Physica E: Low-Dimensional Systems and Nanostructures

Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures publishes original research and authoritative reviews on the physics of systems in which reduced dimensionality or nanoscale structure gives rise to novel quantum and classical phenomena.

The journal is dedicated to advancing fundamental understanding of low-dimensional and nanoscale systems, with an emphasis on physical mechanisms, emergent behaviour, and experimentally relevant predictions.

Core focus areas

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Quantum transport and electronic structure in low-dimensional systems (e.g. quantum wires, quantum dots, 2D materials, van der Waals heterostructures)

• Moiré and twistronic systems, including correlated and flat-band physics

• Topological phases of matter, edge states, and non-trivial band topology in reduced dimensions

• Strongly correlated and many-body phenomena in nanoscale and low-dimensional systems

• Spin, valley, and pseudospin physics, including spin–orbit coupling and spin transport

• Hybrid quantum systems, including semiconductor–superconductor, photonic, and magnonic platforms

• Non-equilibrium and driven systems, ultrafast dynamics, and time-dependent phenomena at the nanoscale

• Quantum coherence and quantum information aspects in nanostructures

• Optical and excitonic effects, plasmonics, and light–matter interaction in low-dimensional systems

• Mesoscopic physics and fluctuations, including noise, correlations, and disorder effects

Submissions to Physica E should advance the physical understanding of low-dimensional and nanoscale systems, whether through experiment, theory, computation or their combination. The journal prioritises work that reveals new mechanisms, emergent phenomena, or conceptually significant insights, with clear connections to experimentally relevant systems or observables. Theoretical and computational studies should go beyond routine modelling to deliver genuinely new physics or predictive frameworks, ideally with experimental relevance. Purely materials-driven investigations—such as extensive calculations on hypothetical systems without clear physical novelty—are generally outside the journal’s scope. Experimental work is expected to emphasise underlying physics rather than incremental technical advances, reinforcing Physica E’s role as a physics-focused journal on phenomena arising from reduced dimensionality and nanoscale structure.