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Category: materials

Random deformation lets glassy materials store precise mechanical memories, simulations reveal

Amorphous materials such as glass are solids whose internal structure lacks a repeating pattern. Their molecules are arranged in a random and irregular way. Surprisingly, these disordered materials can “remember” past mechanical experiences; that is, the way they respond to a force can depend on how they have responded to external forces before.

Roni Chatterjee and Smarajit Karmakar at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, in collaboration with Damien Vandembroucq (CNRS, ESPCI Paris, France) and Muhittin Mungan (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany) now report crucial insights into memory formation in amorphous solids. Their study reveals that amorphous materials can encode memories even when the applied deformations are completely random rather than perfectly periodic, challenging the conventional understanding of memory formation in disordered solids. The findings of this study have been published in the New Journal of Physics.

Researchers usually study this kind of memory under strictly controlled laboratory conditions. They repeatedly deform a material in a regular, predictable way, gently shearing it back and forth over many cycles. Over time, the material “learns” this pattern and settles into a state that reflects its past training. This has been the standard way to understand memory in such systems.

Intermolecular collisions may explain why organic radical fluids become unusually magnetic

Certain substances can become magnetic when exposed to an external magnetic field. Magnetic susceptibility measures how easily a material can be magnetized. Materials known as organic radicals have been noted to possess anomalously large magnetic susceptibility. However, researchers have been unable to explain this phenomenon using conventional theories.

Now, researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a theoretical framework to explain this anomalous magnetic susceptibility. This discovery was recently published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

Long Duration Persistent Photocurrent in 3 nm Thin Doped Indium Oxide for Integrated Light Sensing and In‐Sensor Neuromorphic Computation

Mixed‐Dimensional Van der Waals Heterostructures Enabled Optoelectronic Synaptic Devices for Neuromorphic Applications

Yilin Sun, Yingtao Ding, Dan Xie.

Advanced Functional Materials

Tiny chip could help cameras spot hidden details

A tiny new chip could give cameras and sensing systems a far sharper view of the world, helping them detect subtle differences in materials and environments that standard color imaging systems cannot see.

In research led by Zhejiang University in collaboration with RMIT University, scientists have demonstrated a new way to build light-analysis capability directly into imaging hardware.

Cameras are highly effective at capturing images, but applications such as machine vision, automated inspection and environmental monitoring depend on understanding different colors and wavelengths of light, not just what something looks like. That information can reveal differences in materials, surface conditions or environmental changes that appear identical to the human eye.

Ultrafast laser pulses reveal a material’s hidden state of matter

What would it take to instantly transform a material from an electrical insulator into a conductive state without ever touching it? Using ultrafast laser pulses and powerful X-rays, scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—developed a methodology to generate “hidden” phases and understand why they work.

This research not only reveals a hidden state of matter and its fundamental interactions but also points toward new ways to control materials for future electronics and quantum technologies. Their work was recently published in Physical Review X.

At the heart of the research is an interesting class of quantum materials called magnetoresistive manganites. Under the right conditions, their properties and behaviors can change completely with external stimuli. In this case, the team used short bursts of laser light lasting 100 femtoseconds (one hundred quadrillionths of a second) to “switch” a material from an insulating state, where electricity cannot flow, to a conductive one.

New studies suggest consciousness exists in organisms without brains

How does a physical system such as the brain produce the ineffable phenomenon of conscious experience? Philosopher David Chalmers famously named this the “Hard Problem of Consciousness” in 1995. Proponents argue that, while cognitive functions such as categorisation or information integration might be explained mechanistically in the central nervous system, the origins of subjective experience resist such explanation. Detractors suggest that the Hard Problem is merely a collection of lesser puzzles that have yet to be solved through greater material understanding of the brain.

The heart of this controversy may lie in its core premise: that consciousness arises from a neuronal system organized around a brain. The deep entrenchment of this preconception isn’t surprising, given that our own consciousness is the only one we have access to. But this “brain-centrism” pervades the cognitive sciences, shaping our understanding of other beings and approaches to research. It’s one of several kinds of scientific chauvinism that currently limit the field of enquiry and hamper our scientific approach to other kinds of minds.

Rare-earth-free zinc oxide achieves a first in stress-to-light conversion

Mechanoluminescent materials convert mechanical energy such as stress, strain and vibration directly into light, making them attractive as self-powered sensors that require no batteries or wiring. From biomedical sensors to self-powered infrastructure monitoring sensors, mechanoluminescent materials have a wide range of potential applications. However, high-performance mechanoluminescent materials have traditionally relied on expensive rare-earth materials or complex material compositions.

Now, a research team led by Tohoku University, in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba and Saga University, has developed a zinc oxide (ZnO) material that exhibits strong, highly sensitive mechanoluminescence without using any rare-earth elements.

The newly developed material combines high sensitivity with low cost by using zinc oxide, an earth-abundant material already found in products such as sunscreens, cosmetics and ointments.

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Newly synthesized fullerene material remains metallic even under low temperatures

An international team whose research was coordinated by Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has reported the survival of metallic behavior in the strongly correlated molecular material ytterbium cesium fulleride (Yb₂CsC₆₀). The electrons in the newly synthesized material remained mobile and continued to conduct electricity even at the lowest temperatures studied, despite strong electron interactions that would normally be expected to drive the material into an insulating state.

The findings were published in Nature Communications.

In materials such as metals, electrons move freely, allowing them to conduct electricity. However, as interactions between electrons become stronger, freedom of motion can be suppressed. Under these conditions, materials undergo a phenomenon known as a Mott metal-insulator transition, where they change from a conducting metal into an insulating state in which electrons become effectively immobile.

Kyocera develops breakthrough multilayer ceramic core substrate for advanced AI semiconductors

face_with_colon_three I still think that ceramics would be very useful to stop the need for global mining operations that rely heavily on rare materials when they can make the same chip from ceramics.

To be shown at ECTC 2026, May 26–29 in Orlando, USA, the new substrate technology delivers superior rigidity and circuit miniaturization for next-gen data centers, AI, and ASIC packaging.

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