Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 21 020110 (2025)
This exploratory field study investigates the integration of innovative forms of recitation tasks in a first-year introductory mechanics course, focusing on smartphone-based experimental tasks alongside programming and standard recitation tasks. Smartphones, combined with external sensor modules, serve as a gateway enabling students to conduct various low-cost and authentic physics experiments with first-hand data collection outside traditional lab settings. These tasks aim to enhance students’ agency in independent physics experimentation and enrich homework assignments by dissolving boundaries between lectures, recitation sessions, and traditional labs, and thereby linking theoretical and experimental aspects of undergraduate physics education. To explore this potential, we implemented and evaluated a sample set of nine smartphone-based experimental tasks and, for comparison, three programming tasks as weekly exercises in a first-year physics course at RWTH Aachen University. We investigated students’ perceptions of learning with these new tasks through twelve short surveys involving up to 188 participants, focusing on factors such as goal clarity, difficulty, or feasibility at home. In two additional surveys with 108 and 78 participants, students assessed affective responses to the smartphone-based experimental tasks relative to the programming and standard recitation tasks. Our findings indicate that the smartphone-based experimental tasks were generally well-suited to the students and tended to outperform the programming tasks in terms of perceptions of learning with the tasks and affective responses. Overall, students responded positively to the new experimental tasks, with perceptions comparable to, or only partly below, those of long-established standard recitation tasks. These results suggest that smartphone-based experimental tasks can be successfully integrated into teaching and contribute to refining traditional recitation tasks. Students’ differentiated perceptions of the three task types investigated offer valuable insights into how students perceived technology-enhanced recitation tasks in terms of feasibility, engagement, and instructional value. This provides a meaningful basis for instructors and researchers aiming to design more effective and student-centered learning environments in undergraduate physics education.

Phys. Rev. B 112, 035409 (2025)
The valley degree of freedom in 2D semiconductors, such as gapped bilayer graphene (BLG) and transition metal dichalcogenides, is a promising carrier of quantum information in the emerging field of valleytronics. While valley dynamics have been extensively studied for moderate band gap 2D semiconductors using optical spectroscopy techniques, very little is known about valley lifetimes in narrow band gap BLG, which is difficult to study using optical techniques. Here, we report single-particle valley relaxation times (T₁) exceeding several microseconds in electrostatically defined BLG quantum dots using a pulse-gating technique. The observed dependence of T₁ on perpendicular magnetic field can be understood qualitatively and quantitatively by a model in which T₁ is limited by electron-phonon coupling. We identify the coupling to acoustic phonons via the bond length change and via the deformation potential as the limiting mechanisms.

Nano Lett. 25 10549 (2025)
We report on the investigation of proximity-induced spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in a heterostructure of bilayer graphene (BLG) and tungsten diselenide (WSe₂). A BLG quantum dot (QD) in the few-particle regime acts as a sensitive probe for induced SOC. Finite bias and magnetotransport spectroscopy measurements reveal a significantly enhanced SOC that decreases with the applied displacement field, distinguishing it from pristine BLG. Furthermore, our measurements demonstrate a reduced valley g factor at larger displacement fields, consistent with weaker lateral confinement of the QD. Our findings show evidence of the influence of WSe₂ across BLG layers, driven by reduced real-space confinement and increased layer localization of the QD states on the BLG layer distant to the WSe₂ at higher displacement fields. This study demonstrates the electrostatic tunability of the spin–orbit gap in BLG/WSe₂ heterostructures, which is especially relevant for the field of spintronics and future spin qubit control in BLG QDs.