Disordered superconductors offer new impedance regimes for quantum circuits, enable a pathway to protected qubits, and can improve superconducting detectors due to their high kinetic inductance and sheet resistance. The performance of these devices can be limited, however, by quasiparticles—the fundamental excitations of a superconductor. While experiments have shown that disorder affects the relaxation of quasiparticles drastically, the microscopic mechanisms are still not understood. We address this issue by measuring quasiparticle relaxation in a disordered β-Ta film, which we pattern as the inductor of a microwave resonator. We observe that quasiparticle recombination is governed by the phonon scattering time, which is faster than conventional recombination in ordered superconductors. We interpret the results as recombination of localized quasiparticles, induced by disorder, which first delocalize via phonon absorption. We analyze quasiparticle relaxation measurements on superconductors with different degrees of disorder and conclude that this phenomenon is inherent to disordered superconductors.

Spin waves-the elementary excitations of magnetic materials-are prime candidate signal carriers for low-dissipation information processing. Being able to image coherent spin-wave transport is crucial for developing interference-based spin-wave devices. We introduce magnetic resonance imaging of the microwave magnetic stray fields that are generated by spin waves as a new approach for imaging coherent spin-wave transport. We realize this approach using a dense layer of electronic sensor spins in a diamond chip, which combines the ability to detect small magnetic fields with a sensitivity to their polarization. Focusing on a thin-film magnetic insulator, we quantify spin-wave amplitudes, visualize spin-wave dispersion and interference, and demonstrate time-domain measurements of spin-wave packets. We theoretically explain the observed anisotropic spin-wave patterns in terms of chiral spin-wave excitation and stray-field coupling to the sensor spins. Our results pave the way for probing spin waves in atomically thin magnets, even when embedded between opaque materials.

Radio-fluorogenic (RFG) gels become permanently fluorescent when exposed to high-energy radiation with the intensity of the emission proportional to the local dose of radiation absorbed. An apparatus is described, FluoroTome 1, that is capable of taking a series of tomographic images (thin slices) of the fluorescence of such an irradiated RFG gel on-site and within minutes of radiation exposure. These images can then be compiled to construct a 3D movie of the dose distribution within the gel. The historical development via a laboratory-bench prototype to a readily transportable, user-friendly apparatus is described. Instrumental details and performance tests are presented.

Nucleation processes of mixed-phase states are an intrinsic characteristic of first-order phase transitions, typically related to local symmetry breaking. Direct observation of emerging mixed-phase regions in materials showing a first-order metal-insulator transition (MIT) offers unique opportunities to uncover their driving mechanism. Using photoemission electron microscopy, we image the nanoscale formation and growth of insulating domains across the temperature-driven MIT in NdNiO₃ epitaxial thin films. Heteroepitaxy is found to strongly determine the nanoscale nature of the phase transition, inducing preferential formation of striped domains along the terraces of atomically flat stepped surfaces. We show that the distribution of transition temperatures is a local property, set by surface morphology and stable across multiple temperature cycles. Our data provide new insights into the MIT of heteroepitaxial nickelates and point to a rich, nanoscale phenomenology in this strongly correlated material.