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Surfaces and interfaces

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Interface between air and water gets a new twist

Vibrational spectroscopy technique reshapes our understanding of how water molecules behave at the boundary

Illustration showing ball-and-stick models of water molecules near the interface between air and water. A large molecule at the centre has a squiggly-red-line signal coming out of its central red oxygen atom, representing the molecule's dipole, while a dashed line emerging from the other side, between the two angled hydrogen atoms, represents the twist angle of the molecule.

Surface contamination holds the key to a static electricity mystery

Carbon-rich “schmutz” determines how charge moves between objects made from identical insulating oxides

Photo of a speaker, which resembles a metallic plunger, suspending a tiny sphere of silica above a silica plate

Quantum fluids mix like oil and water

Rayleigh–Taylor instability responsible for mushroom clouds appears in a two-component BEC

A photo of the experimental setup. It's in a laboratory with a large optical bench containing a vacuum system and optical components. Three screens in the background act as displays, and the entire scene is dark and bathed in orange laser light

Sliding droplets generate electrical charge as they stick and unstick

Newly observed depinning phenomenon could aid the development of more efficient energy harvesters and help keep next-generation fuel-handling systems safe

A water droplet spreading and contracting on a flat plate of Teflon

Memory of previous contacts affects static electricity on materials

Important clue found in the mystery of inconsistent triboelectric series

19-2-25 Low-Res_Juan Carlos Sobarzo & Scott Waitukaitis cropped

Liquid–metal interfaces show large thermoelectric effect

Discovery could help us better understand Jupiter’s magnetic field as well as improve liquid–metal batteries

Schematic image of the experiment showing a transparent layer of gallium stacked atop a silvery layer of mercury around a spool-like device, with poloidal currents (represented by blue lines) looping around the material and magnetic field lines (yellow) running along the interface.

Bound antimatter ejects molecular ions from crystals

Study boosts our understanding of positronic interactions with matter

Electrons caught going around the bend

New microscopy technique maps the flow of charge around corners in optoelectronics circuits for the first time

Graph showing the smooth flow of photocurrent streamlines around a microscopic structure shaped like an airplane wing

Friction at the microscale depends unexpectedly on sliding speed

New finding could have applications for hard disks and moving components for satellites or space telescopes

Illustration representing the friction between the tip of an atomic force microscope and graphene "Moiré" superstructures. The tip looks like a grey cone and the superstructures are represented by red hexagonal areas on a blue background

Machine learning could minimize quantum tunnelling in transistors

Study identifies lattice orientations that reduce unwanted effect

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Condensed matter | Workshop Fluctuations, Quenched Disorder and Strong Correlations 22—24 June 2026 | Dresden, Germany
Condensed matter | Conference Condensed Matter and Quantum Materials 2026 30 June — 3 July 2026 | Loughborough, UK
Condensed matter | School Boulder Summer School 2026: Geometry and Topology in Soft Matter Physics 6—31 July 2026 | Boulder, US

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