Neon

Neon (Ne) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Research intensity currently stands at about 81% of the element's all-time peak, a level reached during a steady climb over the last decade.

Research intensity ran from about 67% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 81% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (1972) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, neon has a larger-than-average research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 4,061 in 2016 to about 7,754 in 2025 (1.91x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research even as its own count rose.

The research communities driving this attention are distinct and specialized. The largest material community is Neon Seeding for Disruption Mitigation in Fusion Plasmas, where neon is a minor presence in a much larger community—about 1% of its papers involve neon. These papers use neon impurity injection to radiate heat and mitigate disruptions in tokamak devices, focusing on techniques like shattered pellet injection. This community accounts for about 11.6% of the element's recent research, a steady share compared to the previous period. A key paper in this area is "Physics basis for the first ITER tungsten divertor" (2019), cited over 650 times.

A second major area is Neon Abundances in White Dwarf Evolution, where neon is also a minor presence in a much larger community—about 1% of its papers involve neon. This research tracks neon as a key oxygen-group element in the chemical abundances of white dwarfs and their accretion-induced collapse, with distinctive focus on ultra-massive white dwarfs and electron-capture supernovae. This community holds about 11.4% of the element's recent research, also steady over the window. Notable work includes "It’s written in the massive stars: The role of stellar physics in the formation of black holes" (2025), cited about 37 times, and "A First Look at the Abundance Pattern—O/H, C/O, and Ne/O—in z > 7 Galaxies with JWST/NIRSpec" (2022), cited over 120 times.

The third material community is Neon Matrix Isolation and Solid-State Spectroscopy, where neon is a minor presence in a much larger community—about 2% of its papers involve neon. These papers focus on trapping reactive species in solid neon matrices and using neon gas for precision thermometry, rather than general atomic physics. This community accounts for about 10.9% of the element's recent research, which is steady relative to its previous share. A significant contribution is "Single electrons on solid neon as a solid-state qubit platform" (2022), cited about 62 times.

Overall, the composition of neon research has remained stable, with these three subcommunities maintaining their shares while the remainder of the literature, comprising about 66% of recent research, also held steady.

For a deeper look at the element's current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.