi Jia, Jianbo Bai, Zhi Zheng, Shixin Li, Jia Guo, Yue Wang, Yiting Wang, Haixia Liu, Jianlin Liu, Liangyu Ni, Xingdi Cheng, Shuai Liu, Huijuan Zhang, Wei Pi, Feng Lin, Shiyi Liu, Weijian Wang, Guannan Wang, Leyun Wang, Lei Miao, Xueguang Lu, Ziqing Deng, Bing Bai, Zhao Qin, Huajian Gao, Yue Shao
Organ-selective delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) is critical for fulfilling the therapeutic potential of mRNA-based gene and protein replacement technologies. Despite clinical advances in the hepatic delivery of mRNA using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), current strategies for extrahepatic-organ-selective mRNA delivery still have limitations. Here we report a peptide-encoded organ-selective targeting (POST) method for the delivery of mRNA to extrahepatic organs after systemic administration, which is based on the modular tuning of LNPs through surface engineering with specific amino acid sequences (POST codes). Molecular dynamics simulations and in vitro and in vivo testing show that the organ-selective targeting of POST results from the specific protein corona of the peptide-decorated LNPs, which is established from the mechanical optimization of the binding affinities between peptides with a particular sequence and plasma proteins. This approach can be used for the organ-selective delivery of different ribonucleic acids and multiple gene editing machinery. Overall, the POST platform creates a modular repertoire for LNP surface engineering for directing organ tropism, broadening the scope and versatility of organ-selective delivery.
Biomedical engineering, Drug delivery, Nanoparticles
Tissue-specific mRNA delivery and prime editing with peptide-ionizable lipid nanoparticles
Original Paper | Drug delivery | 2025-08-31 20:00 EDT
Yi Lin, Mengyao Li, Zijin Luo, Yanan Meng, Yan Zong, Hongyu Ren, Xiaolu Yu, Xiaoqiong Tan, Fan Liu, Tuo Wei, Qiang Cheng
Lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery and gene editing have the potential to transform the current therapeutic landscape. Nonetheless, a major bottleneck using this technology is the difficulty in achieving cell- and tissue-specific delivery and avoiding liver accumulation. Here we report the rational design of peptide ionizable lipids to assemble lipid nanoparticles with organ-selective mRNA delivery. Structure-activity and structure-selectivity relationship analyses enable us to obtain a general and predictable strategy for peptide ionizable lipid design. By incorporating artificial ionizable and natural amino acids and/or functional molecules into peptide ionizable lipids, we create lipid nanoparticles with tissue-specific targeting, including the lungs, liver, spleen, thymus and bone. In particular, lipid nanoparticles containing peptide lipids targeting the liver show comparable efficacy and safety compared with FDA-approved formulations. Furthermore, lipid nanoparticles with peptide lipids achieve the efficient co-delivery of PEmax mRNA and engineered prime editing guide RNA for prime editing of the liver and lungs. Overall, our platform offers a predictable methodology for the rational design of tissue-targeting lipid nanoparticles that might aid the development of improved mRNA-based gene editing therapeutics.
Drug delivery, Nanoparticles, Solid-phase synthesis
Nature Physics
Filamentous fungi control multiphase flow and fluid distribution in porous media
Original Paper | Applied physics | 2025-08-31 20:00 EDT
Sang Hyun Lee, Marcel Moura, Shreya Srivastava, Cara Santelli, Peter K. Kang
Filamentous fungi play crucial roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling, soil carbon sequestration, agricultural soil management, contaminant fate and transport, biofouling of engineered materials and human health. Although these processes typically involve multiple fluid phases in porous media, the mechanisms by which fungi regulate fluid flow remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict and harness fungus-mediated processes. The complexity and opacity of porous media further obscure our understanding of how fungi influence fluid flow and distribution. Here we explore the impact of filamentous fungi on multiphase flow and fluid redistribution using a dual-porosity microfluidic chip, featuring a flow channel embedded within tight porous media. Our pore-scale visualizations show that filamentous fungi can actively induce multiphase flow and mobilize trapped fluid phases in porous media through localized clogging and hyphal-induced pore invasion, enhancing the oil-water interfacial area and redistribution of fluid phases. This study reveals the mechanisms by which filamentous fungi modulate fluid flow and distribution, offering insights into harnessing fungal processes to enhance applications such as bioremediation and carbon sequestration.
Applied physics, Fluid dynamics, Permeation and transport
Ferroaxial density wave from intertwined charge and orbital order in rare-earth tritellurides
Original Paper | Electronic properties and materials | 2025-08-31 20:00 EDT
Birender Singh, Grant McNamara, Kyung-Mo Kim, Saif Siddique, Stephen D. Funni, Weizhe Zhang, Xiangpeng Luo, Piyush Sakrikar, Eric M. Kenney, Ratnadwip Singha, Sergey Alekseev, Sayed Ali Akbar Ghorashi, Thomas J. Hicken, Christopher Baines, Hubertus Luetkens, Yiping Wang, Vincent M. Plisson, Michael Geiwitz, Connor A. Occhialini, Riccardo Comin, Michael J. Graf, Liuyan Zhao, Jennifer Cano, Rafael M. Fernandes, Judy J. Cha, Leslie M. Schoop, Kenneth S. Burch
The discovery of the axial amplitude mode–commonly referred to as the Higgs mode–in charge density wave systems, such as rare-earth tritellurides, indicates the presence of a hidden order. A theoretical study proposed that this axial Higgs mode arises from a hidden orbital texture of the charge density wave, which produces a ferroaxial charge order. However, experimental evidence for the specific hidden order has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate a ferroaxial order of electronic origin throughout the rare-earth tritellurides. In ErTe3 and HoTe3, which exhibit two distinct charge density waves with different ordering temperatures, a detailed investigation shows that the high-temperature charge order phase breaks translational, rotational and all vertical as well as diagonal mirror symmetries. Furthermore, this phase produces an axial Higgs mode and an axial electronic gap. By contrast, the low-temperature phase breaks only translational symmetry and gives rise to a scalar Higgs mode. Notably, both phases preserve the space inversion and time-reversal symmetries. These findings are consistent with a ferroaxial phase driven by coupled orbital and charge orders, highlighting the role of Higgs modes in revealing hidden orders in systems with intertwined charge density waves.
Electronic properties and materials, Phase transitions and critical phenomena
Nature Reviews Physics
On the growth and form of bacterial colonies
Review Paper | Computational science | 2025-08-31 20:00 EDT
Rachel Porter, Carolina Trenado-Yuste, Alejandro Martinez-Calvo, Morgan Su, Ned S. Wingreen, Sujit S. Datta, Kerwyn Casey Huang
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that inhabit almost every ecosystem on Earth. To overcome challenges in their typically stressful and dynamic natural habitats, bacteria can assemble into macroscopic multicellular aggregates, adopting a structured, communal lifestyle that differs starkly from that of free-living, planktonic cells. Characterization of natural environments suggests that growth in dense aggregates is the primary lifestyle for most bacteria, and in recent years controlled laboratory studies have connected physiological behaviours that are well studied in liquid culture to communal behaviours in bacterial colonies. These increasingly common findings support the idea that many microbial behaviours are best understood in the context of dense aggregates. In this Review, we discuss biophysical studies of the growth and development of such aggregates. We aim to motivate joint experimental and theoretical investigation of the biological and physical underpinnings of communal behaviours within spatially structured bacterial communities.
Computational science, Microbial ecology
arXiv
Phonon-scattering-induced quantum linear magnetoresistance up to room temperature
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Nannan Tang, Shuai Li, Yanzhao Liu, Jiayi Yang, Huakun Zuo, Gangjian Jin, Yi Ji, Bing Shen, Dingyong Zhong, Donghui Guo, Qizhong Zhu, Zhongbo Yan, Haizhou Lu, Jian Wang, Huichao Wang
The realization of quantum transport effects at elevated temperatures has long intrigued researchers due to the implications for unveiling novel physics and developing quantum devices. In this work, we report remarkable quantum linear magnetoresistance (LMR) in the Weyl semiconductor tellurium at high temperatures of 40-300 K under strong magnetic fields up to 60 T. At high fields, the Weyl band features a large energy gap between the lowest and first Landau levels, which suppresses thermal excitation and preserves Landau quantization at high temperatures. The LMR is observed as long as majority carriers remain in the lowest Landau level without requiring monochromaticity, allowing it to persist up to room temperature. The inverse relationship between the LMR slope and temperature provides clear evidence that quantum LMR originates from high-temperature phonon scattering in the quantum limit, firstly demonstrating a theoretical prediction made nearly fifty years ago. This study highlights the key role of electron-phonon interaction and reveals an innovative quantum mechanism for achieving high-temperature LMR, fundamentally distinct from previous findings. Our results bridge a gap in the understanding of phonon-mediated quantum-limit physics and establish strong magnetic fields at high temperatures as a promising platform for exploring novel quantum phenomena.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Floquet-engineered moire quasicrystal patterns of ultracold atoms in twisted bilayer optical lattices
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Zhenze Fan, Meiling Wang, Juan Wang, Yan Li
We obtain moire quasicrystal patterns via Floquet-engineering intralayer-atomic interactions in twisted bilayer hexagonal optical lattices of ultracold atoms. By tracking the density wave amplitude, we partition the dynamical evolution into four distinct stages and verify the pattern changes of each stage in both real and momentum space. The spatial symmetry of the patterns is intimately tied to the modulation amplitudes and frequencies. Consequently, appropriately reducing the modulation frequency and increasing the amplitude will facilitate lattice symmetry breaking and the subsequent emergence of rotational symmetry. Most notably, at specific parameters, a twelve-fold (D12) moire quasicrystal pattern emerges which closely resembles that observed in twisted bilayer graphene. The momentum-space patterns likewise exhibit pronounced rotational symmetry, with those in real space showing good agreement at specific instants. The patterns obtained exhibit remarkable sensitivity to the modulation frequency, suggesting that this frequency-dependent pattern formation could be exploited for quantum precision measurement. Our findings introduce a new paradigm for investigating the quasicrystals and their associated symmetries in ultracold atomic system.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
7 pages, 6 figures
Unconventional superconducting correlations in fermionic many-body scars
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Kiryl Pakrouski, K. V. Samokhin
Weak ergodicity breaking in interacting quantum systems may occur due to the existence of a subspace dynamically decoupled from the rest of the Hilbert space. In two-orbital spinful lattice systems, we construct such subspaces that are in addition distinguished by strongest inter-orbital and spin-singlet or spin-triplet, long-range superconducting pairing correlations. All unconventional pairing types we consider are local in space and unitary. Alternatively to orbitals, the additional degree of freedom could originate from the presence of two layers or through any other mechanism. Required Hamiltonians are rather non-exotic and include chemical potential, Hubbard, and spin-orbit interactions typically used for two-orbital superconducting materials. Each subspace is spanned by a family of group-invariant quantum many-body scars combining both 2e and 4e pairing/clustering contributions. One of the basis states has the form of a BCS wavefunction and can always be made the ground state by adding a mean-field pairing potential. Analytical results in this work are lattice-, dimension- and (mostly) system size-independent. We confirm them by exact numerical diagonalization in small systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
Charge density wave induced gapped nodal line
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Sergey Alekseev, Lei Chen, Jennifer Cano
We investigate the interplay between charge density wave (CDW) order and topological nodal-line states in square-net materials. Our Ginzburg-Landau theory predicts a CDW instability that generically opens a gap at the Fermi energy while preserving the nodal line crossing. However, as the Fermi level approaches the nodal line, the density of states at the nodal line decreases, eventually disappearing as the CDW vector $ \mathbf{Q}$ goes to zero. Exactly at $ \mathbf{Q} = 0$ , the order parameter explicitly breaks the glide symmetry protecting the nodal line, which allows a gap to open. Yet, for small but finite $ \mathbf{Q}$ , the nodal line may vanish within experimental resolution even when the glide symmetry is preserved. Our results provide a consistent explanation for recent experimental observations.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
13 pages, 9 figures
Displacement-Field-Driven Transition between Superconductivity and Valley Ferromagnetism in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Recent experiments have observed transitions between superconductivity and correlated magnetism in twisted bilayer WSe$ _2$ near van-Hove fillings, driven by the displacement field $ D$ . Motivated by the experiment, we theoretically propose a general mechanism for a $ D$ -controlled transition between superconductivity and ferromagnetism in two-dimensional (2D) spin-orbit-coupled hexagonal systems, where van Hove singularities (VHS) lie on the Fermi level. We show that such a transition can be naturally captured by a simple VHS-only model without Fermi surface details, where the inter-VHS interactions that govern the Fermi surface instabilities is controlled by $ D$ through the band projection of screened Coulomb interaction. By treating this simple model with renormalization group technique beyond mean-field level, we find that a chiral $ d/p$ -wave superconductivity naturally dominates under a weak displacement field $ D<D_c$ . At a stronger displacement field $ D>D_c$ , a \textit{valley ferromagnetic phase} (vFM) takes over, which is spatially non-uniform due to valley-modulated magnetization. Finally, we discuss generic conditions for the predicted superconductivity-to-ferromagnetism transition to take place in the rich family of few-layer hexagonal van der Waals material systems. Taking twisted bilayer WSe$ _2$ as a case study, we discuss experimental detections that can falsify our prediction.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
8 pages, 4 figures
Exact models of chiral flat-band superconductors
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Zhaoyu Han, Jonah Herzog-Arbeitman, Qiang Gao, Eslam Khalaf
Recent experiments have reported the surprising observation of superconductivity in flavor polarized, nearly flat bands (FBs) of rhombohedral graphene. Motivated by these findings, we introduce a class of models for single-flavor FBs with inversion symmetry, where we show a local attractive interaction between orbitals with opposite parities leads to an exact superconducting ground state. We argue that this model can be relevant to realistic multi-flavor systems including short-range repulsion, since the main effect of such repulsion is to induce flavor polarization leaving possibly attractive residual interaction between different flavorless orbitals. The nature of the pairing is determined by the interplay between the FB quantum geometry and the interaction, and is often topological when the parent FB is so. Interestingly, each such model has two nearly degenerate pairing modes, whose energetic competition can be tuned by a change in the charge transfer gap between the two orbitals or electron density. These modes have the same angular momentum but different pairing amplitude structure and possibly different topology. We show that the superfluid stiffness is proportional to the attractive interaction scale using a combination of analytical variational upper bounds and numerical bootstrap lower bounds. We find empirically that the maximum superfluid stiffness is achieved when the hot spots of quantum geometry in the Brillouin zone are marginally filled.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Anyon polarons as a window into the competing phases of the Kitaev-Gamma-Gamma’ model
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Chuan Chen, Inti Sodemann Villadiego
We investigate the dispersions of anyon quasi-particles in the Kitaev honeycomb spin-liquid perturbed by $ \Gamma$ and $ \Gamma’$ couplings in order to understand phase transitions into competing states through anyon gap-closing instabilities. We demonstrate how anyon gap closings allow to understand phase transitions into a plethora of previously identified competing phases – including zigzag, stripy, $ 120^\circ$ , and incommensurate spiral phases – and are in agreement with numerical studies not only on the nature of the phases, but also on the specific critical values of $ \Gamma$ and $ \Gamma’$ couplings. Remarkably, when the anti-ferromagnetic Kitaev model is perturbed by an ferromagnetic $ \Gamma$ interaction, we find that the single-vison and fermion gaps remain open while the gap of a magnon-like local boson vanishes, implying that the resulting state has coexistence of a spontaneous broken symmetry and the fractionalization pattern of the Kitaev spin liquid. The magnetic long-range order could be either a stripy antiferromagnet or an incommensurate spiral, depending on the sign of $ \Gamma’$ .
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
15+4 pages, 13 figures
Nonperturbative Semiclassical Spin Dynamics for Ordered Quantum Magnets
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Hao Zhang, Tianyue Huang, Allen O. Scheie, Mengze Zhu, Tao Xie, N. Murai, S. Ohira-Kawamura, Andrey Zheludev, Andreas M. Läuchli, Cristian D. Batista
In ordered quantum magnets where interactions between elementary excitations dominate over their kinetic energy, perturbative approaches often fail, making non-perturbative methods essential to capture spectral features such as bound states and the redistribution of weight within excitation continua. Although an increasing number of experiments report anomalous spin excitation continua in such systems, their microscopic interpretation remains an open challenge. Here, we investigate the spin dynamics of the triangular-lattice antiferromagnet in its 1/3-plateau phase using two complementary non-perturbative approaches: exact diagonalization in a truncated Hilbert space for a gas of elementary excitations (THED) and matrix product state (MPS) simulations. Alongside cross-validation between these methods, we benchmark our results against inelastic neutron scattering (INS) data. The THED analysis confirms the presence of two-magnon bound states and identifies the anomalous scattering continuum observed in both MPS and INS as a two-magnon resonance, arising from hybridization between the bound state and the two-magnon continuum. Furthermore, THED reveals bound states overlapping with the continuum, enriching the interpretation of continuum anomalies. More broadly, THED provides a robust framework for investigating anomalous spin excitation continua and bound-state effects in other materials with gapped spectra. Its combination of accuracy and computational efficiency makes it a powerful tool for extracting reliable microscopic models in semiclassical regimes.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
9 + 14 pages, 5 + 12 figures
DNA Dynamics in Dual Nanopore Tug-of-War
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Zezhou Liu, Wangwei Dong, Thomas St-Denis, Matheus Azevedo Silva Pessôa, Sajad Shiekh, Preethi Ravikumar, Walter Reisner
Solid state nanopores have emerged as powerful tools for single-molecule sensing, yet the rapid uncontrolled translocation of the molecule through the pore remains a key limitation. We have previously demonstrated that an active dual-nanopore system, consisting of two closely spaced pores operated via feedback controlled biasing, shows promise in achieving controlled, slowed-down translocation. Translocation control is achieved via capturing the DNA in a special tug-of-war configuration, whereby opposing electrophoretic forces at each pore are applied to a DNA molecule co-captured at the two pores. Here, we systematically explore translocation physics during DNA tug-of-war focusing on genomically relevant longer dsDNA using a T$ _4$ -DNA model (166,kbp). We find that longer molecules can be trapped in tug-of-war states with an asymmetric partitioning of contour between the pores. Secondly, we explore the physics of DNA disengagement from a tug-of-war configuration, focusing on the dynamics of DNA free-end escape, in particular how the free-end velocity depends on pore voltage, DNA size and the presence of additional DNA strands between the pores (i.e. arising in the presence of folded translocation). These findings validate theoretical predictions derived from a first passage model and provide new insight into the physical mechanisms governing molecule disengagement in tug-of-war.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
Jetting with gels: Soft microgel networks stabilize and extend nozzle-free water jets
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Atieh Razavi, Mehrzad Roudini, Andreas Winkler, Benno Liebchen, Regine von Klitzing, Suvendu Mandal, Amin Rahimzadeh
The stability of high-speed liquid jets is crucial for applications ranging from precision printing to needle-free drug delivery, yet it is fundamentally limited by capillary-driven breakup. A common strategy to stabilize jets is to use surfactants to lower surface tension. However, in nozzle-free jetting driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs), extreme deformation rates cause conventional surfactants to desorb, calling for alternative strategies to stabilize jets. In particular, we find that tuning the nanoscale softness of PNIPAM microgels provides a robust, biocompatible strategy to overcome this limitation. Soft, low-cross-linker-density microgels form elastic interfacial networks at the air-water interface that suppress surface tension recovery, delay Rayleigh-Plateau instabilities, and extend SAW-driven jet lengths by up to 44%. In contrast, stiffer microgels lose network cohesion under strain, leading to rapid jet breakup. To gain molecular-level insights, we perform dissipative particle dynamics simulations, which reveal that polymer bridges in soft microgels remain entangled during elongation, maintaining a reduced effective surface tension. Finally, a simple scaling analysis, balancing the SAW-driven kinetic energy imparted to the droplet against the surface energy required to form a jet, quantitatively predicts the observed length enhancement. This surfactant-free, biocompatible approach lays the foundation for long-lived jets, enabling precision needle-free drug delivery, high-speed printing, and other high-strain interfacial flow applications.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
14 pages and 6 figures
The crystalline properties of silica biomorphs vary within and between morphologies
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Moritz P. K. Frewein, Britta Maier, Moritz L. Stammer, Isabella Silva-Barreto, Anastasiia Sadetskaia, Asma Medjahed, Remi Tucoulou, Manfred Burghammer, Henrik Birkedal, Tilman A. Grünewald
Silica-carbonate biomorphs are a class of emergent materials, i.e. composite microstructures made of nanometric carbonate crystallites surrounded by amorphous silica. They form via a co-precipitation process in an interplay between alkaline earth metal carbonate and siliceous species, and self-organize into a multitude of shapes with a distinct long-range order of the carbonate nanocrystals. Biomorphs are frequently studied to understand the formation of life-like structures emerging from geochemical processes at extreme conditions. Further, due to their optical properties they lend themselves as a platform for optical, electronic or magnetic functionalization. A big hurdle in this task is our incomplete understanding of the underlying formation process and how the interplay between synthesis parameters affects important nanoscale properties such as crystalline structure and texture, as well as the shape on the microscale. Here, we use X-ray texture and diffraction tomography to unveil the local crystalline texture in 3D of silica-witherite biomorphs. We find surprisingly different growth motifs across different morphologies, but also that the crystalline properties vary significantly within a single structure. We distinguish different growth regimes and from that, infer how the co-precipitating silica shapes the crystalline particles. Thereby, we gain deeper insight into how biomorphs form these distinct complex morphologies.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Simulation of Radiation Damage on [M(COD)Cl]$_2$ using Density Functional Theory
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Nathalie K. Fernando, Nayera Ahmed, Katherine Milton, Claire A. Murray, Anna Regoutz, Laura E. Ratcliff
Theoretical calculations of materials have in recent years shown promise in facilitating the analysis of convoluted experimental data. This is particularly invaluable in complex systems or for materials subject to certain environmental conditions, such as those exposed to X-ray radiation during routine characterisation. Despite the clear benefit in this use case to shed further light on intermolecular damage processes, the use of theory to study radiation damage of samples is still not commonplace, with very few studies in existing literature. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of density functional theory for modelling the electronic structure of two industrially important organometallic systems of the formula [M(COD)Cl]$ _2$ where M=Ir/Rh and COD=1,5-cyclooctadiene, which are subject to X-ray irradiation via X-ray Diffraction and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. Our approach allows calculated spectra to be compared directly to experimental data, in this case, the X-ray photoelectron valence band spectra, enabling the valuable correlation of individual atomic states to the electronic structure.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
X-ray diffraction strains in laser-ablated aluminum, nickel, sodium and Invar: pressures to 475 GPa
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Dynamically compressed materials in longitudinal waves are described by two physical models: hydrostatic pressure, with equal, normal, principal stresses or material uniaxially strained in the wave propagation direction. These models are disparate, so experimental comparisons and evaluations are important. Polycrystalline material in a state of hydrostatic pressure, will have no eccentricity of X-ray diffracted Debye-Scherrer rings. A general three-dimensional solution of Bragg diffracted X-rays based on principal crystallographic strains in the compression wave was found. The distortion of X-ray diffraction beams has been used for strain measurements; the analysis developed incorporates a strained reciprocal lattice and the incident X-ray beam. Strain distorted Polanyi surfaces form an annulus of compression with an ellipsoid of revolution in reciprocal space which is intersected by Ewald sphere for Bragg diffraction. The in-situ measurements for strain describe nanosecond diffraction evaluated using two planes, and both in the same crystallographic phase. Diffraction from Al, Ni, Na, and Invar quantify the compression axial strains in these materials: the compression axial ratios are 0.65, 1.05, 0.88 and 1.58 at pressures of 291, 402, 409, and 367 GPa for the respective materials. Crystal structure transformations with homogeneous pressurized stresses, mandating equal normal strains, should not be anticipated to agree with heterogeneous, uniaxially strained and sheared crystalline phases. Measurements support in-plane strains increasing with pressure, p, in fcc and hcp aluminum as with p in GPa.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
23 pages with 6 figures
Fracture of disordered and stochastic lattice materials
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Sage Fulco, Prashant K. Purohit, Michal K. Budzik, Kevin T. Turner
The failure of mechanical metamaterials is a function of the interplay between the properties of the base material and the microstructural geometry. Stochastic failure properties of the base material and disordered microstructural geometries can contribute to variations in the global failure mechanics that are not captured in traditional analyses of ordered, deterministic architected materials. We present a probabilistic framework that couples stochastic material failure and geometric disorder to predict failure in lattice mechanical metamaterials. These predictions are verified through finite element analysis, which confirm that disorder and stochasticity affect both the mean and variance of the damage initiation load in a lattice, with average failure loads being generally reduced and variance increasing with higher levels of disorder and stochasticity. The fracto-cohesive length and representative volume element size are also predicted and constrain the minimum defect and lattice sizes, respectively, for failure to be considered a fracture process. The framework is extended to consider the fracture behavior of the lattice, the development of damage zones, and their impact on the steady-state fracture toughness.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Anharmonic Collective Oscillations in Isotropic Spin Systems and their Spectroscopic Signatures
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Anna Fancelli, Matías G. Gonzalez, Subhankar Khatua, Bella Lake, Michel J. P. Gingras, Jeffrey G. Rau, Johannes Reuther
Spin waves are the fundamental excitations in magnetically ordered spin systems and are ubiquitously observed in magnetic materials. However, the standard understanding of spin waves as collective spin oscillations in an effective harmonic potential does not consider the possibility of soft modes, such as those due to an effective quartic potential. In this work, we show that such quartic potentials arise under very general conditions in a broad class of isotropic spin systems without a fine-tuning of the interaction parameters. Considering models with spin spiral ground states in two and three spatial dimensions, we numerically demonstrate that quartic amplitude spin oscillations produce a fluctuation-induced spin-wave gap which grows with temperature according to a characteristic power-law. In conjunction with a phenomenological theory, the present work provides a general theoretical framework for describing soft spin modes, extending the previously discussed spin dynamics in the presence of order-by-disorder, and highlighting the important role of finite-size effects. Our predictions of a temperature-dependent gap in spiral spin systems could be tested in inelastic neutron scattering experiments, providing direct spectroscopic evidence for thermal effects arising from soft spin modes in magnetic materials.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Exploring Co, Fe, and Ni Reference Layers for Single-Pulse All-Optical Reversal in Ferromagnetic Spin Valves
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Jun-Xiao Lin, Yann Le Guen, Julius Hohlfeld, Jon Gorchon, Grégory Malinowski, Stéphane Mangin, Daniel Lacour, Thomas Hauet, Michel Hehn
We investigate the magnetization reversal process induced by a single femtosecond laser pulse in ferromagnetic spin valves by systematically comparing reference layers composed of pure Co, Ni, and Fe. To circumvent the loss of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy associated with changes in reference layer material and thickness, we design spin valves with in plane magnetizations. While antiparallel to parallel switching is observed for all three elements, parallel to antiparallel switching occurs only with a Co reference layer and is absent with Ni and Fe. This difference is attributed to the distinct ultrafast magnetization dynamics of the reference materials. Our results support the hypothesis that parallel to antiparallel switching requires a rapid remagnetization of the reference layer, which generates a substantial negative spin current polarized opposite to the free layer magnetization an essential condition for triggering its reversal.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
14 pages, 4 figures
Rigid muffin-tin approximation in plane-wave codes for fast modeling of phonon-mediated superconductors
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Danylo Radevych, Tatsuya Shishidou, Michael Weinert, Elena R. Margine, Aleksey N. Kolmogorov, Igor I. Mazin
We present a pseudopotential-based plane-wave implementation of the rigid muffin-tin approximation (RMTA), offering a computationally efficient alternative to its traditional use in all-electron codes. This approach enables the evaluation of angular-momentum-resolved electron-phonon matrix elements and McMillan-Hopfield parameters of not only elemental transition metals but also their compounds. The results are benchmarked against full-potential linearized augmented plane wave calculations, showing excellent agreement. We further outline a practical route to extract atom- and symmetry-type-resolved electron-phonon coupling constants. By enabling the use of RMTA descriptors within high-throughput workflows, this framework significantly lowers the computational cost of screening candidate superconductors, providing a valuable tool for materials discovery.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Correlation tuned Fermi-arc topology in a Weyl ferromagnet
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yiran Peng, Rui Liu, Pengyu Zheng, Zhiping Yin
Electrons on Fermi arcs (FAs), a hallmark of Weyl semimetals, exhibit chiral transport harboring chiral anomaly, negative magnetoresistance, and Majorana zero modes. While FAs were observed in exemplary Weyl semimetal TaAs and Co3Sn2S2, the manipulation of FAs has been rarely explored. Here we take Co3Sn2S2 as an example and demonstrate that tuning the electronic correlation strength is an effective way to control the topology and connectivity of FAs. After achieving a good agreement with experimentally measured band structure by employing combined density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT) calculations, we show that the experimental charge dynamics are well reproduced by DFT+DMFT calculations but not DFT calculations. Electronic correlation renormalizes the bands around the Fermi level and modifies the energy and location of Weyl points, and the resulting FAs. In particular, on the Co-terminated surface, the FAs are formed by connecting Weyl points located in adjacent Brillouin zones in DFT+DMFT calculations and experiments, in strong contrast to the FAs connecting Weyl points within the same Brillouin zone in DFT calculations. We further show the evolution of FAs with correlation and reveal a topological change of the FAs on the Sn-terminated surface at stronger correlation strength. Our study sheds new light on experimental manipulation of FAs to improve the electronic properties of correlated Weyl semimetals.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Critical photoinduced reflectivity relaxation dynamics in single-layer Bi-based cuprates near the pseudogap end point
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
T. Shimizu, R. Tobise, T. Kurosawa, S. Tsuchiya, M. Oda, Y. Toda, V. V. Kabanov, D. Mihailovic, T. Mertelj
A comprehensive study of photoinduced transient reflectivity dynamics in heavily overdoped single-layer cuprate (Bi,Pb)$ _{2}$ Sr$ {2}$ CuO$ {6+\delta}$ (Pb-Bi2201), across the end points of the pseudogap and superconducting phases, has been conducted using optical ultrafast time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy. In the Pb-Bi2201 just before reaching the pseudogap end point, the transient reflectivity dynamics above $ T{\rm c}$ resemble the pseudogap response observed in optimally doped La-Bi2201. At low temperatures, however, the relaxation time exhibits a power-law divergence, $ \tau\sim10\hbar/k{\mathrm{B}}T$ , signaling quantum critical behavior at the pseudogap end point doping. A similar power-law increase in relaxation time is also observed in Pb-Bi2201 just beyond the pseudogap doping end point, though it is less pronounced.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Experimental realization of dice-lattice flat band at the Fermi level in layered electride YCl
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Songyuan Geng, Xin Wang, Risi Guo, Chen Qiu, Fangjie Chen, Qun Wang, Kangjie Li, Peipei Hao, Hanpu Liang, Yang Huang, Yunbo Wu, Shengtao Cui, Zhe Sun, Timur K. Kim, Cephise Cacho, Daniel S. Dessau, Benjamin T. Zhou, Haoxiang Li
Flat electronic bands, where interactions among electrons overwhelm their kinetic energies, hold the promise for exotic correlation physics. The dice lattice has long been theorized as a host of flat bands with intriguing band topology. However, to date, no material has ever been found to host the characteristic flat bands of a dice lattice. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we discover a dice-lattice flat band at $ E_F$ in the van der Waals (vdW) electride [YCl]$ ^{2+}$ : 2e-. In this system, excess valence electrons from Y deconfine from the cation framework to form an interstitial anionic electron lattice that constitutes the dice lattice. Our ARPES measurements unambiguously identify two sets of dice-lattice bands in YCl, including a nearly dispersionless band at the Fermi level. The flat bands and other dispersive bands observed in ARPES find excellent agreement with first-principles calculations, and theoretical analysis reveals that the near-$ E_F$ electronic structure is well captured by a simple dice-lattice model. Our findings thus end the long quest of a real dice flat band material and establish vdW electride YCl as a prototype of dice metals. Our results further demonstrate the anionic electron lattice as a novel scheme for realizing lattice geometries and electronic structures rare to find in conventional crystalline systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Understanding the atomically precise evolution of the miscibility of newly prepared face-centered cubic W-Cu nanoalloys and its asymmetry
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yongxin Zhang, Weihan Zhang, Luneng Zhao, Zixiang Zhao, Siqi Lu, Yangrui Liu, Dongsheng Song, Changzheng Wei, Zhentao Pang, Yifeng Ren, Junfeng Gao, Weiwei Gao, Di Wu, Jijun Zhao, Kuo-Juei Hu, Wei Ji, Yu Deng, Binghui Ge, Fengqi Song
According to classical Miedema theory, reducing crystals to the order of nanometer sizes might greatly modulate the mixing enthalpy of elements, thus enabling the invention of a lot of new bulk-immiscible alloys. Although numerous alloys with higher mixing enthalpies remain unexplored, this strategy is approaching its limit, as reflected by the critical diameter of recent alloys of 1.8 nm, which corresponds to 150 atoms and hardly provides a crystalline order. Future development requires not only even smaller atomic-scale control but also a new surface energy-saving mechanism. Here, we report the formation of W-Cu nanoalloys with a very large miscibility gap in the bulk via the use of an atomically size-selected cluster beam source as an example. The face-centered cubic (FCC) structure was demonstrated through electron diffraction, which indicated a lattice constant of 3.88Å for W0.85Cu0.15 nanoalloys (2280 atoms). In this comprehensive study that covers a large parameter space of W/Cu compositions and numbers of atoms, an asymmetric miscibility nanophase diagram in which W-rich compositions favor mixing and the critical size is approximately 6000 atoms, which far exceeds the approximately tens of atoms predicted via classical theory, was obtained for the first time. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed a mutual strain-induced mechanism that simultaneously lowers the surface energies while reducing the size to the atomic scale. This approach paves the way for the development of new high-performance nonequilibrium phase alloys.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Electronic correlations in magnetized helical edge states coupled to s-wave superconductors
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Zeinab Bakhshipour, Mir Vahid Hosseini
We theoretically study the role of electron-electron interactions in one-dimensional magnetized helical states coupled to an s-wave superconductor. We consider a partially mixed helical (superhelical) regime, where the magnetic field (superconductivity) has a dominant contribution. Using bosonization and renormalization group techniques, it is shown how the interactions affect the correlation functions in the system. In the partially mixed helical regime, we find that superconducting pairing promotes spin-density-wave correlations, while singlet and triplet pairing correlations suppress, especially under attractive interactions. In contrast, in the superhelical regime, a perturbative Zeeman field enhances both spin singlet and spin triplet-x pairings under repulsive interactions. We calculate both logarithmic and residual corrections to charge-density-wave, spin-density-wave, and pairing correlations, revealing short- and long-range behaviors. We further investigate spin transport properties supplemented by a renormalization group analysis of the temperature and frequency dependence of spin conductivity. We also analyze the transport of momentum-spin-locked carriers in the presence of Zeeman-induced and pairing-induced gaps, uncovering the effect of interactions and the interplay between the two gaps in helical systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
18 pages, 9 figures
Nonlinear refrigerator with a finite-sized cold heat bath
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
I. Iyyappan, Yuki Izumida, Sibasish Ghosh
We study the refrigerator working between a finite-sized cold heat bath and an infinite-sized hot heat bath (environment) in the nonlinear response regime. We assume that the initial temperature $ T_i$ of the finite-sized cold heat bath satisfies $ T_i\leq T_h$ , where $ T_h$ is the temperature of the hot heat bath. By consuming the input power, the refrigerator transfers the heat from a finite-sized cold heat bath to the hot heat bath. Hence, the temperature of the finite-sized cold heat bath decreases until it reaches the desired low-temperature $ T_f$ . By minimizing the input work for the heat transport process, we derive the optimal path for temperature change. We calculate the coefficient of performance as a function of average input power. We also obtain the bounds for the coefficient of performance by applying the asymmetric dissipation limits.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
Quantum Monte Carlo Benchmarking of Molecular Adsorption on Graphene-Supported Single Pt Atom
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Jeonghwan Ahn, Iuegyun Hong, Gwangyoung Lee, Hyeondeok Shin, Anouar Benali, Yongkyung Kwon
The precise understanding of adsorption energetics and molecular geometry at catalytic sites is fundamental for advancing catalysis, particularly under the constraints of resource efficiency and environmental sustainability. This study benchmarks the performance of density functional theory (DFT) calculations against diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) calculations for adsorption properties of small gas molecules relevant to CO oxidation – namely O$ _2$ , CO, CO$ _2$ , and atomic oxygen – on a single Pt atom supported by pristine graphene. Our findings reveal that DMC calculations provide a significantly different landscape of adsorption energetics compared to DFT results. Notably, DFT predicts different lowest-energy configurations and spin states, particularly for O$ _2$ , which suggests potential discrepancies in predicting the catalytic behavior. Furthermore, this study identifies the critical issue of CO poisoning, highlighted by the large disparity between the DMC adsorption energies of O$ _2$ ($ -1.23(2)$ eV) and CO ($ -3.37(1)$ eV), which can inhibit the catalytic process. These results emphasize the necessity for more sophisticated computational approaches in catalysis research, aiming to refine the prediction accuracy of reaction mechanisms and to enhance the design of more effective catalysts.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Edge dependent Josephson Diode effect in WTe$_{2}$-Based Josephson junction
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Guo-Liang Guo, Xiao-Hong Pan, Hao Dong, Xin Liu
The Josephson diode effect (JDE), a nonreciprocal supercurrent, is a cornerstone for future dissipationless electronics, yet achieving high efficiency in a simple device architecture remains a significant challenge. Here, we theoretically investigate the JDE in a junction based on monolayer 1T’-WTe$ _2$ . We first establish that different edge terminations of a WTe$ _2$ nanoribbon lead to diverse electronic band structures, some of which host asymmetric edge states even with crystallographically equivalent terminations. This intrinsic asymmetry provides a natural platform for realizing the JDE. With a WTe$ _2$ -based Josephson junction, we demonstrate a significant JDE arising purely from these asymmetric edges when time-reversal symmetry is broken by a magnetic flux. While the efficiency of this edge-state-driven JDE is inherently limited, we discover a crucial mechanism for its enhancement: by tuning the chemical potential into the bulk bands, the interplay between edge and bulk transport channels boosts the maximum diode efficiency more than $ 50%$ . Furthermore, we show that this enhanced JDE is robust against moderate edge disorder. Our findings not only propose a novel route to achieve a highly efficient JDE using intrinsic material properties but also highlight the potential of engineered WTe$ _2$ systems for developing advanced superconducting quantum devices.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Tunable Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at the Interfaces of Ferroelectric Potassium Tantalate Niobates
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Jiaxin Lv, Silan Li, Chenhao Duan, Shuanhu Wang, Hong Yan, Kexin Jin
The heterointerfaces at complex oxides have emerged as a promising platform for discovering novel physical phenomena and advancing integrated sensing, storage, and computing technologies. Nevertheless, achieving precise control over a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a ferroelectric oxide-based field-effect transistor (FET) configuration remains challenging. Here, we firstly demonstrate a tunable 2DEG system fabricated by depositing an amorphous LaAlO3(LAO) film onto a (001)-oriented ferroelectric potassium tantalate niobate substrate. Interfaces grown under high-temperature and high-oxygen-pressure conditions exhibit a good metallic conduction. Notably, well-defined metallic 2DEGs displaying pronounced hysteresis and persistent electric-field-modulated resistance are observed below 108 K, achieving a resistance modulation of 11.6% at 7 K. These results underscore the potential for extending such behavior to other oxide-based 2DEG systems and facilitate further exploration of ferroelectric metals in complex oxide heterostructures.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Computational study of Adhesion and Friction Behavior of Crosslinked Polymer Network
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Ajay Kumar, Manoj Kumar Maurya, Manjesh K. Singh
In this study, we have utilized a molecular dynamics simulation approach to understand adhesion and friction behaviour of crosslinked polymer networks. We have used breakable quartic bond to model crosslinked polymers. We explored the structural characteristics and evaluated the coefficient of friction (CoF) as a function of crosslinked monomer fraction (cross-linking bond density) in four-fold cross-linked polymer networks. To estimate CoF, a rigid indenter was inserted to different depths of indentation. Subsequently a constant sliding speed was applied while keeping the depths of indentation fixed. Normal and friction forces were calculated at each depth to estimate CoF through a linear curve-fitting. For adhesion studies, using the force vs. displacement curve we quantified adhesion through the forces during the separation of rigid indenter from surface of crosslinked polymeric materials while unloading after indentation into the sample. The results indicate that as the fraction of crosslinked monomers increases, the stiffness of the crosslinked network increases, while the force of adhesion and CoF decrease. Additionally, increasing the depth of indentation during friction leads to higher frictional forces.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
10 pages, 5 figures, supporting information
Out-of-time ordered correlation functions for the localized $f$ electrons in the Falicov-Kimball model
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
A. M. Shvaika, J. K. Freericks
We provide an exact evaluation of the out-of-time correlation (OTOC) functions for the localized $ f$ -particle states in the Falicov-Kimball model within dynamical mean-field theory. Different regimes of quantum chaos and quantum scrambling are distinguished by the winding numbers of the block Toeplitz matrices used in the calculation. The similarities of these fermionic OTOCs and their Lyapunov exponents for time evolution with the OTOCs for quantum spin models with disorder are also discussed.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
13 pages, 12 figures
Determination of ground states of one-dimensional quantum systems using the cluster iTEBD method
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Tao Yang, Rui Wang, Z. Y. Xie, Baigeng Wang
Within the framework of imaginary-time evolution for matrix product states, we introduce a cluster version of the infinite time-evolving block decimation algorithm for simulating quantum many-body systems, addressing the computational accuracy challenges in strongly correlated physics. By redefining the wave-function ansatz to incorporate multiple physical degrees of freedom, we enhance the representation of entanglement, thereby improving the accuracy of the ground states. Utilizing the Trotter-Suzuki decomposition and optimized truncation schemes, our method maintains roughly the same computational complexity while capturing more quantum correlations. We apply this approach to three nontrivial cases: the gapless spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, the spin-1 anisotropic XXZD chain with a higher-order Gaussian-type phase transition, and a spin-1/2 twisted triangular prism hosting a magnetic plateau phase. Improved accuracy in physical quantities, such as magnetization, ground-state energy, and entanglement entropy, has been demonstrated. This method provides a scalable framework for studying complex quantum systems with high precision, making it suitable for situations where a pure increase in bond dimension alone cannot guarantee satisfactory results.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Phys. Rev. B 112, 085142(2025)
Fluctuation theorem and optimal control of an active tracking particle with information processing
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Living systems often function with regulatory interactions, but the question of how activity, stochasticity and regulations work together for achieving different goals still remains this http URL propose the model of an active tracking particle with information processing, based on which the entropy production, information flow, and generalised fluctuation theorem are this http URL, the system performance, in terms of the first passage steps and the total energy consumption, are analysed in the variable space of (measurement error, control field), leading to discussions on the optimal control of the this http URL only elucidating the basic concepts involved in a stochastic active system with information processing, this prototypical model could also inspire more elaborated modelings of natural smart organisms and industrial designs of controllable active systems with desired physical performances in the future.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
7 pages, 3 figures
Control of growth morphology of deposited fcc metals through tuning substrate-metal interactions
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Precise control over thin film morphology is critical for optimizing material properties across diverse technological applications, as the growth mode (whether 2D layer-by-layer or 3D island formation)determines key functional properties such as electrical conductivity in CMOS interconnect applications and catalytic activity, where island distribution and size dictate performance. To explore the role of the substrate on the morphology of deposited metals, we present extensive kinetic Monte Carlo simulations on six fcc metals growing in the (111) direction: Ag, Au, Cu, Ni, Pd and Pt. Our simulation framework enables screening and evaluation of their growth mode under homoepitaxial growth scenarios and proposes morphology control strategies by variation of substrate-metal interaction strengths, modeled by modifying the activation energies for upward and downward migration, combined with thermal vacuum annealing within typical back end of line (BEOL) integration thermal budget. Our simulation results demonstrate that modulation of the substrate interaction strength can be effectively employed to promote island formation or layer-by-layer growth modes overcoming limitations in achieving large flat surface areas. Au, Pd and Pt exhibit the highest sensitivity to substrate interaction strength variations, followed by Ag, showing that strongly interacting substrates decrease the root mean square (RMS) roughness, (uncovered) substrate exposure, island number and island aspect ratios, with moderate increases in flat surface areas and atomic coordination numbers. Additionally, interconnect relevant metrics are improved through thermal vacuum annealing particularly when sufficiently strong metal-substrate interactions are employed, reducing surface roughness, achieving larger flat surface areas, merging and smoothing islands, and decreasing defect density…
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
58 pages, 10 figures
Exploring the signature of two ferromagnetic states and goniopolarity in LaCrGe3 through Hall effect
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Modhumita Sariket, Najrul Islam, Saquib Shamim, Nitesh Kumar
LaCrGe3 has become a playground to understand quantum critical phenomena in ferromagnetic (FM) materials. It has also garnered attention due to its peculiar two FM phases. Here, we demonstrate the presence of these phases using the Hall effect. Continuous temperature-dependent Hall resistivity measurements at fixed magnetic fields clearly demonstrate the presence of these phases, regardless of the direction of the applied magnetic field. The remanent Hall resistivity and Hall coefficient undergo a maximum and a minimum, respectively, at the boundary between the two phases. We observe significantly large anomalous Hall conductivity of 1160 ohm-1cm-1 at 2 K when the magnetic field is applied along the magnetic easy axis, which is dominated by intrinsic effects, at least in the low-temperature FM phase. In the paramagnetic (PM) phase, hexagonal LaCrGe3 exhibits opposite charge carrier polarities along different crystallographic directions, attributed to the anisotropic Fermi surface geometry, a phenomenon known as “goniopolarity”. The coexistence of goniopolar transport and unconventional magnetic phases may lead this material as a promising candidate for future electronic devices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
8 pages, 5 figures
Chemical Control of Mechanical Anisotropy and Band Alignment in Perylene-based Two-dimensional MoS$_2$-Organic Hybrids
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Mohammed El Amine Miloudi, Oliver Kühn
This study presents a comprehensive investigation of hybrid interfaces formed by monolayer MoS$ _2$ coupled with the organic molecules perylene (P), perylene diimide (PDI), and perylene orange (PO). Using density functional theory, we demonstrate the extent to which the mechanical and electronic properties of a hybrid system can be altered by the chemical modification of a given chromophore. The three systems exhibit distinct differences due to their chemical composition and van der Waals contact enabled by their geometry. All systems are structurally stable. The binding energies follow the order PD$ >$ P$ >$ PO due to the large $ \pi$ -system (PD) and strong structural distortion (PO). Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio exhibit pronounced anisotropy in all cases. PO exhibits the greatest anisotropy due to steric effects and a permanent dipole, which introduce directionality to the molecule-surface interaction. Physisorption is accompanied by net charge transfer in the same order as the binding energies. The associated interfacial polarization results in a change in the work function compared to pristine MoS$ _2$ in the order P$ >$ PO$ >$ PD. Finally, the presence of organic molecules introduces states into the MoS$ _2$ energy gap, with the band alignment being either type II (P, PO) or type I (PD).
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Molecular Beam Epitaxy of 2H-TaS$_2$ few-layers on GaN(0001)
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Constantin Hilbrunner, Tobias Meyer, Joerg Malindretos, Angela Rizzi
2H-TaS$ _2$ few layers have been grown epitaxially onto GaN(0001). A high substrate growth temperature of 825$ ^{\circ}$ C induces best structural properties of the overlayer, as revealed by in-situ electron diffraction (RHEED and LEED). The 2D-overlayer grows unstrained right after deposition of a monolayer. However, evidence of pits at the interface is provided by scanning transmission electron microscopy, most probably due to GaN thermal decomposition at the high growth temperature. In-situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy shows core level shifts that are consistently related to electron transfer from the n-GaN(0001) to the 2H-TaS$ _2$ epitaxial layer as well as the formation of a high concentration of nitrogen vacancies close to the interface. Further, no chemical reaction at the interface between the substrate and the grown TaS$ _2$ overlayer is deduced from XPS, which corroborates the possibility of integration of 2D 2H-TaS$ _2$ with an important 3D semiconducting material like GaN.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Remote spin control in Haldane spin chains
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Y. del Castillo, A. Ferrón, J. Fernández-Rossier
We consider the remote manipulation of the quantum state of the edge fractional spins of Haldane spin chains using a weak local perturbation on the other edge. We derive an effective four-level model that correctly captures the response of the local magnetization to local perturbations and we use it to show that applying a small local field on one edge of the chain induces a strong variation of the magnetization on the opposite edge. Using a Landau-Zener protocol, we show how local control of the field on one edge of the chain, implemented for instance with a spin-polarized scanning tunnel microscope tip, can adiabatically switch the magnetization direction on the other side of the chain.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Measuring mutual friction in superfluids: the role of initial vortex configuration fluctuations
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Nicola Grani, Diego Hernández-Rajkov, Marcia Frómeta Fernández, Giulia Del Pace, Giacomo Roati
The physical origin of mutual friction in quantum fluids is deeply connected to the fundamental nature of superfluidity. It stems from the interaction between the superfluid and normal components, mediated by the dynamics of quantized vortices that induce the exchange of momentum and energy. Despite the complexity of these interactions, their essential features can be effectively described by the dissipative point vortex model, an extension of classical vortex dynamics that incorporates finite-temperature dissipation. Mutual friction is parametrized by the longitudinal (dissipative) coefficient $ \alpha$ and the transverse (reactive) coefficient $ \alpha’$ . Accurate measurement of these parameters provides critical insights into the microscopic mechanisms governing vortex motion and dissipation in quantum fluids, serving as a key benchmark for theoretical models. In this work, we employ the dissipative point vortex model to study how fluctuations in the initial conditions influence the inference of $ \alpha$ and $ \alpha’$ from the time evolution of the vortex trajectories. Using experimentally realistic parameters, we show that fluctuations can introduce significant biases in the extracted values of the mutual friction coefficients. We compare our findings with recent experimental measurements in strongly interacting atomic superfluids. Applying this analysis to our recent experimental results allowed us to account for fluctuations in the correct determination of $ \alpha$ and $ \alpha’$ .
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
Critical and quasicritical behavior in a three-species dynamical model of semi-directed percolation
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
We investigate a three-species dynamical model whose dynamics naturally generate the semi-directed percolation cluster and show a non-equilibrium absorbing state phase transition from an active to inactive state. The critical threshold and exponents associated with the dynamic process are determined using Monte Carlo simulations. Critical behavior observed shows that the model belongs to the directed percolation (DP) universality class. Further, we consider the effect of spontaneous activity generation in the dynamical model. While this destroys the usual critical behaviour, we find that the dynamic susceptibility shows a maximum at a specific value of the control parameter, indicating a quasi-critical behaviour, similar to the findings in the case of DP models and DP-inspired models of neuronal activity with spontaneous activity generation. Interestingly, in the presence of spontaneous activity, we find that spatial and temporal correlations exhibit power-law decays at a value of the control parameter different from the quasi-critical threshold indicating that there are two effective thresholds in such a case, one where the response function is maximum and another where the spatial and temporal correlations show scale free behaviour.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
19 pages, 13 figures
Tapping-mode SQUID-on-tip Microscopy with Proximity Josephson Junctions
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Matthijs Rog, Tycho J. Blom, Daan B. Boltje, Jimi D. de Haan, Remko Fermin, Jiasen Niu, Yasmin C. Doedes, Milan P. Allan, Kaveh Lahabi
Studying nanoscale dynamics is essential for understanding quantum materials and advancing quantum chip manufacturing. Still, it remains a major challenge to measure non-equilibrium properties such as current and dissipation, and their relation to structure. Scanning nanoprobes utilizing superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are uniquely suited here, due to their unparalleled magnetic and thermal sensitivity. Here, we introduce tapping-mode SQUID-on-tip, which combines atomic force microscopy (AFM) with nanoSQUID sensing. Our probes minimize nanoSQUID-sample distance, provide in-plane magnetic sensitivity, and operate without lasers. Frequency multiplexing enables simultaneous imaging of currents, magnetism, dissipation and topography. The large voltage output of our proximity-junction nanoSQUIDs allows us to resolve nanoscale currents as small as 100 nA using a simple four-probe electronic readout without cryogenic amplification. By capturing local magnetic, thermal, and electronic response without external radiation, our technique offers a powerful non-invasive route to study dynamic phenomena in exotic materials and delicate quantum circuits.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
16 pages, 4 figures
Approximate calculation of multidimensional first passage times
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
The general, multidimensional barrier crossing problem for diffusive processes under the action of conservative forces is studied with the goal of developing tractable approximations. Particular attention is given to the effect of different statistical interpretations of the stochastic differential equation and to the relation between the approximations and the known, exact solutions to the one-dimensional problem. Beginning with a reasonable, but heuristic, simplifying assumption, a one-dimensional solution to the problem is developed. This is then simplified by introducing further approximations resulting in a sequence of increasingly simple expressions culminating in the classic result of Langer(Ann. Phys. 54, 258 (1969)) and others. The various approximations are tested on two dimensional problems by comparison to simulation results and it is found that the one-dimensional approximations capture most of the non-Arrhenius dependence on the energy barrier which is lost in the Langer approximation while still converging to the latter in the large-barrier limit.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
Probing microscopic dynamics in a uni-axially strained polymer network
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
N. H. P. Orr, G. Prevot, T. Phou, L. Cipelletti
We present a new apparatus that probes simultaneously the macroscopic mechanical response and the microscopic motion in polymer networks under uni-axial strain. The setup leverages photon correlation imaging, a space- and time-resolved dynamic light scattering method, to measure the dynamics along three orthogonal directions and on two distinct length scales, from tens of nanometers to a couple of microns. We show how to avoid artifacts due to scattering from the surface of the polymer films and derive a theoretical expression for the intensity correlation function due to a purely affine deformation, showing that the setup sensitivity may be simply tuned by varying the acceptance angle of the collection optics. Finally, we demonstrate the capabilities of the setup by investigating the microscopic dynamics of a poly(dimethylsiloxne) polymer network under tensile strain in the linear regime. We find that non-affine dynamics dominate on length scales smaller than a few microns, above which the affine response is recovered. Surprisingly, the cross-over length separating the non-affine and affine regimes \textit{increases} upon decreasing the applied tensile strain.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
11 pages, 5 figures
Magneto-Excitonic Duality From Monolayer to Trilayer CrSBr
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Igor Antoniazzi, Łucja Kipczak, Bruno Camargo, Gayatri, Chinmay Mohanty, Kseniia Mosina, Zdeněk Sofer, Adam Babiński, Arka Karmakar, Maciej R. Molas
Two-dimensional (2D) layered magnetic materials (LMMs) are a newly emerging class of van der Waals materials, opening new opportunities to study magneto-excitonic coupling. The air-stable, structurally and optically anisotropic A-type antiferromagnetic chromium sulfur bromide (CrSBr) is one of the most prominent examples of such LMMs. We investigate photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation of mono- to tri-layers CrSBr and find that it exhibits a unique duplexity, supporting both Frenkel- and Wannier-Mott-like excitons. Our magneto-optical experiments reveal a similar excitonic response from the mono- and trilayer systems and a completely different signature in the bilayer flake. This shows a different origin of the low-lying excitonic species (A, A’, and B) in the band structure. We confirm the robustness of the magneto-excitonic coupling in few-layer CrSBr. Our work enables a more comprehensive exploration of the dual excitonic behavior in 2D materials.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
9 pages, 5 figures
Rapid heat assisted polarization reversal in ferroelectric thin films
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Rekikua Alemayehu, Steffen Zeuschner, Alexander von Reppert, Matthias Roessle, Marin Alexe, Matias Bargheer
We demonstrate that switching of ferroelectric thin-films sandwiched between metallic electrodes can be controlled by laser-assisted heating, reminiscent of heat-assisted magnetic recording. We employ electrical switching cycles that quantify the electrically switchable remanent polarization $ P_\mathrm{r}$ and show that 300,ns voltage pulses alone change the polarization by less than $ \Delta P<P_\mathrm{r}$ . Transient heating of the metallic top electrode by synchronized ns laser-pulses induces a reversal $ \Delta P^\mathrm{L}>P_\mathrm{r}$ of the average polarization. The transient average temperature modeled by the heat equation can rationalize the polarization change observed for different relative timing $ \Delta t$ of the laser pulse, if it arrives before the electrical pulse.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
5 pages, 3 Figures
Scaling of the Electrical Conductivity Spectra Reveals Distinct Transport Responses in A2SmTaO6 [A = Ba, Sr, Ca]
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Saswata Halder, Binita Ghosh, T. P. Sinha
Disorder plays an important role in materials science, influencing material behavior across different length scales. Imperfections like vacancies, atomic substitutions, lattice distortions, and microstructural inhomogeneities, disrupt ideal periodicity thereby altering physical properties. Analogous to spin-glass systems, electrical ‘glassiness’ arises when charge carriers confront disordered energy landscapes, leading to a broad range of relaxation times, especially in polycrystalline materials where dipoles experience competing exchange interactions. Complex impedance, permittivity, and electric modulus distill out separate resistive and capacitive effects, offering insights into how microstructural inhomogeneities affects conduction mechanism. In polycrystalline double perovskites A2SmTaO6 (A = Ba, Ca), with a power law driven ac conductivity, the hopping and relaxation of carriers is affected by both grains and grain boundaries. Scaling of ac conductivity and impedance response reveals correlation between conduction and relaxation timescales. The inhomogeneities in local energy landscape of ‘frustrated’ dipoles restrict the ‘universality’ of conduction mechanism across the bulk length scale.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Observation of universal non-Gaussian statistics of the order parameter across a continuous phase transition
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Maxime Allemand, Géraud Dupuy, Paul Paquiez, Nicolas Dupuis, Adam Rançon, Tommaso Roscilde, Thomas Chalopin, David Clément
Second-order phase transitions are characterised by critical scaling and universality. The singular behaviour of thermodynamic quantities at the transition, in particular, is determined by critical exponents of the universality class of the transition. However, critical properties are also characterised by the probability distribution of order parameter across the transition, where non-Gaussian statistics are expected, but remain largely unexplored. Here, making use of single-atom-resolved detection in momentum space, we measure the full probability distribution of the amplitude of the order parameter across a continuous phase transition in an interacting lattice Bose gas. We find that fluctuations are captured by an effective potential – reconstructed from the measured probability distribution by analogy with Landau theory – displaying a non-trivial minimum in the superfluid (ordered) phase, which vanishes at the transition point. Additionally, we observe non-Gaussian statistics of the order parameter near the transition, distinguished by non-zero and oscillating high-order cumulants. We provide direct experimental evidence that these oscillations are universal, and show numerically that they exhibit critical scaling. Our experiments are conducted in inhomogeneous systems, challenging the conventional understanding of criticality, which is primarily based on homogeneous models. Our results underscore the crucial role of order parameter statistics in probing critical phenomena and universality.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
7 pages, 5 figures, Supplemental material (6 pages, 7 figures)
Replicated liquid theory in $1+\infty$ dimensions
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yukihiro Tomita, Hajime Yoshino
We develop a replicated liquid theory for structural glasses which exhibit spatial variation of physical quantities along one axis, say $ z$ -axis. The theory becomes exact with infinite transverse dimension $ d-1 \to \infty$ . It provides an exact free-energy functional with space-dependent glass order parameter $ \Delta_{ab}(z)$ . As a first application of the scheme, we study diverging lengths associated with dynamic/static glass transitions of hardspheres with/without confining cavity. The exponents agree with those obtained in previous studies on related mean-field models. Moreover, it predicts a non-trivial spatial profile of the glass order parameter $ \Delta_{ab}(z)$ within the cavity which exhibits a scaling feature approaching the dynamical glass transition.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
35pages, 4 figures
Confinement Reveals Hidden Splay-Bend Order in Twist-Bend Nematics
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Szymon Drzazga, Piotr Kubala, Lech Longa
Using extensive Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigate how spatial confinement affects molecular organization within thin films of the nematic twist-bend ($ \mathrm{N_{TB}}$ ) phase. Our simulations show that confinement markedly amplifies the otherwise elusive splay-bend order, primarily by suppressing the intrinsic three-dimensional heliconical structure characteristic of bulk $ \mathrm{N_{TB}}$ .
Remarkably, when the $ \mathrm{N_{TB}}$ phase is confined between parallel walls imposing planar anchoring, and the bulk wave vector is oriented parallel to the walls, a smectic splay-bend ($ \mathrm{S_{SB}}$ ) phase spontaneously emerges near the confining surfaces. This intermediate structure subsequently transforms into the bulk $ \mathrm{N_{TB}}$ phase either directly via a smectic splay-bend-twist ($ \mathrm{S_{SBT}}$ ) phase or through a sequence involving both the $ \mathrm{S_{SBT}}$ and the nematic splay-bend-twist ($ \mathrm{N_{SBT}}$ ) phases. Notably, the $ \mathrm{N_{SBT}}$ phase becomes particularly pronounced as the molecular bend angle approaches its maximum attainable value in bulk $ \mathrm{N_{TB}}$ ; this regime occurs in close proximity to the $ \mathrm{N}\text{–}\mathrm{S_{A}}\text{–}\mathrm{S_{SB}}$ triple point on the bulk phase diagram.
Our findings reveal a compelling and intricate interplay among chirality, confinement, and molecular ordering, further evidenced by the calculated elementary director distortions. Crucially, this study opens promising avenues for experimental exploration: confined thin-film geometries serve as powerful model systems for revealing and characterizing novel nematic and smectic liquid-crystal phases that remain elusive in, or currently inaccessible to, bulk experiments.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
7 pages, 7 figures
Surface Stability Modeling with Universal Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials: A Comprehensive Cleavage Energy Benchmarking Study
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Ardavan Mehdizadeh, Peter Schindler
Machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) have revolutionized computational materials science by bridging the gap between quantum mechanical accuracy and classical simulation efficiency, enabling unprecedented exploration of materials properties across the periodic table. Despite their remarkable success in predicting bulk properties, no systematic evaluation has assessed how well these universal MLIPs (uMLIPs) can predict cleavage energies, a critical property governing fracture, catalysis, surface stability, and interfacial phenomena. Here, we present a comprehensive benchmark of 19 state-of-the-art uMLIPs for cleavage energy prediction using our previously established density functional theory (DFT) database of 36,718 slab structures spanning elemental, binary, and ternary metallic compounds. We evaluate diverse architectural paradigms, analyzing their performance across chemical compositions, crystal systems, thickness, and surface orientations. Our results reveal that training data composition dominates architectural sophistication: models trained on the Open Materials 2024 (OMat24) dataset, which emphasizes non-equilibrium configurations, achieve mean absolute percentage errors below 6% and correctly identify the thermodynamically most stable surface terminations in 87% of cases, without any explicit surface energy training. In contrast, architecturally identical models trained on equilibrium-only datasets show five-fold higher errors, while models trained on surface-adsorbate data fail catastrophically with a 17-fold degradation. Remarkably, simpler architectures trained on appropriate data achieve comparable accuracy to complex transformers while offering 10-100x computational speedup. These findings show that the community should focus on strategic training data generation that captures the relevant physical phenomena.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
70 pages total (main paper + supplementary information), 4 figures in main text, multiple supplementary figures and tables
Anomalous ultrafast heat transfer in single palladium nanocrystals seen with an X-ray free electron laser
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
David Yang, James Wrigley, Jack Griffiths, Longlong Wu, Ana F. Suzana, Jiecheng Diao, Angel Rodriguez-Fernandez, Joerg Hallmann, Alexey Zozulya, Ulrike Boesenberg, Roman Shayduk, Jan-Etienne Pudell, Anders Madsen, Ian K. Robinson
We report transient highly strained structural states in individual palladium (Pd) nanocrystals, electronically heated using an optical laser, which precede their uniform thermal expansion. Using an X-ray free-electron laser probe, the evolution of individual 111 Bragg peaks is measured as a function of delay time at various laser fluences. Above a laser fluence threshold at a sufficient pump-probe delay, the Bragg peak splits into multiple peaks, indicating heterogeneous strain, before returning to a single peak, corresponding to even heat distribution throughout the lattice expanded crystal. Our findings are supported by a lattice displacement and strain model of a single nanocrystal at different delay times, which agrees with the experimental data. Our observations have implications for understanding femtosecond laser interactions with metals and the potential photo-catalytic performance of Pd.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
25 pages, 5 figures
Odd-Parity Magnetism in Fe-Based Superconductors
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Reuel Dsouza, Andreas Kreisel, Brian M. Andersen, Daniel F. Agterberg, Morten H. Christensen
Odd-parity magnetism constitutes an intriguing phase of matter which breaks inversion symmetry while preserving time-reversal symmetry. Here we demonstrate that the Fe-based superconductors exhibiting coplanar magnetic order realize an odd-parity magnetic state by combining low-energy modeling with density-functional theory. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling, the electronic spins are polarized along the $ k_z$ -direction and the splitting of the up and down states exhibits an $ h$ -wave form-factor. The magnitude of the splitting depends sensitively on specific parameters of the low-energy model, including specific out-of-plane hopping parameters and the Fermi energies of the hole- and electron-pockets. Interestingly, despite this state breaking inversion symmetry and exhibiting a finite out-of-plane Berry curvature and non-linear anomalous Hall effect, the Edelstein effect vanishes. Incorporating spin-orbit coupling tilts the momentum-space electronic spins into the ($ k_x,k_y$ )-plane and imparts finite in-plane components to the Edelstein response. Our findings highlight the Fe-based superconductors as platforms for exploring odd-parity magnetism both on its own and coexisting with unconventional superconductivity.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
5 pages and 5 figures + 8 pages and 5 figures
Geometrically Frustrated Assembly at Finite Temperature: Phase Transitions from Self-Limiting to Bulk States
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Nicholas Hackney, Gregory Grason
Geometric frustration is recognized to generate complex morphologies in self-assembling particulate and molecular systems. In bulk states, frustrated drives structured arrays of topological defects. In the dilute limit, these systems have been shown to form a novel state of self-limiting assembly, in which the equilibrium size of multi-particle domains are finite and well-defined. In this article, we employ Monte Carlo simulations of a recently developed 2D lattice model of geometrically frustrated assembly~\cite{HackneyPhysRevX.13.041010} to study the phase transitions between the self-limiting and defect bulk phase driven by two distinct mechanisms: (i) increasing concentration and (ii) decreasing temperature or frustration. The first transition is mediated by a concentration-driven percolation transition of self-limiting, worm-like domains into an intermediate heterogeneous network mesophase, which gradually fills in at high concentration to form a quasi-uniform defect bulk state. We find that the percolation threshold is weakly dependent on frustration and shifts to higher concentration as frustration is increased, but depends strongly on the ratio of cohesion to elastic stiffness in the model. The second transition takes place between self-limiting assembly at high-temperature/frustration and phase separation into a condensed bulk state at low temperature/frustration. We consider the competing influences that translational and conformational entropy have on the critical temperature/frustration and show that the self-limiting phase is stabilized at higher frustrations and temperatures than previously expected. Taken together, this understanding of the transition pathways from self-limiting to bulk defect phases of frustrated assembly allows us to map the phase behavior of this 2D minimal model over the full range of concentration.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
18 pages, 12 figures, Appendix 7 pages, 5 figures
Demonstration of an optical microwave rectification by a superconducting diode with near 100% efficiency
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Razmik A. Hovhannisyan, Amirreza Lotfian, Taras Golod, Vladimir M. Krasnov
Superconducting electronics offer significant advantages in speed and power efficiency for next-generation computing and communication systems. However, their practical deployment is limited by the absence of simple, efficient, and scalable superconducting counterparts to key semiconductor components. In this work, we investigate diodes based on planar Josephson junctions fabricated from a conventional niobium superconductor. The nonreciprocity in these diodes arises from the self-field effect induced by the geometrical asymmetry of the junction. By deliberate tuning of the junction parameters, we achieved effectively infinite nonreciprocity (within experimental resolution), characterized by a complete suppression of the superconducting critical current in one direction while maintaining a significant current in the opposite direction. The key novelty of this work lies in the demonstration of the optical diode effect. We observed threshold-free rectification of 75 GHz microwave radiation, indicating that these diodes exhibit near-ideal optical nonreciprocity. Our results open new avenues for ultrafast superconducting electronics and lay the groundwork for wireless sub-THz signal processing.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
6 pages, 2 Figures
Investigation of structure and anisotropic electrical resistivity in single-crystalline CoSn kagome metal thin films for interconnect applications
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Tomoya Nakatani, Nattamon Suwannaharn, Taisuke Sasaki
CoSn kagome metal is a pseudo-one-dimensional electronic conductor, exhibiting low resistivity (\r{ho}) along the [0001] direction (c-axis) and significantly higher \r{ho} along other crystallographic directions. Such anisotropic conduction is expected to mitigate resistivity increases in narrow interconnect wires at advanced semiconductor technology process nodes, making CoSn a promising candidate for future interconnect applications. In this study, CoSn thin films were fabricated by magnetron sputtering, and their resistivity anisotropy was investigated with respect to crystallographic orientation. Epitaxial growth of single-crystalline CoSn(10-10) films was achieved on a Ru(10-10) buffer layer at deposition temperatures above 350 °C. The CoSn films exhibited relatively low \r{ho} along [0001], reaching 13 micro{\Omega} cm, and an approximately tenfold anisotropy of \r{ho} between [0001] and [2-1-10] (a-axis), consistent with previous reports on bulk CoSn single crystals. However, the CoSn(10-10) surface exhibited pronounced roughness, attributed to three-dimensional crystal growth during sputtering, which hinders accurate evaluation of the thickness dependence of resistivity. Scanning transmission electron microscopy revealed the growth of a CoSn(10-10) single-crystal with (11-20) and (01-10) side wall facets, as well as domain boundaries within the films. These results highlight both the potential and challenges of employing CoSn kagome metal in future interconnect technologies.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
High fidelity flopping-mode single spin operation with tuning inter-dot orbital levels
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yuta Matsumoto, Xiao-Fei Liu, Arne Ludwig, Andreas D. Wieck, Keisuke Koike, Takefumi Miyoshi, Takafumi Fujita, Akira Oiwa
Fast spin manipulation and long spin coherence time in quantum dots are essential features for high fidelity semiconductor spin qubits. However, generally it has not been well established how to optimize these two properties simultaneously, because these two properties are usually not independent from each other. Therefore, the scheme for high fidelity operation by simultaneous tuning Rabi frequency and coherence time, which does not rely on the material-dependent strong spin-orbit interaction and the local magnetic field gradient limiting their scalability, are strongly demanded. Here, we demonstrate an approach to achieve high-fidelity spin control by tuning inter-dot spin-orbit coupling in a GaAs triple quantum dot (TQD), where the third dot provides precise control over orbital energy levels. In an electrically stable charge state with optimized tunnel coupling, we achieve Rabi frequencies exceeding 100 MHz while maintaining coherence through proper tuning of the inter-dot orbital levels of the TQD. By implementing a machine learning-based feedback control that efficiently estimates qubit frequency using past measurement data, we characterize and mitigate the impact of low frequency noise on qubit coherence with minimal measurement overhead. Finally, we demonstrate a $ \pi$ /2 gate fidelity of 99.7% with a gate time of 4 ns through randomized benchmarking, even in a GaAs quantum dot device where electron spin coherence is typically limited by strong hyperfine interaction with nuclear spins. Our approach provides a scalable strategy for high-fidelity spin control in semiconductor quantum dot arrays by utilizing device-specific parameters rather than relying on material properties or external field gradients.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Bayesian perspectives for quantum states and application to ab initio quantum chemistry
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yannic Rath, Massimo Bortone, George H. Booth
The quantum many-electron problem is not just at the heart of condensed matter phenomena, but also essential for first-principles simulation of chemical phenomena. Strong correlation in chemical systems are prevalent and present a formidable challenge in the simulation of these systems, while predictive phenomena in this domain often also requires a demanding level of accuracy to inform chemical behavior. Efficient representations of the many-electron states of chemical systems are therefore also being inspired by machine learning principles to provide an alternative to established approaches. In this chapter, we review recent progress in this endeavor for quantum chemical problems represented in second quantization, and the particular challenges present in this field. In particular, we focus on the application of Gaussian Process States emerging from efficient representations of the many-body wavefunction with rigorous Bayesian modeling frameworks, allowing for the unification of multiple paradigms under a common umbrella. We show how such models (and other representations derived from machine learning) can be used as novel tools to compute ab initio chemical properties, while in turn also informing the design of machine learning models to extract correlation patterns in classical data.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
To appear in “Machine Learning in Condensed Matter Physics - Significance, Challenges, and Future Directions”, a Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences
Computational study of interactions between ionized glyphosate and carbon nanotube: An alternative for mitigating environmental contamination
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
H. T. Silva, L. C. S. Faria, T. A. Aversi-Ferreira, I. Camps
The extensive use of glyphosate in agriculture has raised environmental concerns due to its adverse effects on plants, animals, microorganisms, and humans. This study investigates the interactions between ionized glyphosate and single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) using computational simulations through semi-empirical tight-binding methods (GFN2-xTB) implemented in the xTB software. The analysis focused on different glyphosate ionization states corresponding to various pH levels: G1 (pH < 2), G2 (pH ~ 2-3), G3 (pH ~ 4-6), G4 (pH ~ 7-10), and G5 (pH > 10.6). Results revealed that glyphosate in G1, G3, G4, and G5 forms exhibited stronger interactions with CNT, demonstrating higher adsorption energies and greater electronic coupling. The neutral state (G2) showed lower affinity, indicating that molecular protonation significantly influences adsorption. Topological analysis and molecular dynamics confirmed the presence of covalent, non-covalent, and partially covalent interactions, while the CNT+G5 system demonstrated moderate interactions suitable for material recycling. These findings suggest that carbon nanotubes, with their extraordinary properties such as nanocapillarity, porosity, and extensive surface area, show promise for environmental monitoring and remediation of glyphosate contamination.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Topological Magnon Frequency Combs
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Zhixiong Li, Xuejuan Liu, Zhejunyu Jin, Guanghua Guo, Xingen Zheng, Peng Yan
Exploring the synergy between topological physics and nonlinear dynamics unveils profound insights into emergent states of matter. Inspired by recent experimental demonstrations of topological frequency combs in photonics, we theoretically introduce topological magnon frequency combs (MFCs) in a two-dimensional triangular skyrmion lattice. Computing the Chern numbers of magnon bands reveals robust chiral edge states. Strikingly, these topological MFCs originate from nonlinear four-magnon scattering among the chiral edge modes, activated by dual-frequency driving without an amplitude threshold. Comb spacings are readily tunable through excitation frequency detuning. Micromagnetic simulations validate our predictions with good concordance. This work paves the way for defect-immune magnonic devices exploiting MFCs and sparks investigations into topological-nonlinear phenomena in magnetic systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
6 pages, 4 figures
Thermal Transport Anomalies of Electrolyte Solutions in the Water Supercooled Regime: Signatures of the Liquid-Liquid Water Phase Transition
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Water exhibits remarkable anomalies when supercooled, attributed to a hypothesized liquid-liquid phase transition (LLPT) between low-density (LDL) and high-density (HDL) liquid phases. Using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we explore thermal transport and coupled effects in supercooled NaCl and LiCl solutions (1-4 m, 200-300 K). At 1 m, thermal conductivity exhibits a pronounced minimum near 220 K, coinciding with maxima in isothermal compressibility and minima in the speed of sound, both of which are signatures of critical fluctuations. The anomalies progressively diminish with increasing salt concentration and vanish at 4 m, suggesting suppression of the LLPT. The Soret coefficient exhibits a striking behavior. Initially thermophobic at high temperatures (> 280 K), becoming thermophilic upon cooling, then reverting to thermophobic below 220 K. This behavior correlates with structural changes in the hydrogen-bond network of water. Specifically, we find that electrolyte solutions dominated by HDL structures, which are characterized by lower tetrahedral order, exhibit thermophobic behavior, whereas thermodynamic states dominated by LDL structures, with higher tetrahedral order, display thermophilic behavior. Furthermore, Seebeck coefficients exhibit sign reversals near 220-230 K, highlighting the thermoelectric sensitivity to structural transformations and temperature. These findings establish thermal transport as a sensitive probe of supercooled water, revealing that electrolyte solutions preserve the water’s anomalies deep into the supercooled regime.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
31 pages, 3 tables, 12 figures
On the Electronic Contribution to Crystalline Diffraction Patterns
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Sebastian Allende, David Galvez-Poblete
We introduce the electronic structure factor as a phase-sensitive contribution to diffraction that directly encodes the properties of the occupied-band wave functions. In the one-dimensional SSH model, $ F_{\mathrm{cond}}$ is governed by the relative sublattice phase, which integrates to the Zak phase. This provides a clear diffraction-based criterion to distinguish trivial and topological regimes in the absence of any structural change. Beyond the SSH limit, the same Bloch-based construction naturally accounts for commensurate and incommensurate magnetic satellites in antiferromagnets, reproducing the additional peaks at $ q=G\pm Q$ observed in NiO, MnO, chromium, and cuprates. These results demonstrate that diffraction can probe electronic topology and magnetic ordering on equal footing, opening a route to phase-sensitive structural characterization of correlated electron systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Universal relation between residual resistivity and A coefficient in correlated metals
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Anna Yu. Efimova, Yohei Saito, Atsushi Kawamoto, Martin Dressel, Louk Rademaker, Andrej Pustogow
The effects of strong electronic correlations and disorder are crucial for emergent phenomena such as unconventional superconductivity, metal-insulator transitions, and quantum criticality. While both are omnipresent in real materials, their individual impacts on charge transport remain elusive. To disentangle their respective roles, we have independently varied the degree of randomness and the strength of electronic correlations – by chemical substitution and physical pressure, respectively – within the metallic phase nearby a Mott-insulating state. We find a distinct correlation dependence of the disorder-dependent residual resistivity $ \rho_0$ in the Fermi-liquid regime $ \rho(T)=\rho_0 + A T^2$ , where $ A\propto (m^{\star}/m)^2$ quantifies the electronic mass enhancement. Contrary to conventional expectations, we observe that at fixed disorder level $ \rho_0$ grows linearly with $ A$ . This scaling can be understood in terms of chemical-potential fluctuations with variance $ \sigma_\mu^2$ , yielding $ \rho_0 \propto A,\sigma_\mu^2$ . By comparing our findings to transport data on other organic Mott systems, oxides, heavy-fermion compounds, and moiré materials, we demonstrate that this new relation between residual resistivity and mass enhancement is a universal feature of correlated metals.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
11 pages, 8 figures
Magnetism Enhanced Surface Bonding of O$_{2}$ on CoPt
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Kevin Allen, Christopher Lane, Emilia Morosan, Jian-Xin Zhu
For large-scale deployment and use of polymer electrolyte fuel cells, high-performance electrocatalysts with low platinum consumption are desirable. One promising strategy to meet this demand is to explore alternative materials that retain catalytic efficiency while introducing new mechanisms for performance enhacement. In this study, we investigate a ferromagnetic CoPt as a candidate material to accelerate oxygen reduction reactions. By using density functional theory calculations, we find the spin-polarized Co-$ d$ states to enhance O$ _2$ surface bonding due to local exchange splitting of Co-$ d$ carriers at the Fermi level. Furthermore, O and O$ _2$ adsorption and dissociation energies are found to be tuned by varying the thickness of the Pt layers. Our study gives insight into the role magnetism plays in the oxygen reduction reaction process and how magnetic ions may aid in the design of new advanced catalysts.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
7 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table
A Hybrid Anyon-Otto thermal machine
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Mohit Lal Bera, Armando Pérez, Miguel A. García-March, Ravindra Chhajlany, Tobias Grass, Maciej Lewenstein, Utso Bhattacharya, Sourav Bhattacharjee
We propose a four-stroke quantum thermal machine based on the 1D anyon Hubbard model, which is capable of extracting the excess energy arising from anyon exclusion statistics at low temperature into finite work. Defining a hybrid anyon-Otto (HAO) cycle, we find that the low temperature work, in the absence of any interactions, is maximised in the pseudo fermionic limit, where the anyons most closely resemble free fermions. However, when weak interactions are introduced, the work output is no longer maximized at the bosonic or pseudo-fermionic extremes, but instead peaks at intermediate statistical angles. This clearly demonstrates that interactions and anyonic statistics conspire non-trivially to enhance performance, with interacting anyons offering greater quantum thermodynamic advantage than either bosons or pseudo-fermions, in this regime. Furthermore, we also identify different modes of operation of the HAO cycle, one of which emerges as a direct consequence of the finite anyon energy at low temperature.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
10 pages, 6 figures, comments welcome
Magnetic soliton molecules in binary condensates
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
R. M. V. Röhrs, Chunlei Qu, R. N. Bisset
Two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the miscible phase can support polarization solitary waves, known as magnetic solitons. By calculating the interaction potential between two magnetic solitons, we elucidate the mechanisms and conditions for the formation of bound states – or molecules – and support these predictions with dynamical simulations. We analytically determine the dissociation energy of bound states consisting of two oppositely polarized solitons and find good agreement with full numerical simulations. Collisions between bound states – either with other bound states or with individual solitons – produce intriguing dynamics. Notably, collisions between a pair of bound states exhibit a dipole-like behavior. We anticipate that such bound states, along with their rich collision dynamics, are within reach of current experimental capabilities.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)
7 pages, 5 figures
Quantum Geometry Induced Kekulé Superconductivity in Haldane phases
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-01 20:00 EDT
Yafis Barlas, Fan Zhang, Enrico Rossi
Chiral two-dimensional electron gases, which capture the electronic properties of graphene and rhombohedral graphene systems, exhibit singular momentum-space vortices and are susceptible to interaction-induced topological Haldane phases. Here, we investigate pairing interactions in these inversion-symmetric Haldane phases of chiral two-dimensional electron gases. We demonstrate that the nontrivial band topology of the Haldane phases enhances intra-valley ($ {\bf Q} = \pm 2 {\bf K_D}$ ) pair susceptibility relative to inter-valley ($ {\bf Q} = 0$ ) pair susceptibility, favoring the emergence of a lattice-scale pair-density wave order. When longitudinal acoustic phonons mediate the pairing interaction, the system supports a chiral Kekulè superconducting order. Our findings are relevant to superconductivity in rhombohedral graphene and Kagome metals.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
8 pages