Author Archives: DIPC
On-surface synthesis: a guide for explorers
The way a particular reaction proceeds, described in terms of the steps involved, is called mechanism. The study of organic chemistry is, to a great extent, the study of reaction mechanisms and textbooks content both their description and their applications. […]
Towards advanced room-temperature valleytronic nanodevices.
So-called “valleytronics” is a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips in next-generation devices. Valley electrons are so named because they carry a valley degree […]
A higher spin generalization of Weyl fermions without equivalence in elementary particle physics
Back in 1929, theoretical physicist Hermann Weyl predicted the existence of a new elementary particle with intriguing properties. Specifically, it would be massless (like a photon), have half-integer spin (like an electron) and exist in two mirror-image versions (like left- […]
Why SnSe is so thermoelectrically efficient
With the possible exception of Avogadro’s number, which was in reality defined and made popular by Stanislao Cannizzaro, many things in the sciences are usually named after the person who makes them popular. The Seebeck effect is an example. Originally […]
Chromatic multiphoton serial microscopy can generate brain-wide atlas-like colour datasets with subcellular resolution
In 1873, the microscopist Ernst Abbe stipulated a physical limit for the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopy: 0.2 micrometers, or 200 nanometers (the shortest wavelength for visible light, the extreme limit of violet). This meant that scientists could distinguish […]
Validity of the inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum domain
On 8 October 2013, following the discovery at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider of a new particle that appeared to be the long-sought Higgs boson predicted by the theory, it was announced that Peter Higgs and François Englert had been awarded […]
An experimental protocol for two-probe scanning tunneling microscopy
A region containing a maximum of potential that prevents a particle on one side of it from passing to the other side is called a potential barrier. The net in a tennis court is in a certain way a potential […]
An efficient tensor network algorithm for capturing thermal states of 2D quantum lattice systems
The concept of vector should be familiar: a quantity for which both magnitude and direction must be stated. This compares with a scalar quantity, where direction is not applicable, like temperature in a precise point. But, what if the magnitude […]
A unique combination of properties in a van der Waals antiferromagnet
The so-called van der Waals materials consist of two-dimensional layers bound by weak van der Waals forces. After the isolation of graphene, the field of two-dimensional van der Waals materials has experienced an explosive growth and new families of […]
A Talbot carpet of electrons in nanoporous graphene
Controlling electron waves by harnessing phase-coherence and interference effects is a cornerstone for future nanoelectronics or quantum computing. To this end, design of platforms with well-defined, narrow, and low-loss propagation channels is essential. Nanoporous graphene (NPG) holds great potential for […]