Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are shape-changing materials that exhibit large deformations in response to applied stimuli. Local control of the orientation of LCEs spatially directs the deformation of these materials to realize a spontaneous shape change in response to stimuli. Prior approaches to shape programming in LCEs utilize patterning techniques that involve the detailed inscription of spatially varying nematic fields to produce sheets. These patterned sheets deform into elaborate geometries with complex Gaussian curvatures.

Electrons in two-dimensional semiconductor moiré materials are more delocalized around the lattice sites than those in conventional solids1,2. The non-local contributions to the magnetic interactions can therefore be as important as the Anderson superexchange3, which makes the materials a unique platform to study the effects of competing magnetic interactions3,4. Here we report evidence of strongly frustrated magnetic interactions in a Wigner–Mott insulator at a two-thirds (2/3) filling of the moiré lattice in angle-aligned WSe2/WS2 bilayers.

Complex models in physics, biology, economics, and engineering are oftensloppy, meaning that the model parameters are not well determined by the model predictions for collective behavior. Many parameter combinations can vary over decades without significant changes in the predictions. This review uses information geometry to explore sloppiness and its deep relation to emergent theories. We introduce themodel manifoldof predictions, whose coordinates are the model parameters. Itshyperribbonstructure explains why only a few parameter combinations matter for the behavior.

Fracture phenomena in soft materials span multiple length and time scales. This poses a major challenge in computational modeling and predictive materials design. To pass quantitatively from molecular to continuum scales, a precise representation of the material response at the molecular level is vital. Here, we derive the nonlinear elastic response and fracture characteristics of individual siloxane molecules using molecular dynamics (MD) studies. For short chains, we find deviations from classical scalings for both the effective stiffness and mean chain rupture times.

The kagome superconductors KV3Sb5, RbV3Sb5, and CsV3Sb5 are known to display charge density wave (CDW) order which impacts the topological characteristics of their electronic structure. Details of their structural ground states and how they evolve with temperature are revealed here using single crystal x-ray crystallographic refinements as a function of temperature, carried out with synchrotron radiation. The compounds KV3Sb5 and RbV3Sb5 present 2×2×2 superstructures in the Fmmm space group with a staggered trihexagonal deformation of vanadium layers.

We report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering investigation of ultrathin epitaxial films of Ba2IrO4, and compare their low-energy magnetic and spin-orbit excitations to those of their sister compound Sr2IrO4. Due to the 180∘ Ir-O-Ir bond, the bandwidth of the magnon and spin orbiton is significantly larger in Ba2IrO4, making it difficult to describe these two types of excitations as separate well-defined quasiparticles. Both types of excitations are found to be quite sensitive to the effect of epitaxial strain.

Recent experiments in moiré transition metal dichalcogenide materials have reported the observation of a continuous bandwidth-tuned transition from a metal to a paramagnetic Mott insulator at a fixed filling of one electron per moiré unit cell. The electrical transport measurements reveal a number of puzzling features that are seemingly at odds with the theoretical expectations of an interaction-induced, but disorder-free, bandwidth-tuned metal-insulator transition.

Prior research has indicated that students in the undergraduate physics lab divide work inequitably with regard to gender. In this work, we further probed women's experiences in lab group work, focusing on women who take on managerial and leadership roles in the lab. We interviewed and surveyed women enrolled in a sophomore-level project-based lab course, drawing on a practice-linked identity framework to characterize their opportunities for engagement and identity development within the course.

The original version of this Article contained an error in the Acknowledgements, which incorrectly read ‘The authors acknowledge support by the NSF [Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM)] under cooperative agreement no. DMR-U638986.’. The correct version states ‘DMR-1539918’ in place of ‘DMRU638986’. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article. © The Author(s) 2023.

Linear-accelerator-based applications like x-ray free electron lasers, ultrafast electron diffraction, electron beam cooling, and energy recovery linacs use photoemission-based cathodes in photoinjectors for electron sources. Most of these photocathodes are typically grown as polycrystalline materials with disordered surfaces. In order to understand the mechanism of photoemission from such cathodes and completely exploit their photoemissive properties, it is important to develop a photoemission formalism that properly describes the subtleties of these cathodes.