Category Archives: Materials
The universal electronic mean free path law that wasn’t
The concept of mean free path is very simple and straightforward: the average distance travelled between collisions by the molecules in a gas, the electrons in a metallic crystal, the neutrons in a moderator, etc. Assuming a couple of things […]
Fully recyclable materials for food packaging
Author: Ainara Sangroniz is a researcher at POLYMAT, Department of Polymer Science and Technology, UPV/EHU
Packaging is essential to preserve the food quality and safety and to extend the shelf life of the stored product reducing the food waste. […]
Using an optical antenna to launch phonon polaritons in a low-dimensional van der Waals crystal
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 […]
The extreme nanophotonics of the plasmonic nanopatch
For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic […]
First direct visualization by photoemision of how the Luttinger theorem works for Kondo lattices
Elements with 4f or 5f electrons in unfilled electron bands and their componuds , which have ions carrying magnetic moments but do not magnetically order, or only do so at very low temperatures, are generally known as heavy-fermion or heavy […]
A local theory of insulators
We all know what an insulator is, don’t we? An insulator is any substance that is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Both properties ussually occur as a consequence of a lack of mobile electrons.If we want to dive […]
Non-magnetic in the bulk, strongly ferromagnetic at the surface
For a successful application in spintronics of any material, a key problem is to get a reliable control of the electronic spin within it. An ideal candidate for this purpose would be any material which is non-magnetic in the bulk […]
First nondestructive enantioselective detection technique
If a nucleus has a nonzero spin, it behaves as a small magnet. Therefore, in an external magnetic field, the nuclear magnetic moment vector precesses about the field direction but only certain otientations are allowed by quantum rules. Thus, for […]
Finite size analogue of a heavy Fermi liquid in an atomic scale Kondo lattice
The scattering of conduction electrons in metals owing to impurities with magnetic moments is known as the Kondo effect, after Jun Kondo, who analysed the phenomenon in 1964. This scattering increases the electrical resistance and has the consequence that, in […]
Diradical character a condition for stable n-type doped organic conducting materials
Many aromatic compounds can be made into organic semiconductors by doping them with a substance such as iodine, thereby producing mobile carriers of electric charge. This is analogous to the doping of silicon in an ordinary semiconductor. The benefits of […]