As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years
Research intensity is currently at about 44% of the element's all-time peak, a level that has climbed steadily over the last decade despite the historical peak occurring in 1965.
Research intensity ran from about 34% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 44% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (1965) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, tantalum has a mid-sized research literature.
The number of papers involving the element rose from about 3,093 in 2016 to about 6,158 in 2025 (1.99x). 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 tantalum’s recent research is found in Tantalum Nitride and Pentoxide in Thin Film Electronics. This community focuses on tantalum nitride and pentoxide thin films for capacitors and coatings, distinct from the broader orthopaedic implant focus of the wider group. Tantalum is one strand of a broader community, with about 25% of its papers involving the element. It holds about 27% of the element's recent research, a steady share compared to the previous period. The work is anchored by a 2021 paper on superconducting transmon qubits with coherence times exceeding 0.3 milliseconds, cited over 540 times, and a 2022 study on transmon qubits with lifetimes approaching 0.5 milliseconds, cited over 380 times.
A second significant area is Tantalum Deformation Mechanics in Single Crystals, which investigates the plastic deformation, strain rate response, and mechanical behavior of pure tantalum and tantalum-tungsten alloys. Here, tantalum is a minor presence in a much larger community, appearing in about 4% of its papers. This community accounts for about 5% of the element's recent research, a steady share. A 2025 paper on a high-temperature nanostructured Cu-Ta-Li alloy with complexion-stabilized precipitates, cited about 40 times, represents recent high-impact work in this field.
The third material community is Tantalum in Granitic Pegmatite and Hydrothermal Deposits. These papers characterize tantalum mineralogy and geochronology within rare-metal pegmatites and hydrothermal systems, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tantalum is a minor presence in a much larger community, with about 1% of its papers involving the element. It holds about 5% of the element's recent research, a steady share. A 2023 paper on the formation of lithium-rich pegmatites through multi-stage melting, cited over 110 times, is a key reference in this geological context.
Overall, the composition of tantalum research has remained steady across the two five-year periods, with the thin film electronics community holding the largest share and the remaining research distributed among other communities.
For a deeper look at the element's current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.
What changed in the past year: new papers, shifting applications, emerging collaborators. See the momentum over a shorter window than the decade view.
Personal →See recent trends — Personal.
A by-topic status read of what changed and what's new — built for decision-makers, not search engines. Citation clusters, emerging applications, and the papers that matter most.
Professional →See the executive read — Professional.
These are the nine that matter most. There are more — browse all of them free.
Found one worth keeping? A free account remembers it for you, so you're not re-finding it every visit.
Showing Tantalum's three strongest connections. Personal opens the slider and the whole 118-element graph.