Blog
- 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.
- Tiny magnets could hold the secret to new quantum computers 22/03/2022 Scientists have discovered a type of magnetic behavior that could help enable magnetically based quantum devices.
- Surprising semiconductor properties revealed with innovative new method 17/03/2022 A research team probing the properties of a semiconductor combined with a novel thin oxide film have observed a surprising new source of conductivity from oxygen atoms trapped inside.
- Revealing new states in 2D materials 15/03/2022 Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials can provide highly interesting excitonic properties, which render them an attractive platform to explore polaritonic physics.
- Physicists observe an exotic “multiferroic” state in an atomically thin material 10/03/2022 MIT physicists have discovered an exotic “multiferroic” state in a material that is as thin as a single layer of atoms. Their observation is the first to confirm that multiferroic properties can exist in a perfectly two-dimensional material. The findings, published today in Nature, pave the way for developing smaller, faster, and more efficient data-storage devices built with ultrathin multiferroic bits, as well as other new nanoscale structures.
- Visualization of the origin of magnetic forces by atomic resolution electron microscopy 08/03/2022 Electron microscopes have the highest spatial resolution among all currently used microscopes. However, in order to achieve ultra-high resolution so that atoms can be observed directly, we have to observe the sample by placing it in an extremely strong lens magnetic field. Therefore, atomic observation of magnetic materials that are strongly affected by the lens magnetic field such as magnets and steels had been impossible for many years. For this difficult problem, the team succeeded in developing a lens that has a completely new structure in 2019. Using this new lens, the team realized atomic observation of magnetic materials, which is not affected by the lens magnetic field. The team’s next goal was to observe the magnetic fields of atoms, which are the origin of magnets (magnetic force), and they continued technological development to achieve the goal.