Ultrafast Manipulation: Multiferroic materials commonly show both magnetism and ferroelectricity, such that the electric field can be used to manipulate the magnetic order, and vice versa. Kubacka et al. (p. 1333 , published online 6 March) used a strong terahertz electromagnetic pulse in resonance with an electromagnon—an excitation based on both electric and magnetic ordering—to control the spin dynamics of the multiferroic TbMnO ₃ on a sub-picosecond time scale and induce the rotation of the spin-cycloid plane of the material.

The first direct observation of charge order of ${\mathrm{Ni}}^{3+{\delta }^{\prime }}$ and ${\mathrm{Ni}}^{3-\delta }$ by resonant x-ray scattering experiments in an epitaxial film of ${\mathrm{NdNiO}}_3$ is reported. A quantitative value of $\delta +{\delta }^{\prime }=(0.45\pm 0.04)e$ was obtained. The temperature dependence of the charge order deviates significantly from those of the magnetic moment and crystallographic structure. This might be an indication of a difference in their fluctuation time scales. These observations are discussed in terms of the temperature-driven metal-insulator transition in the $R{\mathrm{NiO}}_3$ family.