Physical Review Applied - Volume 25 Issue 4

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Efficient ammonia synthesis from nitric oxide using the topological nodal-line semimetal $Ca Ag As$

Xinyan Zhang, Ying Liu, Min Zhao, Zihan Li, Xuefang Dai, Xiaoming Zhang, and Guodong Liu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044023 (2026) - Published 9 April, 2026

Electrochemical conversion of NO to NH $_{3}$ is vital for sustainable ammonia synthesis and environmental remediation, but suffers from sluggish reaction kinetics. The authors identify the topological nodal-line semimetal CaAgAs as a highly efficient and selective catalyst, with a free-energy change ΔG of just 0.22 eV and drumheadlike topological surface states near the Fermi level that provide enhanced surface density of states to facilitate charge transfer. Strain engineering can reduce ΔG to 0.08 eV. Notably, symmetry-breaking transitions that eliminate the topological phase degrade catalytic performance, showing that here topology offers a robust and tunable design principle.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Experimental demonstration of an on-axis laser ranging interferometer for future gravity missions

Daikang Wei, Christoph Bode, Kohei Yamamoto, Yongho Lee, Germán Fernández Barranco, Vitali Müller, Miguel Dovale Álvarez, Juan José Esteban Delgado, and Gerhard Heinzel

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044039 (2026) - Published 15 April, 2026

High-precision laser interferometry between spacecraft is critical for future gravity missions, yet achieving nanometer-level accuracy remains hindered by challenges in beam alignment and stability, particularly due to spacecraft attitude jitter. To overcome these disturbances, this study presents an interferometric architecture featuring a monoaxial laser ranging interferometer with active beam-steering loops and differential wavefront sensing. Experiments validate pointing stability below 10 µrad/√Hz, while also revealing polarization effects and tilt-to-length coupling noise.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Predicting the future with magnons: Forecasting chaotic time series with reservoir computing

Zeling Xiong (熊则灵), Christopher Heins, Thibaut Devolder, Fabian Kammerbauer, Mathias Kläui, Jürgen Fassbender, Helmut Schultheiss, and Katrin Schultheiss

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044047 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

Forecasting chaotic signals is important for applications ranging from sensing to communication to climate modeling. Compact hardware for real-time prediction remains challenging, as it must combine high energy efficiency with the nonlinear dynamics and memory needed for computation in a single physical system. Here a magnetic vortex-state microdisk acts as a magnon-scattering reservoir, converting one-dimensional microwave input into high-dimensional spectral output that predicts the chaotic Mackey-Glass benchmark with high accuracy over hundreds of future time steps. Spectral resolution must be carefully tuned, and combining multiple device geometries systematically boosts performance.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Enhancing the sensitivity of single-microwave-photon detection with bandwidth tunability

Louis Pallegoix, Jaime Travesedo, Alexandre S. May, Léo Balembois, Denis Vion, Patrice Bertet, and Emmanuel Flurin

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044064 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Detecting single microwave photons is important in, for example, primary thermometry in dilution cryostats, dark-matter detection, and detection of a single spin in a crystal lattice. Such detectors are not commercially available and are challenging to design, due to the very low energies of gigahertz photons. The improved device presented in this study uses a qubit coupled to harmonic oscillators and a drive line to encode the detection event using a four-wave mixing process. This single-photon detector could impact engineering solutions to improve cryostat-wiring thermalization, detection of chemical species at ultralow concentrations, and axion detection.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Real-time monitoring of growth of neon film for electron-on-neon qubits

Sidharth Duthaluru, Kaiwen Zheng, Erik A. Henriksen, and Kater W. Murch

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044065 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Precise control of noble-gas thin films is essential for emerging quantum platforms such as electron-on-neon qubits, but progress has been limited by the lack of real-time diagnostics and reproducible growth control. Here researchers demonstrate in situ monitoring of neon-film growth by tracking the frequency shift of a high- $T_{c}$ superconducting microwave resonator during neon deposition. This study reveals stochastic film thinning in the vicinity of neon’s triple point, and identifies routes toward controlled film growth, with broad implications for quantum device fabrication and cryogenic materials engineering.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Ultrafast single-photon detector based on a nanophotonic parametric amplifier

Elina Sendonaris, James Williams, Rajveer Nehra, Robert Gray, Ryoto Sekine, Luis Ledezma, and Alireza Marandi

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044078 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

Single-photon detection is central to optical quantum communication and computation. Its speed and integrability into photonic chips are currently limited by the physical processes by which the photon is absorbed. This work shows that a nanophotonic optical parametric amplifier (OPA) can be used as an ultrafast single-photon detector, bypassing these absorption mechanisms in favor of optical amplification. In addition, a path for OPA-based single-photon detectors to reach state-of-the-art performance is discussed. This approach opens the door to integrated ultrafast single-photon detection, to enable ultrafast optical quantum information processing.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

LETTER

Enhancement of vacuum-ultraviolet dispersive-wave emission using gas-filled tapered hollow-core fibers

Yinuo Zhao, Donghan Liu, Baoqi Shi, Zhiyuan Huang, Tiandao Chen, Jinyu Pan, Zhengzheng Liu, Xinglin Zeng, Wenbin He, Jiapeng Huang, Jinxin Zhan, Xin Jiang, Yuxin Leng, Junqiu Liu, and Meng Pang

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L041001 (2026) - Published 1 April, 2026

Resonant dispersive wave emission in hollow-core optical fibers offers a promising route to the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) sources essential for $^{229}$ Th nuclear clocks. Unfortunately, standard capillaries force a strict trade-off between the large core diameters needed for efficient input coupling and the high intensities required for efficient nonlinear conversion. The authors use a gas-filled tapered capillary fiber to avoid the trade-off, combining a large input aperture with adiabatic field concentration. This yields a widely tunable source with doubled efficiency specifically at the 148.38-nm isomer energy, in a scalable architecture for much-needed high-flux tabletop VUV tools.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

LETTER

Enhancement of vacuum-ultraviolet dispersive-wave emission using gas-filled tapered hollow-core fibers

Yinuo Zhao, Donghan Liu, Baoqi Shi, Zhiyuan Huang, Tiandao Chen, Jinyu Pan, Zhengzheng Liu, Xinglin Zeng, Wenbin He, Jiapeng Huang, Jinxin Zhan, Xin Jiang, Yuxin Leng, Junqiu Liu, and Meng Pang

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L041001 (2026) - Published 1 April, 2026

Resonant dispersive wave emission in hollow-core optical fibers offers a promising route to the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) sources essential for $^{229}$ Th nuclear clocks. Unfortunately, standard capillaries force a strict trade-off between the large core diameters needed for efficient input coupling and the high intensities required for efficient nonlinear conversion. The authors use a gas-filled tapered capillary fiber to avoid the trade-off, combining a large input aperture with adiabatic field concentration. This yields a widely tunable source with doubled efficiency specifically at the 148.38-nm isomer energy, in a scalable architecture for much-needed high-flux tabletop VUV tools.

LETTER

Pulse reversal in adiabatically modulated plasmonic waveguides

Luca Stefanini, Jacob Khurgin, and Andrea Alú

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L041002 (2026) - Published 2 April, 2026

Reversing the propagation direction of a wave intuitively requires the inversion of its momentum, typically produced by spatial reflections induced by broken spatial invariance. This Letter shows that, in a plasmonic waveguide that is translationally invariant across its length, propagation direction reversal is possible without changing the total momentum of the system, relying only on slow, spatially uniform changes of the material properties in time. This phenomenon expands the plethora of exotic phenomena enabled by time-varying media and time metamaterials, realizing pulse reversal without requiring ultrafast material changes.

LETTER

Sputtered ${Sb}_{2} {Te}_{3}$ topological insulators with high temperature tolerance for efficient magnetization switching

Qi Zhang, Xu Liu, Meihong Liu, Yining Wang, Mingyu Wei, Pengxiang Zhao, Hanyuan Guo, Junwei Zhang, Baoshan Cui, Dezheng Yang, Yalu Zuo, Kun Tao, Yong Peng, Xin Cao, Guchang Han, Tiejun Zhou, Bo Liu, Xiaoxi Liu, and Li Xi

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L041003 (2026) - Published 10 April, 2026

Topological insulators (TIs) enable highly efficient charge-to-spin conversion, making them attractive for spintronic devices. However, their integration into MRAM technologies has been hindered by thermal degradation during device fabrication. This Letter demonstrates magnetron-sputtered Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ thin films that withstand some annealing, without structural or functional degradation. In heterostructures, these films exhibit a spin Hall angle that is an order of magnitude higher than for heavy metals, and field-free perpendicular magnetization switching with good critical-current density. Here is an industrially compatible pathway toward thermally robust, energy-efficient TI MRAM.

LETTER

Ab initio theory of eliminating surface oxides of superconductors with noble-metal encapsulation

Cristóbal Méndez, Nathan Sitaraman, Matthias Liepe, and Tomás A. Arias

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L041004 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

Surface oxides on Nb and Ta can limit the performance of superconducting devices, making reliable surface protection essential. Using first-principles calculations, the authors show that effective encapsulation requires balancing oxidation resistance, wetting/adhesion, and superconducting compatibility across the full device stack. This leads to a simple design rule, in which a noble-metal cap provides passivation while a separate adhesion layer stabilizes the interface. The resulting framework offers a practical route to designing more robust superconducting surfaces and interfaces.

Influence of atmospheric turbulence on system-instability analysis of free-space frequency transfer

Yapeng Liu, Hao Gao, Jie Zhang, Baodong Zhao, Shangshu Ding, En Zhu, Zhanyu Yang, Song Yu, and Bin Luo

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044001 (2026) - Published 1 April, 2026

Near-deterministic photon entanglement from a spin qudit in silicon using third quantization

Gözde Üstün, Samuel J Elman, Jarryd J. Pla, Andrew C Doherty, Andrea Morello, and Simon J. Devitt

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044002 (2026) - Published 1 April, 2026

Multimode Purcell filter for superconducting-qubit reset and readout with intrinsic Purcell protection

Xu-Yang Gu, Da’er Feng, Zhen-Yu Peng, Gui-Han Liang, Yang He, Yongxi Xiao, Ming-Chuan Wang, Yu Yan, Bing-Jie Chen, Zheng-Yang Mei, Yi-Zhou Bu, Jia-Chi Zhang, Jia-Cheng Song, Cheng-Lin Deng, Yun-Hao Shi, Xiaohui Song, Dongning Zheng, Kai Xu, Zhongcheng Xiang, and Heng Fan

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044003 (2026) - Published 1 April, 2026

Multilayer goldenes challenge graphene’s reign on electrical and thermal conducting performance

Huiwen Zhang, Tiancheng Ma, Mingfeng Zhu, Liwei Jiang, and Yisong Zheng

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044004 (2026) - Published 2 April, 2026

Role of a trap in disordered OLED host-guest systems

Andrei Stankevych, Naomi Kinaret, Andriy Zhugayevych, Rishabh Saxena, Alexander Vakhnin, Kun-Han Lin, Denis Andrienko, Heinz Bässler, Anna Köhler, and Andrey Kadashchuk

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044005 (2026) - Published 2 April, 2026

Electron-to-photon noise transfer in midinfrared semiconductor lasers

Irene La Penna, Tecla Gabbrielli, Simone Borri, Luigi Consolino, Francesco Cappelli, Paolo De Natale, Borislav Hinkov, Robert Weih, Naota Akikusa, Lorenzo Mischi, and Alessio Montori

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044006 (2026) - Published 2 April, 2026

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing for simultaneous gate operations on multiple qubits via a shared control line

Haruki Mitarai, Yukihiro Tadokoro, and Hiroya Tanaka

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044007 (2026) - Published 3 April, 2026

Verification of very low-yield nuclear tests with post-experiment gamma spectroscopy

Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin, Christopher Fichtlscherer, and Moritz Kütt

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044008 (2026) - Published 3 April, 2026

Superconducting-qubit readout using next-generation reservoir computing

Robert Kent, Benjamin Lienhard, Gregory Lafyatis, and Daniel J. Gauthier

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044009 (2026) - Published 3 April, 2026

Geometric protected quantum bus in a hybrid superconducting-spin architecture

Xing-Yu Zhu, Zhu-Cheng Yue, Guang-Can Guo, Tao Tu, and Chuan-Feng Li

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044010 (2026) - Published 3 April, 2026

Edge-of-chaos-enhanced quantum-inspired algorithm for combinatorial optimization

Hayato Goto, Ryo Hidaka, and Kosuke Tatsumura

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044011 (2026) - Published 6 April, 2026

Memristive spin-orbit-torque switching in a chirally coupled synthetic antiferromagnet for neuromorphic pattern recognition

Aihua Tang, Junwei Zeng, Hao Bai, Shengchun Shen, Wanjun Jiang, Jiahao Liu, and Teng Xu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044012 (2026) - Published 6 April, 2026

$Si$ /diamond thermal boundary conductance enhanced by ${Si N}_{x}$ and amorphous carbon interlayers

Khalid Zobaid Adnan, Tanvirul Abedien, and Tianli Feng

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044013 (2026) - Published 6 April, 2026

Vacuum-squeezing-enhanced micrometer-scale vapor-cell magnetometer

Shahar Monsa, Yair Chasid, Michael Shuldiner, Shmuel Sternklar, and Eliran Talker

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044014 (2026) - Published 6 April, 2026

Thermal-annealing-induced symmetry breaking enables field-free spin-orbit-torque switching of a perpendicular ferrimagnet

Baoshan Cui, Pengxiang Zhao, Cuimei Cao, Jijun Yun, Tengyu Guo, Zengtai Zhu, Wenjie Song, Qingfeng Zhan, Dan Liu, Hao Wu, Haifeng Du, Kang L. Wang, Baogen Shen, and Guoqiang Yu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044015 (2026) - Published 7 April, 2026

Sliding-induced vertical ferroelectricity in bilayer 1T ′-ReS₂ toward high-efficiency photovoltaics

Meng Ge, Jianing Tan, Degao Xu, and Gang Ouyang

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044016 (2026) - Published 7 April, 2026

Pressure-induced enhancement of deep-blue photoluminescence in two-dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites

Wei Wang, Xuening Sun, Tieshan Yang, Mengmeng Jiao, Chuanlu Yang, Kai Wang, Defang Duan, and Qinfeng Xu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044017 (2026) - Published 7 April, 2026

Magnon-magnon coupling induced by broken intrinsic symmetry in synthetic ferrimagnets

Mohammad Tomal Hossain, Hang Chen, Subhash Bhatt, Mojtaba Taghipour Kaffash, Mitra M. Subedi, John Q. Xiao, Joseph Sklenar, and M. Benjamin Jungfleisch

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044018 (2026) - Published 7 April, 2026

Fiber-integrated $N$ -V diamond magnetometer compatible with commercial endoscopic systems

Satbir Singh, Hyunjong Lee, Nhu Anh Nguyen, Seonghyeon Kang, Jeong Hyun Shim, Sangwon Oh, and Kwang-Geol Lee

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044019 (2026) - Published 8 April, 2026

Acoustic extreme asymmetry with a passive $P T$ -symmetric metasurface

Fangfang Ju, Bogang Huang, Xin Wang, Ye Tian, Shibei Xue, Shengyou Qian, and Xiaojun Liu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044020 (2026) - Published 8 April, 2026

Energy-participation-ratio analysis for very anharmonic superconducting circuits

Figen Yilmaz, Siddharth Singh, Martijn F.S. Zwanenburg, Jinlun Hu, Taryn V. Stefanski, and Christian Kraglund Andersen

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044021 (2026) - Published 8 April, 2026

Rapid all-optical loading of trapped ions using a miniaturized atom source

L. Versini, T.F. Wohlers-Reichel, C.E.J. Challoner, T. Hinde, A.D. Rao, W.J. Hughes, P. Drmota, T.H. Doherty, L.J. Stephenson, J.A. Blackmore, and J.F. Goodwin

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044022 (2026) - Published 8 April, 2026

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Efficient ammonia synthesis from nitric oxide using the topological nodal-line semimetal $Ca Ag As$

Xinyan Zhang, Ying Liu, Min Zhao, Zihan Li, Xuefang Dai, Xiaoming Zhang, and Guodong Liu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044023 (2026) - Published 9 April, 2026

Electrochemical conversion of NO to NH $_{3}$ is vital for sustainable ammonia synthesis and environmental remediation, but suffers from sluggish reaction kinetics. The authors identify the topological nodal-line semimetal CaAgAs as a highly efficient and selective catalyst, with a free-energy change ΔG of just 0.22 eV and drumheadlike topological surface states near the Fermi level that provide enhanced surface density of states to facilitate charge transfer. Strain engineering can reduce ΔG to 0.08 eV. Notably, symmetry-breaking transitions that eliminate the topological phase degrade catalytic performance, showing that here topology offers a robust and tunable design principle.

Learned light-cone transform for fast and accurate non-line-of-sight imaging

Xinqi Gao, Yijie Yang, Lianfang Wang, Xueying Liu, Yong Wang, and Yuping Duan

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044024 (2026) - Published 9 April, 2026

Power transfer in magnetoelectric resonators: A combined analytical and finite-element study

Emma Van Meirvenne, Frederic Vanderveken, Daniele Narducci, Bart Sorée, Florin Ciubotaru, and Christoph Adelmann

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044025 (2026) - Published 9 April, 2026

Self-healing liquid nanodroplets

Abhishek K. Barnwal, Avanish Kumar, and Rajesh Khanna

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044026 (2026) - Published 10 April, 2026

Kinetic inductance traveling-wave parametric amplifiers near the quantum limit: Methodology and characterization

L. Howe, A. Giachero, M. Vissers, P. Campana, J. Wheeler, J. Gao, J. Austermann, J. Hubmayr, A. Nucciotti, and J. Ullom

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044027 (2026) - Published 10 April, 2026

Weak localization as a probe of spin-orbit-induced spin-split bands in bilayer graphene proximity coupled to ${WSe}_{2}$

E. Icking, F. Wörtche, A.W. Cummings, A. Wörtche, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, C. Volk, B. Beschoten, and C. Stampfer

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044028 (2026) - Published 10 April, 2026

Two-step method for tracing the density of states from scanning tunneling spectra

T.Z. Ji, H.T. Li, R.G. Yan, W.L. Fan, Z.X. Zhang, X.S. Guo, L. Sun, G. Chen, B.F. Miao, and H.F. Ding

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044029 (2026) - Published 13 April, 2026

Strong-coupling quantum thermodynamics using a superconducting flux qubit

Rishabh Upadhyay, Bayan Karimi, Diego Subero, Christoforus Dimas Satrya, Joonas T. Peltonen, Yu-Cheng Chang, and Jukka P. Pekola

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044030 (2026) - Published 13 April, 2026

Experimental and density functional theory study of thermionic emission and narrow total-energy distribution from an yttrium oxide electron emitter

Mike Chang, George A. Sawatzky, and Alireza Nojeh

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044031 (2026) - Published 13 April, 2026

From heat capacity to coherence in ultranarrow-linewidth solid-state optical emitters at subkelvin temperatures

D. Serrano, T. Klein, C. Marcenat, P. Goldner, M.T. Hartman, B. Fang, Y. Le Coq, and S. Seidelin

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044032 (2026) - Published 13 April, 2026

Wideband dual-polarized scattering suppression of a dihedral corner structure with an engineered metagrating diffuser

Shaojie Wang, Jing Ning, Weixu Yang, Xiangrui Zhang, Junming Zhao, Tian Jiang, Ke Chen, and Yijun Feng

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044033 (2026) - Published 14 April, 2026

Anomalous reflection of sunlight for solar sailing

Tom Joly-Jehenne and Artur R. Davoyan

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044034 (2026) - Published 14 April, 2026

Effect of magnetic anisotropy on magnetoelastic waves in a $Ni / {Li Nb O}_{3}$ hybrid device

Minwoo Yu, Moojune Song, Minseok Kang, Mujin You, Yunyoung Hwang, Albert Min Gyu Park, Byong-Guk Park, Kab-Jin Kim, and Junho Suh

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044035 (2026) - Published 14 April, 2026

Compact continuous cold atomic beam from a single cell with three-dimensional cooling and ultralow light shift

Sheng-Zhe Wang (王圣哲), Qian-Lan Cai (蔡千澜), Zhi-Xin Meng (孟至欣), Yi-Cheng Deng (邓意成), and Yan-Ying Feng (冯焱颖)

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044036 (2026) - Published 14 April, 2026

Quantum-processing-assisted classical communication

Kelly Werker Smith, Don Boroson, Saikat Guha, and Johannes Borregaard

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044037 (2026) - Published 15 April, 2026

Block encoding of the three-dimensional heterogeneous Poisson equation with application to fracture flow

Austin Pechan, John Golden, and Daniel O’Malley

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044038 (2026) - Published 15 April, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Experimental demonstration of an on-axis laser ranging interferometer for future gravity missions

Daikang Wei, Christoph Bode, Kohei Yamamoto, Yongho Lee, Germán Fernández Barranco, Vitali Müller, Miguel Dovale Álvarez, Juan José Esteban Delgado, and Gerhard Heinzel

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044039 (2026) - Published 15 April, 2026

High-precision laser interferometry between spacecraft is critical for future gravity missions, yet achieving nanometer-level accuracy remains hindered by challenges in beam alignment and stability, particularly due to spacecraft attitude jitter. To overcome these disturbances, this study presents an interferometric architecture featuring a monoaxial laser ranging interferometer with active beam-steering loops and differential wavefront sensing. Experiments validate pointing stability below 10 µrad/√Hz, while also revealing polarization effects and tilt-to-length coupling noise.

Probabilistic quantum algorithm for Lyapunov equations and matrix inversion

Marcello Benedetti, Ansis Rosmanis, and Matthias Rosenkranz

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044040 (2026) - Published 16 April, 2026

Broadband electromagnetic transparency induced by magnon drag effect

Lijun Yan, Xinlin Mi, Jiale Zhao, Yitong Sun, Yue Zhao, Jinwei Rao, and Lihui Bai

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044041 (2026) - Published 16 April, 2026

Quantitative determination of intra-meta-atom coupling in chiral metasurfaces

Xiaohai Liu, Fei Xie, Lun Qu, Yiran Chen, Mengxin Ren, and Jingjun Xu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044042 (2026) - Published 16 April, 2026

Calibration of key parameters during the in-orbit phase for the Taiji-2 gravitational reference sensor

Haoyue Zhang, Chang Liu, Xiaotong Wei, Peng Xu, Li-E Qiang, Ziren Luo, and Ye Dong

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044043 (2026) - Published 16 April, 2026

Magnetization dynamics in artificial spin ice made from magnetic tunnel junctions

Connor Sullivan, Hao Chen, Yan Wen, Qiang Zhang, Xixiang Zhang, and Sara A. Majetich

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044044 (2026) - Published 16 April, 2026

Multiqubit gate based on parity cross resonance

Xuexin Xu, Siyu Wang, Radhika Joshi, Rihan Hai, and Mohammad H. Ansari

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044045 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

Cat-qubit-stabilization scheme using a voltage-biased Josephson junction

T. Aissaoui, A. Murani, R. Lescanne, and A. Sarlette

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044046 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Predicting the future with magnons: Forecasting chaotic time series with reservoir computing

Zeling Xiong (熊则灵), Christopher Heins, Thibaut Devolder, Fabian Kammerbauer, Mathias Kläui, Jürgen Fassbender, Helmut Schultheiss, and Katrin Schultheiss

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044047 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

Forecasting chaotic signals is important for applications ranging from sensing to communication to climate modeling. Compact hardware for real-time prediction remains challenging, as it must combine high energy efficiency with the nonlinear dynamics and memory needed for computation in a single physical system. Here a magnetic vortex-state microdisk acts as a magnon-scattering reservoir, converting one-dimensional microwave input into high-dimensional spectral output that predicts the chaotic Mackey-Glass benchmark with high accuracy over hundreds of future time steps. Spectral resolution must be carefully tuned, and combining multiple device geometries systematically boosts performance.

Efficient measurement of neutral-atom qubits with matched filters

Robert M. Kent, Linipun Phuttitarn, Chaithanya Naik Mude, Swamit Tannu, Mark Saffman, Gregory Lafyatis, and Daniel J. Gauthier

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044048 (2026) - Published 17 April, 2026

Optimizing quantum transport in multibarrier graphene systems using differential evolution

Leon Browne and Stephen R. Power

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044049 (2026) - Published 20 April, 2026

Statistics of strongly coupled defects in superconducting qubits

S. Weeden, D.C. Harrison, S. Patel, M. Snyder, E.J. Blackwell, G. Spahn, S. Abdullah, Y. Takeda, B.L.T. Plourde, J.M. Martinis, and R. McDermott

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044050 (2026) - Published 20 April, 2026

Synergistic metasurface barrier for ventilated broadband acoustic insulation via topology optimization

Hao-Bo Qi, Shi-Wang Fan, Badreddine Assouar, and Yue-Sheng Wang

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044051 (2026) - Published 20 April, 2026

Engineered robustness for nonadiabatic geometric quantum gates

Xuan Zhang, Xiao-Le Li, Jingjing Niu, Tongxing Yan, and Yuanzhen Chen

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044052 (2026) - Published 20 April, 2026

Vorticity-resolved scaling law for laser-sustained plasma oscillations

Dongheyu Zhang, Junkang Mao, and Yangyang Fu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044053 (2026) - Published 20 April, 2026

Scale-factor measurement with a linear optical cavity for GRACE-like missions

Emily Rose Rees, Andrew Wade, and Kirk McKenzie

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044054 (2026) - Published 21 April, 2026

Quantum-inspired dynamical models on quantum and classical annealers

Philipp Hanussek, Jakub Pawłowski, Zakaria Mzaouali, and Bartłomiej Gardas

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044055 (2026) - Published 21 April, 2026

From membership-privacy leakage to quantum machine unlearning

Junjian Su, Runze He, Guanghui Li, Sujuan Qin, Zhimin He, Haozhen Situ, and Fei Gao

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044056 (2026) - Published 21 April, 2026

Comparing contact resistance of edge-, top-, and hybrid-contacted two-dimensional materials

Emeric Deylgat, Edward Chen, Bart Sorée, and William G. Vandenberghe

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044057 (2026) - Published 21 April, 2026

Improved Ising formulation of max-3-cut using higher-order spin interactions

Robbe De Prins, Guy Van der Sande, Peter Bienstman, and Thomas Van Vaerenbergh

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044058 (2026) - Published 21 April, 2026

Driving and tailoring skyrmion dynamics via strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic heterostructures

Guoliang Yu, Yifeng Zheng, Longhuan Feng, Mingmin Zhu, Yang Qiu, Jiawei Wang, Yan Li, Aijun Song, and Haomiao Zhou

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044059 (2026) - Published 22 April, 2026

Noise-resilient quantum reinforcement learning

Jing-Ci Yue and Jun-Hong An

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044060 (2026) - Published 22 April, 2026

Tilted Dirac-like microwave cones in superconducting circuit lattices

Ahmad Motavassel, Amir Youssefi, Shingo Kono, Seyed Akbar Jafari, and Tobias J. Kippenberg

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044061 (2026) - Published 22 April, 2026

From superradiance to collective electromagnetically induced transparency in three-level ensembles

H. Sanchez, L.F. Alves da Silva, M.A. Ponte, M.H.Y. Moussa, and Norton G. de Almeida

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044062 (2026) - Published 22 April, 2026

Strain-driven evolution of structural and carrier recombination dynamics in germanium

Apoorva Rose, Steven W. Johnston, Sengunthar Karthikeyan, Ze Zong, Wei Zhou, Christopher J. Stanton, and Mantu K. Hudait

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044063 (2026) - Published 22 April, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Enhancing the sensitivity of single-microwave-photon detection with bandwidth tunability

Louis Pallegoix, Jaime Travesedo, Alexandre S. May, Léo Balembois, Denis Vion, Patrice Bertet, and Emmanuel Flurin

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044064 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Detecting single microwave photons is important in, for example, primary thermometry in dilution cryostats, dark-matter detection, and detection of a single spin in a crystal lattice. Such detectors are not commercially available and are challenging to design, due to the very low energies of gigahertz photons. The improved device presented in this study uses a qubit coupled to harmonic oscillators and a drive line to encode the detection event using a four-wave mixing process. This single-photon detector could impact engineering solutions to improve cryostat-wiring thermalization, detection of chemical species at ultralow concentrations, and axion detection.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Real-time monitoring of growth of neon film for electron-on-neon qubits

Sidharth Duthaluru, Kaiwen Zheng, Erik A. Henriksen, and Kater W. Murch

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044065 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Precise control of noble-gas thin films is essential for emerging quantum platforms such as electron-on-neon qubits, but progress has been limited by the lack of real-time diagnostics and reproducible growth control. Here researchers demonstrate in situ monitoring of neon-film growth by tracking the frequency shift of a high- $T_{c}$ superconducting microwave resonator during neon deposition. This study reveals stochastic film thinning in the vicinity of neon’s triple point, and identifies routes toward controlled film growth, with broad implications for quantum device fabrication and cryogenic materials engineering.

Quasiballistic $(In, Ga) As$ Josephson field-effect transistor with molybdenum electrodes

Louise Olausson and Erik Lind

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044066 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Strong coupling beyond the high-Q limit and linewidth narrowing in a multiexciton planar microcavity

E. A. Cerda-Mendez, Y. G. Rubo, K. Biermann, A. Camacho-Guardian, A. S. Kuznetsov, and P. V. Santos

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044067 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Measurement-based quantum compiling via gauge invariance

Sebastiano Corli and Enrico Prati

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044068 (2026) - Published 23 April, 2026

Refined criteria for quantum random-access memory error suppression via an efficient large-scale simulator

Yun-Jie Wang, Tai-Ping Sun, Xi-Ning Zhuang, Xiao-Fan Xu, Huan-Yu Liu, Cheng Xue, Yu-Chun Wu, Zhao-Yun Chen, and Guo-Ping Guo

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044069 (2026) - Published 24 April, 2026

Spectral approach to electron emission analysis from heterogeneous surfaces

J. Ludwick, G. Saiz, L. Douillard, T.C. Back, and A. Sayir

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044070 (2026) - Published 24 April, 2026

Measuring reactive-load impedance with transmission-line resonators beyond the perturbative limit

Xuanjing Chu, Jinho Park, Jesse Balgley, Sean Clemons, Ted S. Chung, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Leonardo Ranzani, Martin V. Gustafsson, Kin Chung Fong, and James Hone

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044071 (2026) - Published 24 April, 2026

Scalable fluxonium-qubit architecture with tunable interactions between noncomputational levels

Peng Zhao, Guming Zhao, Shaowei Li, Chen Zha, and Ming Gong

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044072 (2026) - Published 24 April, 2026

Flux-trapping characterization for superconducting electronics using a cryogenic widefield N-V diamond microscope

Rohan T. Kapur, Pauli Kehayias, Sergey K. Tolpygo, Adam A. Libson, George Haldeman, Collin N. Muniz, Alex Wynn, Nathaniel J. O’Connor, Neel A. Parmar, Ryan Johnson, Andrew C. Maccabe, John Cummings, Justin L. Mallek, Danielle A. Braje, and Jennifer M. Schloss

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044073 (2026) - Published 24 April, 2026

Quantum nanophotonic interface for tin-vacancy centers in thin-film diamond

Hope Lee, Hannah C. Kleidermacher, Abigail J.M. Stein, Hyunseok Oh, Lillian B. Hughes Wyatt, Casey K. Kim, Luca Basso, Andrew M. Mounce, Yongqiang Wang, Shei S. Su, Michael Titze, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich, and Jelena Vučković

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044074 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

Work function enhancement in ultrathin $2 H$ - ${Mo Te}_{2}$ nanoflakes driven by the interplay of quantum confinement and dielectric screening

Arnab Bera, Partha Sarathi Rana, Basavaraja G, Sk Kalimuddin, Surabhi Saha, Satyabrata Bera, Sujan Maity, Tuhin Debnath, Deep Singha Roy, Soham Das, Suman Kalyan Pradhan, Sanjib Naskar, Mukul Kabir, and Mintu Mondal

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044075 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

Roles of biasing, disorder, defects, and geometry in the offset voltage of graphene Hall-effect sensors

Koteswar Doddi, Aadil Bashir Dar, Mayank Shrivastava, and Arup Polley

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044076 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

Perpendicular magnetization in sputtered yttrium iron garnet thin films for spin-wave propagation and spin-orbit-torque switching

Yoichi Shiota, Daisuke Kan, Ryusuke Hisatomi, Shutaro Karube, Yuichi Shimakawa, and Teruo Ono

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044077 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Ultrafast single-photon detector based on a nanophotonic parametric amplifier

Elina Sendonaris, James Williams, Rajveer Nehra, Robert Gray, Ryoto Sekine, Luis Ledezma, and Alireza Marandi

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044078 (2026) - Published 27 April, 2026

Single-photon detection is central to optical quantum communication and computation. Its speed and integrability into photonic chips are currently limited by the physical processes by which the photon is absorbed. This work shows that a nanophotonic optical parametric amplifier (OPA) can be used as an ultrafast single-photon detector, bypassing these absorption mechanisms in favor of optical amplification. In addition, a path for OPA-based single-photon detectors to reach state-of-the-art performance is discussed. This approach opens the door to integrated ultrafast single-photon detection, to enable ultrafast optical quantum information processing.

Strain-induced compensated nonaltermagnet and its application to magnetic tunnel junction design

Fangqi Liu, Yanrong Song, Chunmin Ning, Zhenhua Zhang, Tongtong Wang, Shuchang Zhang, Sicong Zhu, Zhihong Lu, Yong Liu, and Rui Xiong

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044079 (2026) - Published 28 April, 2026

Optical interferometric readout of a magnetically levitated superconducting microsphere

Jannek J. Hansen, Stefan Minniberger, Dominik Ilk, Peter Asenbaum, Gerard Higgins, Rhys G. Povey, Philip Schmidt, Joachim Hofer, Rémi Claessen, Markus Aspelmeyer, and Michael Trupke

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044080 (2026) - Published 28 April, 2026

Fourier optical route toward multimodal differential microscopy

Jeeban Kumar Nayak, Niladri Modak, Sayan Ghosh, Olivier J.F. Martin, and Nirmalya Ghosh

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044081 (2026) - Published 28 April, 2026

Virtual exceptional points in optical lossless bilayer metasurfaces

Guohao Zhang, Jingwen Li, Changdong Chen, Youwen Liu, Yadong Xu, Shuming Wang, and Yangyang Fu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044082 (2026) - Published 28 April, 2026

Memory effects in pulsed optomechanical systems

Hachisko Tapia-Maureira, Bing He, Massimiliano Di Ventra, and Ariel Norambuena

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044083 (2026) - Published 28 April, 2026

Limits of quantum run-time advantage

J. Tuziemski, J. Pawłowski, P. Tarasiuk, Ł. Pawela, and B. Gardas

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044084 (2026) - Published 29 April, 2026

Understanding voltage loss in $Cd$ ( $Se$ , $Te$ ) solar cells: Integrating defect interactions and potential fluctuations in device modeling

Xiaofeng Xiang, Yijun Tong, and Scott T. Dunham

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044085 (2026) - Published 29 April, 2026

Identifying bound states in the continuum by their boundary sensitivity

Vincent Laude and David Röhlig

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044086 (2026) - Published 29 April, 2026

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are of interest for sensing applications, because their sensitivity can be made very sharp (with a quality factor that diverges, in principle), but their utility is held back because coupling to radiation loss is difficult to assess. This study makes progress by considering BIC sensitivity to the true boundary conditions, and clarifying the relation of BICs to the quasinormal modes of open systems. This insight is expected to impact the practical design of sensing solutions based on wave propagation.

Single-step phase-compensation scheme for continuous-variable quantum key distribution based on self-supervised recurrent neural networks

Guolong Wan, Jiayu Ma, Ziyang Chen, Song Yu, and Xiangyu Wang

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044087 (2026) - Published 29 April, 2026

Method for stabilizing unstable periodic orbits in dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy

Hannes Wallner, Lukas Böttcher, Niklas Kruse, Wolfram Just, Ingo Barke, Sylvia Speller, and Jens Starke

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044088 (2026) - Published 30 April, 2026

Uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and type- $x / y$ current-induced magnetization switching in oblique-angle-deposited $Ta$ / $Co$ - $Fe$ - $B$ / $Pt$ and $W$ / $Co$ - $Fe$ - $B$ / $Pt$ heterostructures

Amir Khan, Shalini Sharma, Tiago de Oliveira Schneider, and Markus Meinert

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044089 (2026) - Published 30 April, 2026

Role of electron interactions in a failed insulator revealed by shot noise

Mateusz Szurek, Hanqiao Cheng, Zilu Pang, Yiou Zhang, and Sergei Urazhdin

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044090 (2026) - Published 30 April, 2026

Mitigation of rf-induced critical-current shifts in $Nb N$ superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors for trapped-ion readout

Y. Suleimen, P.P. An, K.O. Sedykh, A. Podlesnyy, S.Yu. Zarutskiy, S.S. Svyatodukh, A.D. Golikov, M. Makhlouf, I.N. Florya, V.V. Kovalyuk, K.E. Lakhmanskiy, and G.N. Goltsman

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044091 (2026) - Published 30 April, 2026

Harnessing magnetic vortex oscillations for local microwave sources in qubit control

Myeongwon Lee, Yuhan Lee, Taekhyeon Lee, Alec Jenkins, Min-Wook Han, Soogil Lee, Byong-Guk Park, Andreas Heinrich, Kab-Jin Kim, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich, and Donghun Lee

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044092 (2026) - Published 30 April, 2026

Volume 25, Issue 4

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES

LETTERS

ARTICLES