Quantum

A photo and infographic of the RAMBO system

Rice’s RAMBO-II: A sequel better than the original

First-of-its-kind spectrometer is getting stronger magnets, wider range of lasers.

Artificial enzymes made of treated charcoal, seen in this atomic force microscope image, could have the power to curtail damaging levels of superoxides, toxic radical oxygen ions that appear at high concentrations after an injury. (Credit: Tour Group/Rice University)

Charcoal a weapon to fight superoxide-induced disease, injury

Artificial enzymes made of treated charcoal could have the power to curtail damaging levels of superoxides that appear after an injury.

A model by Rice University scientists shows how two positively charged spheres attached to springs are attracted to the electric field of light. Due to the motion of the spheres, the spring system scatters light at different energies when irradiated with clockwise and anticlockwise trochoidal waves. (Credit: Link Research Group/Rice University)

Cartwheeling light reveals new optical phenomenon

Researchers at Rice University have discovered details about a novel type of polarized light-matter interaction with light that literally turns end over end as it propagates from a source.

Rice University physicists discover that plasmonic metals can be prompted to produce “hot carriers” that in turn emit unexpectedly bright light in nanoscale gaps between electrodes. The phenomenon could be useful for photocatalysis, quantum optics and optoelectronics. (Credit: Illustration by Longji Cui and Yunxuan Zhu/Rice University)

Rice lab’s bright idea is pure gold

Physicists discover plasmonic metals can produce “hot carriers” that emit unexpectedly bright light in nanoscale gaps between electrodes.

Rice scientists found certain combinations of weakly bound 2D materials let holes and electrons combine into excitons at the materials’ ground state. Courtesy of the Yakobson Research Group

Excitons form superfluid in certain 2D combos

Mixing and matching computational models of 2D materials led scientists at Rice University to the realization that excitons can be manipulated in new and useful ways.

Laurence Yeung

Rice scientist goes deep to improve environmental tracers

Rice Earth scientist Laurence Yeung earns a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to improve our understanding of the biosphere’s productivity.

Rice University physicist Ming Yi with her lab's angle-resolved photoemission spectroscope

Rice U. physicist Ming Yi wins coveted Moore Foundation grant

Rice physicist Ming Yi won $1.6 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for high-risk, high-reward research into quantum materials.

Matthew Foster

Quantum Hall effect 'reincarnated' in 3D topological materials

U.S. and German physicists have found surprising evidence of a link between the 2D quantum Hall effect and 3D topological materials that could be used in quantum computing.

Junichiro Kono and Qimiao Si

Study finds billions of quantum entangled electrons in 'strange metal'

Rice physicists and collaborators have observed quantum entanglement among "billions of billions" of flowing electrons in a quantum critical material.

Rice University researchers boosted the stability of their low-energy, copper-ruthenium syngas photocatalysts by shrinking the active sites to single atoms of ruthenium (blue). (Image by John Mark Martirez/UCLA)

Gasification goes green

Rice University engineers have created a light-powered nanoparticle that could shrink the carbon footprint of syngas producers.

A pattern of 1.5-millimeter microneedles that contain vaccine and fluorescent quantum dots are applied as a patch.

Quantum-dot tattoos hold vaccination record

Keeping track of a child’s shots could be so much easier with technology invented by a new Rice University professor and his colleagues.

Rice University physicists (from left) Tong Chen, Pengcheng Dai, David Tam, Andriy Nevidomskyy, Bin Gao and Emilia Morosan

Physicists find first possible 3D quantum spin liquid

Rice physicists show cerium zirconium pyrochlore qualifies as the first possible 3D quantum spin liquid.