The high-speed manipulation of light using the Pockels effect is a missing building block in photonic integrated chips based on amorphous materials. This work demonstrates a process for inducing a longlasting inscribed electric field responsible for an effective Pockels effect in amorphous silicon nitride electro-optic modulators at room temperature.

Recent advances in synthetic methods have allowed for the isolation and observation of superconductivity in nickelate compounds, but the exact nature of underlying mechanisms is still to be clarified. Here, the authors investigate the effect of nonmagnetic impurities on the superconductivity of La₃Ni₂O₇ under high-pressure and how this can impact differently on the s and d-wave order parameters.

Critical brain hypothesis states that neuronal networks in the brain operate close to criticality. This study demonstrates the importance of the hierarchical and modular structure of neuron connections in maintaining criticality: modules with sparsely connected neurons can sustain critical activity even when subjected to significant perturbations; however, as connection density increases, modularity alone proves inadequate to preserve criticality.

Quantum electrodynamics on a one-dimensional lattice can lead to the localization of charges, in contrast to the thermalizing dynamics ubiquitous in nature. In this work the authors identify the physical origin of such non-thermal signatures and attribute it to the fracturing of the underlying Hilbert space.

Networks can be mapped onto hyperbolic spaces to reveal their structure, but previous methods only provided single “best" coordinates. This paper introduces a Bayesian method to add uncertainty estimation to these placements, detecting multiple valid arrangements and providing confidence ranges that improve predictions.

This work studies the localized-itinerant transition in Kondo lattice systems, and opens up a pathway to investigate the puzzling physics of Kondo lattice coherence. In particular, the authors demonstrate that the incoherent Kondo scattering contribution and the coherent heavy-electron contribution can be told apart by performing planar Hall effect and planar anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements.

An iron-based superconductor Fe(Se,Te) is a candidate material for exploring nonreciprocal superconducting transport owing to its large critical parameters and spin-orbit interaction. Here, the authors find a scaling relation of the superconducting diode efficiency in Fe(Se,Te)/FeTe heterostructure, revealing the role of asymmetric vortex pinning effect coupled to the spin-orbit interaction.

Hybrid quantum-classical techniques such as the quantum approximate optimisation algorithm can be useful for solving binary optimisation problems. The authors propose an improved initialisation strategy for the quantum part of the algorithm that favours quantum superposition while requiring few classical computational resources.

Nonlinear effects due to direct interaction between fundamental forces are likely to become experimentally visible in the near future. Here, the authors show that the nonlinear components of the Coulomb force between two charged particles can be detected in state of the art systems and extended to quantum systems via the thermal noise or uncertainty induced motion of one of the particle pair.

Common assumption dictates that an egg exhibits greater structural resistance when dropped on its end rather than on its side. To test this supposition, the authors perform static and dynamic loading tests on hundreds of eggs, supported with finite element simulations. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that vertical orientation may in fact be the weaker of the two axes.

Inspired by microorganisms navigating environments via adaptive body deformations, this work explores how decentralized coordination of modular body parts facilitates self-propulsion in artificial microswimmers. Using tiny neural networks and genetic algorithms, the authors develop robust and adaptable swimming strategies effective across swimmer morphologies.

In this work, the authors show that the properties of hybrid excitons in moiré superlattices of two-dimensional semiconductors are qualitatively altered by the electron-hole Coulomb exchange of its the intralayer component, enabling their coherent hopping between moiré traps laterally separated over 10 nm and/or across layers.

Using a thermal Rb-Xe hybrid spin maser the authors report the observation of a time crystal. The formation of time crystal is caused by a strong retarded interaction and the new oscillation frequency scales with the delay time characterized by the phase lag of the original oscillations.