Blog
- New transistor could cut 5% from world’s digital energy budget 28/04/2022 Design also poised to save space, retain memory in event of power loss
- Don’t underestimate undulating graphene 26/04/2022 Lay some graphene down on a wavy surface, and you’ll get a guide to one possible future of two-dimensional electronics.
- CERN’s impact on medical technology 21/04/2022 Frontier instruments like the LHC and its detectors not only push back the boundaries of our knowledge, but also catalyse innovative technology for medical applications, writes Manuela Cirilli.
- Graphene gets enhanced by flashing 19/04/2022 Flashing graphene into existence from waste was merely a good start. Now Rice University researchers are customizing it.
- Physicists create extremely compressible 14/04/2022 Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces.
- Light derails electrons through graphene 12/04/2022 The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called “Hall” responses.
- Using electron microscopy and automatic atom-tracking to learn more about grain boundaries in metals during deformation 07/04/2022 A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China and the U.S. has found that it is possible to track the sliding of grain boundaries in some metals at the atomic scale using an electron microscope and an automatic atom tracker. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their study of platinum using their new technique and the discovery they made in doing so.
- Toward a quantum computer that calculates molecular energy 05/04/2022 Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses the most quantum bits to date to calculate ground state energy, the lowest-energy state in a quantum mechanical system. The discovery could make it easier to design new materials.
- Physicists have coaxed ultracold atoms into an elusive form of quantum matter 31/03/2022 Physicists have coaxed ultracold atoms into an elusive form of quantum matter
- Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy method realizes quantitative detection of anticancer drugs in serum 29/03/2022 Using the shrink-assembled liquid three dimensional (3D) hot spot matrix as a microreactor, a new method for quantitative detection of blood drug concentration by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was developed by researchers led by Prof. Yang Liangbao and Prof. Wang Hongzhi from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with high stability and sensitivity.
- A unimorph nanocomposite dielectric elastomer for large-scale actuation 24/03/2022 Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) can undergo large, reversible in-plane deformation. In a new report now published in Science Advances, Junhong Pu and a team of scientists in soft materials research and polymer science at the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S., and Sichuan University, China, introduced an electrophoretic process to concentrate boron nitride nanosheet dispersion in a dielectric elastomer precursor solution onto a selected electrode surface. The team obtained a unimorph nanocomposite dielectric elastomer abbreviated UNDE with a seamless bilayer structure containing 13 times the modulus difference. The team could actuate the UNDE construct to large bending curvatures with enhanced durability compared to conventional nanocomposite dielectric elastomers. They arranged multiple UNDE units in a simple electrophoretic concentration process using patterned electrode areas; then, by using the actuator, they developed a high-speed lens motor with variable focal length to form a two-lens optical system.