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Categories: Physics: General, Physics: Optics
Published Polaritons open up a new lane on the semiconductor highway



On the highway of heat transfer, thermal energy is moved by way of quantum particles called phonons. But at the nanoscale of today's most cutting-edge semiconductors, those phonons don't remove enough heat. That's why researchers are focused on opening a new nanoscale lane on the heat transfer highway by using hybrid quasiparticles called 'polaritons.'
Published Ancient stars made extraordinarily heavy elements



How heavy can an element be? An international team of researchers has found that ancient stars were capable of producing elements with atomic masses greater than 260, heavier than any element on the periodic table found naturally on Earth. The finding deepens our understanding of element formation in stars.
Published Soundwaves harden 3D-printed treatments in deep tissues



Engineers have developed a bio-compatible ink that solidifies into different 3D shapes and structures by absorbing ultrasound waves. Because the material responds to sound waves rather than light, the ink can be used in deep tissues for biomedical purposes ranging from bone healing to heart valve repair.
Published Bowtie resonators that build themselves bridge the gap between nanoscopic and macroscopic



Two nanotechnology approaches converge by employing a new generation of fabrication technology. It combines the scalability of semiconductor technology with the atomic dimensions enabled by self-assembly.
Published Chemists create organic molecules in a rainbow of colors



Chemists have now come up with a way to make molecules known as acenes more stable, allowing them to synthesize acenes of varying lengths. Using their new approach, they were able to build molecules that emit red, orange, yellow, green, or blue light, which could make acenes easier to deploy in a variety of applications.
Published Breakthrough in photoactivatable nanomedicine for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration



Researchers have developed a light-activatable prodrug nanomedicine for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) therapy. Through the intravenous injection of the nanomedicine and application of light irradiation to diseased eyes, anti-angiogenic and photodynamic combination therapy can be activated, offering a minimally invasive alternative for the treatment of AMD and other ocular disorders characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth.
Published Diamonds and rust help unveil 'impossible' quasi-particles



Researchers have discovered magnetic monopoles -- isolated magnetic charges -- in a material closely related to rust, a result that could be used to power greener and faster computing technologies.
Published Laser additive manufacturing: Listening for defects as they happen



Researchers have resolved a long-standing debate surrounding laser additive manufacturing processes with a pioneering approach to defect detection.
Published A farsighted approach to tackle nearsightedness



As humans age, our eyes adjust based on how we use them, growing or shortening to focus where needed, and we now know that blurred input to the eye while the eye is growing causes myopia. It is so specific that the eye grows exactly to compensate for the amount and the direction of blur. Researchers have built a high-frequency ultrasonography system to measure eye size and how quickly eyes grow to better understand myopia and its contributing factors.
Published Optical data storage breakthrough



Physicists have developed a technique with the potential to enhance optical data storage capacity in diamonds. This is possible by multiplexing the storage in the spectral domain.
Published New theory unites Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics



The prevailing assumption has been that Einstein's theory of gravity must be modified, or 'quantized', in order to fit within quantum theory. This is the approach of two leading candidates for a quantum theory of gravity, string theory and loop quantum gravity. But a new theory challenges that consensus and takes an alternative approach by suggesting that spacetime may be classical -- that is, not governed by quantum theory at all.
Published Quantum physics: Superconducting Nanowires Detect Single Protein Ions



An international research team has achieved a breakthrough in the detection of protein ions: Due to their high energy sensitivity, superconducting nanowire detectors achieve almost 100% quantum efficiency and exceed the detection efficiency of conventional ion detectors at low energies by a factor of up to a 1,000. In contrast to conventional detectors, they can also distinguish macromolecules by their impact energy. This allows for more sensitive detection of proteins and it provides additional information in mass spectrometry.
Published Tiny electromagnets made of ultra-thin carbon



Graphene, that is extremely thin carbon, is considered a true miracle material. An international research team has now added another facet to its diverse properties with new experiments: Experts fired short terahertz pulses at micrometer-sized discs of graphene, which briefly turned these minuscule objects into surprisingly strong magnets. This discovery may prove useful for developing future magnetic switches and storage devices.
Published Engineers tackle hard-to-map class of materials



Materials scientists mapped the structural features of a 2D ferroelectric material made of tin and selenium atoms using a new technique that can be applied to other 2D van der Waals ferroelectrics, unlocking their potential for use in electronics and other applications.
Published 'Doughnut' beams help physicists see incredibly small objects



A new laser-based technique can create images of structures too tiny to view with traditional microscopes, and without damaging them. The approach could help scientists inspect nanoelectronics, including the semiconductors in computer chips.
Published A color-based sensor to emulate skin's sensitivity



In a step toward more autonomous soft robots and wearable technologies, researchers have created a device that uses color to simultaneously sense multiple mechanical and temperature stimuli.
Published Harvesting more solar energy with supercrystals



Hydrogen is a building block for the energy transition. To obtain it with the help of solar energy, researchers have developed new high-performance nanostructures. The material holds a world record for green hydrogen production with sunlight.
Published Control over friction, from small to large scales



Friction is hard to predict and control, especially since surfaces that come in contact are rarely perfectly flat. New experiments demonstrate that the amount of friction between two silicon surfaces, even at large scales, is determined by the forming and rupturing of microscopic chemical bonds between them. This makes it possible to control the amount of friction using surface chemistry techniques.
Published To help autonomous vehicles make moral decisions, researchers ditch the 'trolley problem'



Researchers have developed a new experiment to better understand what people view as moral and immoral decisions related to driving vehicles, with the goal of collecting data to train autonomous vehicles how to make 'good' decisions. The work is designed to capture a more realistic array of moral challenges in traffic than the widely discussed life-and-death scenario inspired by the so-called 'trolley problem.'
Published Researchers show an old law still holds for quirky quantum materials



Long before researchers discovered the electron and its role in generating electrical current, they knew about electricity and were exploring its potential. One thing they learned early on was that metals were great conductors of both electricity and heat. And in 1853, two scientists showed that those two admirable properties of metals were somehow related: At any given temperature, the ratio of electronic conductivity to thermal conductivity was roughly the same in any metal they tested. This so-called Wiedemann-Franz law has held ever since -- except in quantum materials. Now, a theoretical argument put forth by physicists suggests that the law should, in fact, approximately hold for one type of quantum material, the cuprate superconductors.