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Our experimental proof of chiral phonons demonstrates a degree of freedom in condensed matter that is of fundamental importance and opens the door to exploration of emergent phenomena based on chiral bosons.

Oxygen redox cathodes deliver higher energy densities than those based on transition metal redox but commonly exhibit voltage fade on extended cycling. The loss of O-redox capacity and voltage fade is shown to arise from a reduction in O²⁻/O₂ redox process reversibility and O₂ loss.

Denoising low-counting statistics data in the presence of multiple, unknown noise profiles is a challenging task in scientific applications where high accuracy is required. Oppliger and colleagues train a deep convolutional neural network on pairs of experimental low- and high-noise X-ray diffraction data and demonstrate better performance on experimental noise filtering compared with the case of training on artificial data pairs.

In this work, authors show that O-redox in 4d and 5d transition metal oxides involves the formation of molecular oxygen trapped in the particles. These results are in accord with observations in 3d oxides and show that the greater covalency of the 4d and 5d oxides does not stabilise peroxo-like species.

It is known that the spin-excitation spectrum of the undoped parents of iron-pnictide superconductors contains a pronounced magnon peak, but it is unclear whether this survives doping into the superconducting state. Schmitt et al.report resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra that suggest it does.

It has been suggested that the strange metal phase in cuprates stems from a quantum critical point slightly above optimal doping. By resonant x-ray scattering in two cuprate families in a wide doping range, Arpaia et al. show that charge density fluctuations could be associated with this quantum critical point.

Unconventional superconductivity is often associated with the presence of other kinds of electronic order. Observations of charge order in infinite-layer nickelate superconductors show that they fit this pattern.

Magnonics aims to use the collective excitations of spins in magnetic materials, magnons, for information transfer and processing. In this manuscript, Elnaggar et al. study magnon excitations in hematite using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, observing higher-order magnons.

In optimally doped Nd_0.8Sr_0.2NiO₂H epitaxial film, combined state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical approaches show abundant hydrogen with zero resistivity, and its critical role in superconductivity in epitaxial infinite-layer nickelates.

The mechanism of oxygen redox in high-energy transition metal oxide cathodes is elusive. Here the authors illustrate the nature of the electron-hole states on oxide ions, offering insights for realizing reversible, high-voltage cathodes.

In flat band materials, the ’flat’ dispersion of the electronic states mean that interactions between electrons can be strong, potentially leading to a variety of interesting magnetic and transport properties. Here, Nag et al study the Kagomé semimetal Co3Sn2S2, and show a nearly flat Stoner excitation dispersion, a clear indication of spin-polarized and flat electronic bands.

Multipolar magnetic excitations are challenging to measure as most experimental probes are sensitive to dipolar processes. Here, Nag et al. show the existence of dispersing quadrupolar components to the spin excitations in an antiferromagnet, highlighting the importance of higher order magnetic excitations.

Here, Pelliciari et al. present resonant inelastic X-ray scattering on monolayer samples of unconventional superconductor FeSe, finding evidence for gapped and dispersionless spin excitations. These experiments are very difficult due to the extremely small scattering volume of the FeSe monolayer.

In transition metal oxides, an insulating band gap is found when the energy scales related to ionic charge excitations dominate over electronic itinerancy. Here, the authors demonstrate strong electron-phonon interactions in Li₂CuO₂and their effect on the insulating band gap.

Understanding the severe voltage hysteresis in the first cycle of Li-rich cathodes is essential to realize their full potential in batteries. P. G. Bruce and colleagues report the formation of molecular O₂ on charging rather than other oxidized O species is the cause for the voltage hysteresis.

A spin–orbit-entangled exciton state in the van der Waals material NiPS₃ is observed, and found to arise from many-body states of a Zhang–Rice singlet.

In oxygen-redox intercalation cathodes, voltage hysteresis can be avoided by forming cathode materials with a ‘ribbon’ superstructure in the transition metal layers that suppresses transition metal migration.

The authors present evidence for the formation of commensurate charge order in non-superconducting thin films of infinite-layer nickelates, whereas they find no charge order in a superconducting film.

X-ray scattering experiments show that the quantum fluctuations associated with charge order take a form that is incompatible with the idea of competition between charge order and superconductivity.