Researchers at MIPT Laboratory of Terahertz Spectroscopy together with their Russian and international colleagues discovered a new phase of nanoconfined water; separate water molecules that are confined within nanocavities formed by ions of cordierite crystal lattice. The first reliable experimental observation of a phase transition in a network of dipole-dipole coupled water molecules is, in and of itself, an important fundamental breakthrough. But apart from that, the discovered phenomenon can also find practical applications in ferroelectrics, artificial quantum systems, and biocompatible nanoelectronics.
