Measuring gravitational attraction with a lattice atom interferometer.

Despite being the dominant force of nature on large scales, gravity remains relatively elusive to precision laboratory experiments. Atom interferometers are powerful tools for investigating, for example, Earth's gravity, the gravitational constant, deviations from Newtonian gravity and general relativity. However, using atoms in free fall limits measurement time to a few seconds, and much less when measuring interactions with a small source mass.

Quantifying inactive lithium in lithium metal batteries.

Lithium metal anodes offer high theoretical capacities (3,860 milliampere-hours per gram), but rechargeable batteries built with such anodes suffer from dendrite growth and low Coulombic efficiency (the ratio of charge output to charge input), preventing their commercial adoption. The formation of inactive ('dead') lithium- which consists of both (electro)chemically formed Li compounds in the solid electrolyte interphase and electrically isolated unreacted metallic Li (refs )-causes capacity loss and safety hazards. Quantitatively distinguishing between Li in components of the solid electrolyte interphase and unreacted metallic Li has not been possible, owing to the lack of effective diagnostic tools.