Rubidium

Rubidium (Rb) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years

Rubidium’s research intensity currently sits at about 68% of its own all-time peak, a level that has held steady over the last decade despite the element’s historical peak occurring well before this window.

Research intensity ran from about 71% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 68% 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 core of rubidium research remains anchored in atomic physics, specifically within the community of Rubidium Vapor Cell Spectroscopy and Nonlinear Optics. This group investigates rubidium vapor cell experiments, focusing on Rydberg states, four-wave mixing, and electromagnetically induced transparency. Rubidium is one strand of a broader community, with about 17% of its papers involving the element. While this community represents about 32% of rubidium’s recent research, its share has declined from 41% in the earlier period. A defining work from this era is a 2016 paper on realizing two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling for Bose-Einstein condensates, cited over 780 times, alongside more recent work on mid-circuit correction of correlated phase errors, cited over 120 times.

A rapidly growing area is Rubidium Recovery from Brine and Lithium Streams, which focuses on extracting and recovering rubidium from salt lakes and lithium processing streams using solvent extraction and adsorption. Here, rubidium is a minor presence in a much larger community, with only about 1% of its papers involving rubidium. However, this community’s share of rubidium research has risen significantly, from 4% to about 12% of the element’s recent output. Key recent work includes a 2025 review on the extraction of rubidium and cesium from various resources, cited about 28 times, and a 2026 study on metal–organic frameworks for the adsorption of alkali metal ions, cited about 5 times.

The third major community is Rubidium Doping for Blue Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes, where research centers on rubidium incorporation to stabilize blue-emitting perovskites and improve light-emitting diode performance. Rubidium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with under 1% of its papers involving the element. Its share of rubidium research has remained steady at about 9%. This community is home to the decade’s most cited paper: a 2016 study on the incorporation of rubidium cations into perovskite solar cells, cited over 3,700 times. More recent high-impact work includes a 2024 paper on highly efficient blue light-emitting diodes based on mixed-halide perovskites, cited over 260 times.

Overall, the composition of rubidium research is shifting away from its traditional strength in vapor cell spectroscopy toward emerging applications in resource recovery, while maintaining a steady presence in perovskite materials. For a deeper look at the current state of play, see the element's Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.