Phys.org April 24, 2023 To study multi-stimuli-responsive materials with distinctive abilities to change color and color-changing and shape-memory, an international team of researchers (China, Canada) wove an electrothermally multi-responsive fabric using metallic composite yarns and polymeric/thermochromic microcapsule composite fibers. The shape-memory and color-changing features of the fabric could be controlled by rationally controlling the micro-scale design of the individual fibers in the structure. The microstructural features were optimized to achieve excellent color-changing behavior along with shape fixity and recovery ratios of 99.95% and 79.2%, respectively. The fabric’s dual response by electric field could be achieved by a low voltage of […]
A quantum leap in computational performance of quantum processors
Phys.org April 24, 2023 An international team of researchers (Israel, Germany, UAE) is improving the performance of superconducting qubits, the basic computation units of a superconducting quantum processor. They studied a series of tunable flux qubits inductively coupled to a coplanar waveguide resonator fabricated on a sapphire substrate. Each qubit included an asymmetric superconducting quantum interference device, which is controlled by the application of an external magnetic field and acts as a tunable Josephson junction. The tunability of the qubits is typically ±3.5GHz around their central gap frequency. The measured relaxation times are limited by dielectric losses in the substrate […]
Researchers design battery prototype with fiber-shaped cathode
Science Daily April 24, 2023 In a proof-of-concept study, as a step forward in the development of a fiber-shaped battery that could be integrated into garments, an international team of researchers (USA- North Carolina State University, Thailand) created a yarn-shaped cathode. They utilized the unique properties of graphene to make a yarn-shaped zinc-ion battery. They created different manganese dioxide microparticles in various shapes and sizes and embedded them in fiber made of graphene oxide. They found the shape and size of the graphene oxide and manganese dioxide materials affected its electrochemical function. When the graphene and manganese dioxide were well-mixed, […]
Researchers discover new radiation effects in photonic time crystals
Phys.org April 26, 2023 Time metamaterials offer a great potential for wave manipulation. Researchers at the City University of New York explored the exotic wave dynamics of an anisotropic photonic time crystal (APTC) formed by an anisotropic medium whose optical properties are uniformly and periodically changed in time. Based on a temporal transfer matrix formalism, they showed that a stationary charge embedded in an APTC emits radiation, in contrast to the case of isotropic photonic time crystals, and its distribution in momentum space is controlled by the APTC band structure. According to the researchers their approach greatly extends the concept […]
Scientists develop Earth system models with clouds and ocean submesoscale eddies
Phys.org April 26, 2023 Researchers in China developed a series of high-resolution coupled Earth system models (SW-HRESMs) with up to 5 km of atmosphere and 3 km of ocean which can meet the needs of multiscale interaction studies with different computational costs. They described the progress of SW-HRESMs development, with an overview of the major advancements made by the international Earth science community in HR-ESMs. They showed the preliminary results of SW-HRESMs regarding capturing major weather-climate extremes in the atmosphere and ocean, stressing the importance of permitted clouds and ocean submesoscale eddies in modeling tropical cyclones and eddy-mean flow interactions, […]
Two qudits fully entangled
Science Daily April 20, 2023 Quantum information carriers, just like most physical systems, naturally occupy high-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Instead of restricting them to a two-level subspace, these high-dimensional (qudit) quantum systems are emerging as a powerful resource for the next generation of quantum processors. Yet harnessing the potential of these systems requires efficient ways of generating the desired interaction between them. Researchers in Austria experimentally demonstrated implementation of a native two-qudit entangling gate up to dimension 5 in a trapped-ion system. This was achieved by generalizing a recently proposed light-shift gate mechanism to generate genuine qudit entanglement in a single […]
Valley-transistor in two-dimensional materials – an ingredient for all-optical quantum technologies
Nanowerk April 23, 2023 Electrons in two-dimensional materials possess an additional quantum attribute, the valley pseudospin, labeled as K and K’—analogous to the spin up and spin down. Most of the research to achieve valley-selective excitations in valleytronics depends on resonant circularly polarized light with a given helicity. Not only acquiring valley-selective electron excitation but also switching the excitation from one valley to another is quintessential for bringing valleytronics-based technologies to reality. Researchers in India introduced a coherent control protocol to initiate valley-selective excitation, de-excitation, and switch the excitation from one valley to another on the fly within tens of […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of April 21, 2023
01. Breakthrough in magnetic quantum material paves way for ultra-fast sustainable computers 02. How one photon becomes four charge carriers 03. Improving alloys: Researchers successfully establish a strong mechanical bond of immiscible iron and magnesium 04. Laser light hybrids control giant currents at ultrafast times 05. Lightning Bolt Deposits a Strange Mineral Never Seen on Earth Before 06. New family of wheel-like metallic clusters exhibit unique properties 07. Photonic filter separates signals from noise to support future 6G wireless communication 08. Physicists discover first transformable nanoscale electronic devices 09. Quantum liquid becomes solid when heated 10. Quantum light source goes […]
Accountants’ tricks can help identify cheating scientists, says new study
Phys.org April 13, 2023 Procedures for monitoring the trustworthiness of research, and for investigating cases where concern about possible data fraud have been raised are not well established. Based on the well-established practices of financial auditing, researchers in the UK have suggested a practical approach for the investigation of work suspected of fraudulent data manipulation using Benford’s Law. They provided synthesis of the literature on tests of adherence to Benford’s Law, culminating in advice of a single initial test for digits in each position of numerical strings within a dataset. They recommend further tests which may prove useful if specific […]
Breakthrough in magnetic quantum material paves way for ultra-fast sustainable computers
Nanowerk April 13, 2023 The discovery of van der Waals (vdW) magnets opened a new paradigm for condensed matter physics and spintronic technologies. However, the operations of active spintronic devices with vdW ferromagnets are limited to cryogenic temperatures, inhibiting their broader practical applications. Researchers in Sweden have demonstrated robust room-temperature operation of lateral spin-valve devices using the vdW itinerant ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2 in heterostructures with graphene. They measured room-temperature spintronic properties of Fe5GeTe2 at the interface with graphene with a negative spin polarization. Lateral spin-valve and spin-precession measurements provided unique insights by probing the Fe5GeTe2/graphene interface spintronic properties via spin-dynamics measurements, […]