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ThinkM, PECHS Block 2, Karachi (2026)

06/05/2026

A new quantum-inspired algorithm is reshaping how scientists approach some of the most complex materials known, enabling rapid analysis of structures that were previously beyond computational reach.

Quantum technologies, including quantum computers, rely on materials that display unusual quantum effects under specific conditions. Researchers have found that these properties can also be engineered by adjusting a material’s structure. For example, stacking and slightly twisting layers of graphene creates a moiré pattern that can transform the material into a superconductor.

As scientists build increasingly intricate layered systems, they reach structures such as quasicrystals and super-moiré materials. The challenge is predicting which designs will be useful. Modeling these materials requires calculating vast amounts of data. In the case of quasicrystals, this can involve more than a quadrillion numbers, far exceeding the limits of even the most powerful supercomputers.

A Quantum-Inspired Breakthrough
Researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics have introduced a quantum-inspired algorithm that can handle these massive, non-periodic systems with remarkable speed. According to Assistant Professor Jose Lado, this work also highlights a growing feedback loop in quantum technology.

“Crucially, these new quantum algorithms can enable the development of new quantum materials to build new paradigms of quantum computers, creating a productive two-way feedback loop between quantum materials and quantum computers,” he explains.

Tensor Networks Illustration
Tensor networks can represent functions on ultra-fine grids, which makes them a promising technique for calculating massive quantum materials. Credit: Jose Lado/Aalto University.
Tensor networks play a central role in this approach, as they can represent functions across extremely fine computational grids. This makes them well-suited for analyzing large-scale quantum materials. The findings could lead to dissipationless electronics, which may help reduce the heat generated by AI-driven data centers.

The research team was led by Lado and included doctoral researcher Tiago Antão, the study’s lead author, along with QDOC doctoral researcher Yitao Sun and Academy Research Fellow Adolfo Fumega. Their results were published in Physical Review Letters as an Editor’s Suggestion.

Scattered Complexity in Quasicrystals
The study focused on topological quasicrystals, which host unusual quantum excitations. These excitations help maintain electrical conductivity by protecting it from noise and interference. However, they are distributed unevenly throughout the material, making them difficult to analyze.

Rather than attempting to model the full structure directly, the researchers reformulated the problem using principles similar to those used in quantum computing.

“Quantum computers work in exponentially large computational spaces, so we used a special family of algorithms to encode those spaces, known as tensor networks, to compute a quasicrystal with over 268 million sites. Our algorithm shows how colossal problems in quantum materials can be directly solved with the exponential speed-up that comes from encoding the problem as a quantum many-body system,” Antão says.

The method has so far been tested through simulations, but experimental validation may follow.

“The quantum-inspired algorithm we demonstrated enables us to create super-moiré quasicrystals several orders of magnitude above the capabilities of conventional methods. That is an instrumental step towards designing topological qubits with super-moiré materials for use in quantum computers, for example,” Lado says.

Toward Real Quantum Computing Applications
According to Lado, the team’s algorithm could be adapted to be injected into a quantum computer.

Lado notes that the algorithm could eventually run on actual quantum computers.

“Our method can be adapted to run on real quantum computers, once they reach necessary scale and fidelity. In particular, the new AaltoQ20 and the Finnish Quantum Computing Infrastructure can play a significant role for future demonstrations,” Lado says.

The findings suggest that designing and understanding complex quantum materials could become one of the first practical uses of quantum algorithms. This work also connects two major areas of quantum research in Finland: materials science and algorithm development.

Reference: “Tensor Network Method for Real-Space Topology in Quasicrystal Chern Mosaics” by Tiago V. C. Antão, Yitao Sun, Adolfo O. Fumega and Jose L. Lado, 13 April 2026, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/hhdf-xpwg

The study is part of Lado’s ERC Consolidator Grant ULTRATWISTROICS, which focuses on creating topological qubits using van der Waals materials. It also contributes to the Center of Excellence in Quantum Materials (QMAT), which aims to advance quantum technologies in the coming decades.

25/04/2026

A group of researchers at New York University has developed a new type of gear system that uses fluid motion to produce rotation. This approach could pave the way for mechanical devices that are more adaptable and resilient than traditional gears, which trace their origins back to ancient China.

The findings are detailed in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“We invented new types of gears that engage by spinning up fluid rather than interlocking teeth—and we discovered new capabilities for controlling the rotation speed and even direction,” says Jun Zhang, a professor of mathematics and physics at NYU and NYU Shanghai and the senior author of the paper.

Rethinking gears beyond solid teeth
Gears have been a fundamental part of machinery for thousands of years, with early examples dating to around 3,000 BCE in China, where they were used in two-wheeled chariots that traveled across the Gobi Desert. Over centuries, they have played roles in devices such as the Antikythera mechanism in ancient Greece, which predicted astronomical events, as well as in windmills, clocks, and modern robotics.

Antikythera Mechanism Fragments Displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece
Remnants of the Antikythera mechanism, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. Peulle. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Despite their long history, traditional gears come with limitations. Their teeth, whether made of wood, metal, or plastic, are rigid and prone to damage, and they must align precisely to function correctly.

Motivated by these constraints, Zhang worked with colleagues Leif Ristroph, an associate professor of mathematics at NYU’s Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, and Jesse Etan Smith, an NYU doctoral candidate, to explore whether gear-like behavior could be achieved without physical teeth or direct contact between components.

Because moving air and water already drive systems such as turbines, the researchers proposed that carefully controlled fluid flows could effectively take on the role of gear teeth.

Fluid flows replace mechanical contact
To test this concept, the team carried out detailed experiments using cylindrical rotors submerged in a liquid mixture of glycerol and water. By adjusting properties such as viscosity and density, they were able to control how the fluid behaved.

30/03/2026

A new twist on a long-known material could help push quantum computing forward and cut energy use in modern data centers, according to a team led by Penn State researchers.

Barium titanate, first identified in 1941, is valued for its strong electro-optic properties in bulk, or three-dimensional, crystals. Materials like this connect electricity and light by converting signals carried by electrons into signals carried by photons, the particles of light.

Despite these advantages, barium titanate never became the standard material for electro-optic devices such as modulators, switches, and sensors. Instead, lithium niobate took its place because it is more stable and easier to manufacture, even though its performance is not as strong.

According to Venkat Gopalan, a Penn State professor of materials science and engineering and co-author of the study published in Advanced Materials, reshaping barium titanate into ultrathin, strained films could change that.

“Barium titanate is known in the materials science community as a champion material for electro-optics, at least on paper,” Gopalan said. “It has one of the largest electro-optic property values known in its bulk, single crystal form at room temperature. But when it comes to commercialization, it never made the leap. What we have done is show that when you take this classic material and strain it in just the right way, it can do things no one thought possible.”

Performance Gains and Practical Applications
Gopalan explained that the redesigned material increases the efficiency of converting electron-based signals into light-based signals by more than ten times compared to previous results at cryogenic temperatures. Such low temperature conditions are required for quantum systems that rely on superconducting circuits.

For quantum networks, information must be converted into light so it can travel long distances through fiber optic systems at room temperature. This type of conversion is also important for data centers that handle artificial intelligence (AI) and online services. These facilities use large amounts of energy, much of it for cooling, and optical connections could help reduce that demand.

Electro Optic Response Graphic
A strained form of barium titanate thin film on gadolinium scandate shows an electro-optic response 10 times stronger than today’s best materials at cryogenic temperatures. Credit: Jennifer M. McCann/Penn State
Because photons carry information without producing as much heat as electrons moving through wires, they offer a more energy-efficient option for transmitting data.

“Integrated photonic technologies as a whole are becoming increasingly attractive to companies that use large data centers to process and communicate large data volumes, especially with the accelerating adoption of AI tools,” said Aiden Ross, co-lead author of the study and graduate research assistant at Penn State. “The basic idea is that we could send information throughout these centers using photons rather than electrons, letting us send many streams of information in parallel, and do so without having to worry about our electronics heating up, the sheer infrastructure needed to keep such centers cool, and so on.”

Engineering a Metastable Phase
To achieve this, the researchers created films of barium titanate about 40 nanometers thick (about 0.0000016 inches), which is thousands of times thinner than a human hair. Growing the film on another crystal forced the atoms into a different arrangement, forming what is known as a metastable phase, a structure that does not naturally appear in bulk material.

“Metastable phases can have properties the stable version may not,” Gopalan said. “In this case, the stable phase of barium titanate loses much of its electro-optic performance at low temperatures, which is a big problem for quantum applications that require superconducting qubits. But the metastable phase we created not only avoided that drop, it also showed a response that was exceptional.”

26/03/2026

Scientists may have found a way to squeeze more energy out of sunlight than ever thought possible—breaking a long-standing “efficiency ceiling” in solar technology. Credit: Stock
A new “energy-multiplying” solar breakthrough could push efficiency beyond 100% and transform how we capture sunlight.

Solar energy is widely seen as a key tool in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and slowing climate change. The Sun delivers a vast amount of energy to Earth every second, but today’s solar cells can only capture a small portion of it. This limitation comes from a so-called “physical ceiling” that has long been considered unavoidable.

Breakthrough Spin-Flip Technology Boosts Solar Efficiency
In a study published today (March 25) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from Kyushu University in Japan, working with collaborators at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz in Germany, introduced a new approach to overcome this barrier. They used a molybdenum-based metal complex known as a “spin-flip” emitter to capture extra energy through singlet fission (SF), often described as a “dream technology” for improving light conversion.

This method achieved an energy conversion efficiency of about 130%, exceeding the traditional 100% limit and pointing toward more powerful future solar cells.

How Solar Cells Work and Why Energy Is Lost
Solar cells generate electricity when photons from sunlight strike a semiconductor and transfer their energy to electrons, setting them in motion and producing an electric current. This process can be visualized as a relay, where energy is passed along particle by particle.

However, not all sunlight contributes equally. Low-energy infrared photons lack the power to excite electrons, while high-energy photons, such as blue light, lose excess energy as heat. Because of this imbalance, solar cells can only utilize roughly one-third of incoming sunlight. This restriction is known as the Shockley–Queisser limit and has posed a major challenge for decades.

Using Singlet Fission To Multiply Energy
“We have two main strategies to break through this limit,” says Yoichi Sasaki, Associate Professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering. “One is to convert lower-energy infrared photons into higher-energy visible photons. The other, what we explore here, is to use SF to generate two excitons from a single exciton photon.”

Under typical conditions, one photon produces just one spin-singlet exciton after excitation. With SF, that single high-energy exciton can split into two lower-energy spin-triplet excitons, potentially doubling the usable energy. While materials like tetracene can support this process, efficiently capturing the resulting excitons has remained difficult.

Overcoming Energy Loss From FRET
“The energy can be easily ‘stolen’ by a mechanism called Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) before multiplication occurs,” Sasaki explains. “We therefore needed an energy acceptor that selectively captures the multiplied triplet excitons after fission.”

To solve this problem, the researchers turned to metal complexes, which can be precisely engineered at the molecular level. They identified a molybdenum-based “spin-flip” emitter that can effectively collect the energy produced during SF. In these molecules, an electron changes its spin during interactions with near-infrared light, allowing the system to absorb triplet energy efficiently.

By carefully adjusting energy levels, the team reduced losses from FRET and enabled selective extraction of the multiplied excitons.

Collaboration and Experimental Results
“We could not have reached this point without the Heinze group from JGU Mainz,” Sasaki says. Adrian Sauer, a graduate student from the group visiting Kyushu University on exchange and the paper’s second author, brought the team’s attention to a material that has long been studied there, leading to the collaboration.

When combined with tetracene-based materials in solution, the system successfully harvested energy with quantum yields of around 130%. In practical terms, this means about 1.3 molybdenum-based metal complexes were activated for every photon absorbed, surpassing the conventional limit and demonstrating that more energy carriers were generated than incoming photons.

Future Applications in Solar and Quantum Technologies
This research introduces a new strategy for amplifying excitons, although it is still at an early proof-of-concept stage. The team plans to integrate the materials into solid-state systems to improve energy transfer and move closer to real-world solar cell applications.

The findings may also inspire further work combining singlet fission with metal complexes, with potential uses not only in solar energy but also in LEDs and emerging quantum technologies.

Reference: “Exploring Spin-State Selective Harvesting Pathways from Singlet Fission Dimers to a Near-Infrared Emissive Spin-Flip Emitter” by Percy Gonzalo Sifuentes-Samanamud, Adrian Sauer, Aki Masaoka, Yuta Sawada, Yuya Watanabe, Ilias Papadopoulos, Katja Heinze, Yoichi Sasaki and Nobuo Kimizuka, 25 March 2026, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

10/03/2026

New research from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, carried out with collaborators at The Ohio State University and Amphenol Corporation, is challenging long-held ideas about how heat can be directed through solid materials.

The findings, reported in PRX Energy, show that an electric field can significantly change how phonons (tiny vibrations that carry heat) move inside a ceramic. When atoms vibrate in the same direction as the applied electric field (poling direction), the phonons remain active longer than vibrations that move across the field.

Because of this difference, heat travels through the material nearly three times more efficiently along the direction of the electric field than it does in other directions. The researchers say this strategy could open the door to new solid-state technologies that guide heat in practical devices.

“Being able to control both how fast and in what manner heat flows could lead to devices that manage thermal energy far more efficiently,” said Puspa Upreti, an ORNL postdoctoral research associate.

Why Controlling Heat Matters
Managing the movement of heat is essential for many advanced technologies. Examples include electronic cooling systems that operate without moving parts, devices that convert heat into electricity, chip-based circuits used in modern electronics, and cogeneration systems that capture industrial heat and reuse it.

Maintaining the correct flow of heat allows these systems to operate at their highest efficiency and performance.

The relationship between heat flow and efficiency is illustrated by the Carnot cycle, a theoretical model of a heat engine that defines the maximum efficiency possible when heat moves between hot and cold reservoirs in a controlled way. In this research, the electric field reduces obstacles that normally disrupt phonon motion.

With fewer interruptions, the vibrations can travel farther through the material, similar to how traffic moves more freely when congestion is reduced. This improved movement of phonons enhances heat conduction in the direction of the electric field and increases efficiency.

Neutron Experiments Reveal Atomic Motion
The experiments were carried out at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility located at ORNL.

Scientists used advanced inelastic neutron scattering techniques to observe both the arrangement of atoms in the material (structure) and their motion (dynamics). Neutrons allow researchers to determine where atoms are positioned and how they move within a crystal. This method builds on the Nobel Prize-winning work of Clifford Shull and Bertram Brockhouse.

The data collected at the facility provided detailed insight into how the electric field affects phonons. The results show that the field not only increases the speed of these vibrations but also lengthens their lifetimes. Both effects are important for improving the transport of heat.

The team focused on a specialized ceramic known as relaxor-based ferroelectrics. When exposed to an electric field, small electric charges inside these materials become aligned. This alignment reduces scattering that normally disrupts heat carrying vibrations, allowing energy to move through the crystal more efficiently.

The crystals examined in the study were carefully grown and later exposed to an electric field, a process called “poling,” by Raffi Sahul at Amphenol Corporation. The resulting materials made it possible to precisely control the movement of energy through the solid.

ORNL senior researcher Michael Manley designed and led the inelastic neutron scattering experiments with ORNL senior R&D staff member Raphaël Hermann.

“Earlier work on bulk ferroelectric materials achieved modest improvements in thermal conductivity of 5 percent to 10 percent, while the new measurements reveal an enhancement close to 300 percent — mainly because the phonons are able to travel much longer before they stop,” Manley said.

Connecting Heat Flow to Atomic Vibrations
By combining thermal conductivity measurements with neutron scattering results, the researchers were able to directly link changes in heat transport to the behavior of atomic vibrations inside the crystal.

The late Professor Joseph Heremans of Ohio State developed the thermal conductivity experiments and mentored doctoral candidate Delaram Rashadfar during the analysis of the results.

“While earlier work led us to expect only a modest effect, observing a threefold difference turned out to be a significant result,” said Rashadfar. “Professor Heremans always stressed the importance of trusting the data first and letting the theory follow.”

Reference: “Electric Field Control of Phonon Lifetimes and Thermal Conductivity in Relaxor-Based Ferroelectric” by Puspa Upreti, Delaram Rashadfar, Raffi Sahul, Douglas L. Abernathy, Joseph P. Heremans, Raphaël P. Hermann and Michael E. Manley, 5 January 2026, PRX Energy.

03/03/2026

Researchers have uncovered an unusual new form of aluminium that challenges long-held assumptions about how this common metal behaves.

Researchers at King’s College London have identified an unusual new form of aluminum, one of the most abundant metals in Earth’s crust. The discovery points to a much less expensive and more sustainable substitute for rare earth metals that are widely used in modern technology and industry.

Dr. Clare Bakewell, a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, led the study. Her team created highly reactive aluminum-based molecules capable of breaking some of the strongest chemical bonds. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, also describe molecular structures that have never been observed before, opening the door to new types of chemical reactivity.

A central achievement of the research is the first reported example of a cyclotrialumane. This compound consists of three aluminum atoms linked together in a triangular arrangement. The three-atom structure shows an unusual level of reactivity while remaining intact when dissolved in different solutions.

That stability allows it to participate in a variety of chemical processes. Among them are the splitting of dihydrogen and the controlled insertion and chain growth of ethene, a 2-carbon hydrocarbon that serves as a key building block in chemical manufacturing.

Reducing Dependence on Precious Metals
Metals play an essential role in producing both bulk and specialty chemicals. However, many industrial reactions, especially those involving catalysis, depend on precious metals such as platinum. Mining and refining these materials is costly and can cause significant environmental harm.

Scientists have long been searching for alternative metals to use in chemical transformations. Dr. Clare Bakewell said: “Transition metals are the workhorses of chemical synthesis and catalysis – but many of the most useful are becoming increasingly difficult to access and extract – often being located in regions of political instability, increasing the demand and price.

“Chemists have been looking towards more common elements from the periodic table, and we chose aluminum, as it’s super abundant, making it ~20,000 times less expensive than precious metals such as platinum and palladium.”

21/02/2026

Major scientific advances rarely happen quickly, and this discovery is a clear example of that slow but steady progress.

After nearly fifty years of theoretical discussion and repeated experimental efforts by researchers around the world, a team at Saarland University has finally succeeded. David Scheschkewitz, Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry, worked alongside his doctoral student Ankur and Bernd Morgenstern from the university’s X-Ray Diffraction Service Center to achieve the breakthrough. Their results have now been published in the prestigious journal Science.

So what exactly did the researchers accomplish? They successfully synthesized a compound known as pentasilacyclopentadienide. While experts in the field may immediately recognize the importance of this result, many readers might reasonably ask what makes it special. At its core, the work involved replacing the carbon atoms in an aromatic compound, a group of molecules known for their exceptional stability, with silicon atoms.

Ankur and Pentasilacyclopentadienide
Ankur, a doctoral student of Professor David Scheschkewitz, examines the sample with pentasilacyclopentadienide. Credit: Thorsten Mohr/Saarland University
Aromatics play a prominent role in the world around us, for example, in the manufacture of plastics. ‘In polyethylene and polypropylene production, for example, aromatic compounds help make the catalysts that control these industrial chemical processes more durable and more effective,’ explains David Scheschkewitz. As silicon is much more metallic than carbon, it holds on to its electrons far less strongly. This shift creates opportunities for chemical systems that were previously unreachable, and the Saarland team has now demonstrated that such systems are possible.

Cracking Aromatic Stability and Opening New Chemical Frontiers
Why did it take so long to reach this point? The answer lies in the fundamental rules that govern aromatic molecules. Cyclopentadienide, the carbon-based counterpart to the newly synthesized silicon compound, is an aromatic hydrocarbon in which five carbon atoms form a flat (‘planar’) ring.

This geometry plays a key role in its unusual stability. (Historical side note: Aromatics were given this name because the first such compounds to be discovered in the second half of the 19th century were found to have particularly distinctive and often pleasant aromas.)

“To be classified as aromatic, a compound needs to have a particular number of shared electrons that are evenly distributed around the planar ring structure, and this number is expressed by Hückel’s rule – a simple mathematical expression named after the German physicist Erich Hückel,” explains David Scheschkewitz. Because these electrons are spread evenly around the ring rather than tied to individual atoms, aromatic molecules gain an extra level of stability.

Until now, silicon chemistry offered only one confirmed example of this behavior. In 1981, researchers synthesized the silicon analogue of cyclopropenium, an aromatic molecule in which a three-membered carbon ring was replaced by a three-membered silicon ring. Every attempt to extend this concept to larger silicon-based aromatic systems failed.

That situation has now changed. Ankur, Bernd Morgenstern, and David Scheschkewitz have created a five-atom silicon molecule that meets the strict criteria for aromaticity. In an unexpected coincidence, the same compound was discovered at nearly the same time in the laboratory of Takeaki Iwamoto at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. The two research groups agreed to publish their results side by side in the same issue of Science.

This work paves the way for entirely new materials and processes with potential industrial relevance. But the hardest first step has now been taken.

Reference: “Pentasilacyclopentadienide: A Hückel aromatic species at the border of resonance and equilibrium” by Ankur, Bernd Morgenstern and David Scheschkewitz, 5 February 2026, Science.

18/02/2026

🌙✨ Ramadan Mubarak from ThinkM! ✨🌙

Ramadan is not just a month of fasting — it’s a month of reflection, intention, and meaningful transformation.

At ThinkM, we believe growth begins with the right mindset.
This holy month, take time to pause, reflect, and realign your goals.

💡 Think Better
📈 Plan Smarter
🚀 Grow Stronger

Let this Ramadan inspire clarity in your vision and barakah in your journey.

May your prayers be accepted, your efforts rewarded, and your future filled with success. 🤲✨

ThinkM
Think Meaningfully. Move Mindfully.

07/02/2026

Scientists have shown that twisting a crystal at the nanoscale can turn it into a tiny, reversible diode, hinting at a new era of shape-engineered electronics.

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, working with collaborators, have created a new technique for building three-dimensional nanoscale devices directly from single crystals. The approach uses a focused ion beam instrument to precisely carve materials at extremely small scales.

Using this method, the team shaped tiny helical structures from a topological magnetic material made of cobalt, tin, and sulfur, known by its chemical formula Co3Sn2S2. Tests revealed that these structures behave like switchable diodes, allowing electric current to pass more easily in one direction than the other.

Why Three-Dimensional Nanostructures Matter
Building electronics with complex three-dimensional shapes could lead to devices that are smaller, faster, and more energy efficient. Until now, however, only a limited number of fabrication techniques could create such structures. Many of those methods restrict which materials can be used and often reduce the quality of the final device, limiting their practical impact.

3D Nanostructure Sculpted With Focused Ion Beam
Microscope image of a helical-shaped device crafted using the new method. Credit: RIKEN
A Nanoscale Sculpting Tool
In the new study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, the scientists turned to a focused ion beam capable of cutting with sub-micron accuracy. This allowed them to overcome many of the existing limitations. In principle, the technique makes it possible to shape three-dimensional devices from almost any crystalline material. The process works much like traditional sculpture, with the ion beam carefully removing material until the desired form emerges.

Helical Shapes Create Switchable Diodes
To show what the method could do, the researchers fabricated helical nanodevices from the magnetic crystal Co3Sn2S2. Based on the material’s properties, they expected the twisted shape to produce an unusual diode effect known as nonreciprocal electrical transport, which arises from the chiral geometry at the nanoscale.

Their experiments confirmed this idea. Electric current flowed more easily in one direction than the other, and the effect could be reversed by changing either the magnetization or the handedness of the helix. The team also observed the opposite interaction, where strong electrical pulses were able to flip the magnetization of the structure. Diodes play a central role in modern electronics, including AC/DC conversion, signal processing, and LED technology.

How Shape Influences Electron Motion
By studying helices of different sizes and testing them across a range of temperatures, the scientists linked the diode behavior to uneven electron scattering along the curved walls of the devices. The results show that the physical shape of a component can directly influence how electricity moves through it. This insight suggests new ways to design low power electronic elements by engineering geometry itself, with potential applications in future memory, logic, and sensing systems.

Geometry as a New Design Principle
According to Max Birch, the study’s first author, “By treating geometry as a source of symmetry breaking on equal footing with intrinsic material properties, we can engineer electrical nonreciprocity at the device level. Our newly developed focused ion beam nanosculpting method opens up a wide range of studies on how three-dimensional and curved device geometries can be used to realize new electronic functions.”

Research group leader Yoshinori Tokura added, “More broadly, this approach enables device designs that combine topological or strongly correlated electronic states with engineered curvature in the ballistic or hydrodynamic transport regime. The convergence of materials physics and nanofabrication points to functional device architectures with potential impact on memory, logic, and sensing technologies.”

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