Phys.org March 24, 2023 Whereas ultracold atoms and superconducting circuits have since taken independent paths in the exploration of new physics, taking advantage of their complementary strengths in an integrated system enables access to fundamentally new parameter regimes and device capabilities. Taking advantage of their complementary strengths in an integrated system a team of researchers in the US (University of Chicago, Stanford University) developed a system, coupling an ensemble of cold 85Rb atoms simultaneously to an optically accessible, three-dimensional superconducting resonator and a vibration-suppressed optical cavity in a cryogenic (5 K) environment. To demonstrate the capabilities of the platform, they leveraged […]
New method for fast, efficient and scalable cloud tomography
Phys.org March 28, 2023 One way to study clouds is to use spaceborne imagers, but these imagers still face challenges of efficiency and scalability. Researchers in Israel have developed an effective inverse rendering framework for recovering the 3D distribution of clouds. They focused on clouds which have a key role in the climate system and require efficient analysis at a huge scale. Data for such reconstruction are multiview images of each cloud taken simultaneously. This acquisition mode is expected by upcoming future spaceborne imagers, such as Cloud Computed Tomography (CT). Prior art showed that scattering CT can rely on Monte–Carlo […]
New microchip links two Nobel Prize-winning techniques
Science Daily March 22, 2023 Mechanical frequency combs are poised to bring the applications and utility of optical frequency combs into the mechanical domain. So far, their main challenge has been strict requirements on drive frequencies and power, which complicate operation. An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, USA – NIST) has demonstrated a straightforward mechanism to create a frequency comb consisting of mechanical overtones (integer multiples) of a single eigenfrequency, by monolithically integrating a suspended dielectric membrane with a counter-propagating optical trap. The periodic optical field modulated the dielectrophoretic force on the membrane at the overtones of a membrane’s […]
Optical switching at record speeds opens door for ultrafast, light-based electronics and computers
Science Daily March 22, 2023 Recently, optical switches have been demonstrated using terahertz and ultrafast laser pulses to control the electrical signal and enhance the switching speed to the picosecond and a few hundred femtoseconds time scale. An international team of researchers (USA- University of Arizona, Ohio State University, Germany) used the reflectivity modulation of the fused silica dielectric system in a strong light field to demonstrate the optical switching (ON/OFF) with attosecond time resolution. They presented the capability of controlling the optical switching signal with complex synthesized fields of ultrashort laser pulses for data binary encoding. AccrdingAccording to the […]
Photosynthesis ‘hack’ could lead to new ways of generating renewable energy
Science Daily March 22, 2023 Previous approaches to ‘re-wire’ photosynthesis for higher biomass-conversion efficiencies and new reaction pathways have focused on charge extraction at terminal electron acceptors of the photosystems. Electron extraction at earlier steps, perhaps immediately from photoexcited reaction centres, would enable greater thermodynamic gains. Using in vivo ultrafast transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy an international team of researchers (UK, Finland, Germany) demonstrated the extraction of electrons directly from photoexcited PSI and PSII at early points (several picoseconds post-photo-excitation) with live cyanobacterial cells or isolated photosystems, and exogenous electron mediators. They postulated that these mediators oxidize peripheral chlorophyll pigments participating […]
The powerhouse of the future: Artificial cells
Phys.org March 28, 2023 Sustainable energy conversion modules are the main challenges for building complex reaction cascades in artificial cells. Recent advances in biotechnology have enabled this sustainable energy supply, especially the adenosine triphosphate (ATP), by mimicking the organelles, which are the core structures for energy conversion in living cells. Three components are mainly shared by the artificial organelles: the membrane compartment separating the inner and outer parts, membrane proteins for proton translocation, and the molecular rotary machine for ATP synthesis. Depending on the initiation factors, they are further categorized into artificial mitochondrion and artificial chloroplasts, which use chemical nutrients […]
Storing information with spins: Creating new structured spin states with spatially structured polarized light
Phys.org March 27, 2023 So far, only uniformly polarized light has been exploited to control electron spins. However, if the polarization has an additional spatial structure it can produce spatially structured electron spins, opening up new ways to store information. Researchers in Japan devised a method for generating spatially structured electron spins using a structured light with spatially varying polarization profile. They transferred spatially variant polarization of topologically structured light to the spatial spin texture in a semiconductor quantum well. The electron spin texture was directly excited by a vector vortex beam with a spatial helicity structure. The spin texture […]
Synthesis gas and battery power from sunlight energy
Science Daily March 21, 2023 Parallel sunlight-driven catalytic conversion of CO2 and protons to syngas is a key step toward a sustainable energy cycle. State-of-the-art catalytic systems and materials often fall short as application-oriented concurrent CO and H2 evolution requires challenging reaction conditions which can hamper stability, selectivity, and efficiency. Researchers in Germany engineered a light-harvesting metal-organic framework hosting two molecular catalysts to yield colloidal, water-stable, versatile nanoreactors for photocatalytic syngas generation with highly controllable product ratios. In-depth fluorescence, X-ray, and microscopic studies paired with kinetic analysis show that the host delivers energy efficiently to active sites, conceptually yielding nanozymes. […]
Third pole darkening affects local and remote climates, finds study
Phys.org March 28, 2023 Despite knowledge of the presence of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in reorganizing large-scale atmospheric circulation, it remains unclear how surface albedo darkening over TP will impact local glaciers and remote Asian monsoon systems. An international team of researchers (USA – Columbia University, Austria, Germany, France) used a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model and a glacier model to address these questions. According to their model, under a high-emission scenario, TP surface albedo darkening would increase local temperature by 0.24 K by the end of this century. This warming would strengthen the elevated heat pump of TP, increasing South […]
Using chemical exfoliation to produce superconducting tungsten disulfide ink
Phys.org March 23, 2023 Liquid-phase chemical exfoliation can achieve industry-scale production of 2D materials for a wide range of applications. However, because of their sensitivity to air and depreciation of physical performance many 2D materials cannot be used for practical application. An international team of researchers (USA – Princeton, Rutgers Universty, Germany) has developed a chemical exfoliation method to create a stable, aqueous, surfactant-free, superconducting ink containing phase-pure 1T”S2 monolayers that are isostructural to the air-sensitive topological insulator 1T′-WTe2. The printed film was metallic at room temperature and superconducting below 7.3 kelvin, showed strong anisotropic unconventional superconducting behavior with an […]