Rubidium

Rubidium (Rb) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Rubidium’s research intensity stands at about 64% of its all-time peak, a level that has held steady over the last decade despite the element’s historical peak occurring in 1974.

Research intensity ran from about 67% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 64% in 2026 — flat overall, with some movement in between, and the all-time peak (1974) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, rubidium has a mid-sized research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 1,526 in 2016 to about 3,094 in 2025 (2.03x). That matches the growth of the literature as a whole over the same years: the general tide of scientific output, not a surge specific to the element.

The largest share of rubidium research belongs to the community of Rubidium Vapor for Frequency Standards and Quantum Optics. In this field, rubidium vapor cells serve as the medium for atomic clocks, magnetometers, and nonlinear optical effects like four-wave mixing. Rubidium is a minor presence in a much larger community — about 7% of its papers involve rubidium. This community accounted for about 35% of the element's recent research, a decline from about 45% in the previous period. A key anchor for this work is a 2022 paper in Nature on entangling single atoms over 33 km telecom fibre, cited over 220 times, which leverages rubidium atoms for precision control.

The second material community is Rubidium Doping for Blue Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes. Here, research focuses on rubidium incorporation to stabilize blue-emitting perovskites and improve light-emitting diode performance. Rubidium is a minor presence in a much larger community — under 1% of its papers involve rubidium. This community holds about 8% of the element's recent research, a steady share compared to the previous period. The most cited paper in this area is a 2016 Science article on incorporating rubidium cations into perovskite solar cells, cited over 3,700 times, which established the element's role in improving photovoltaic performance. More recently, a 2024 Science Advances paper on highly efficient blue light-emitting diodes with reduced chlorine defects, cited over 260 times, highlights ongoing work in this niche.

The third community is Rubidium Recovery from Brine and Lithium Streams. These papers focus on extracting and recovering rubidium from salt lakes and lithium processing streams using solvent extraction and adsorption. Rubidium is a minor presence in a much larger community — about 1% of its papers involve rubidium. This community accounts for about 7% of the element's recent research, a steady share. A 2021 review in Hydrometallurgy on rubidium extraction from mineral and brine resources, cited over 130 times, serves as a foundational reference for this applied chemistry.

Overall, the composition of rubidium research has shifted slightly away from quantum optics and frequency standards, which lost share, while perovskite doping and recovery methods have maintained or slightly increased their relative weight. The remainder of the literature, comprising about 50% of recent research, is distributed across smaller, specialized areas.

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