01. Detecting manipulations in microchips 02. MIT physicists predict exotic new phenomena and give “recipe” for realizing them 03. New approach to harvesting aerial humidity with organic crystals 04. Qubits put new spin on magnetism: Boosting applications of quantum computers 05. Research team develops multifunctional vortex beam for UV-visible spectra 06. A scalable and programmable quantum phononic processor based on trapped ions 07. Scientists develop energy-saving, tunable meta-devices for high-precision, secure 6G communications 08. Scientists open door to manipulating ‘quantum light’ 09. Scientists use lasers to recreate ‘twisted’ superconducting material 10. Shaping with light – a novel method for crafting […]
Detecting manipulations in microchips
Science Daily March 20, 2023 To ensure the absence of Trojans in commissioned chips, one straightforward solution is to compare the received semiconductor devices to the design files that were initially submitted to the foundry. The fundamental techniques to detect Trojans which require evident changes to the silicon layout are well-understood. According to an international team of researchers (Germany, Belgium) there is a glaring lack of public case studies describing the process in its entirety while making the underlying datasets publicly available. To improve upon this state of the art they presented a public and open hardware Trojan detection case […]
MIT physicists predict exotic new phenomena and give “recipe” for realizing them
MIT News March 17, 2023 van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures formed by 2D magnets and semiconductors have provided a fertile ground for fundamental science and spintronics. Through first-principles calculations researchers at MIT have found a proximity exchange splitting of 14 meV (equivalent to an effective Zeeman field of 120 T) in the vdW magnet-semiconductor heterostructure MoS 2/CrBr 3, leading to a 2D spin-polarized half-metal with carrier densities ranging up to 1013 cm−2. They explored the effect of large exchange coupling on the electronic band structure when the magnetic layer hosts chiral spin textures such as skyrmions. A flat Chern band […]
New approach to harvesting aerial humidity with organic crystals
Science Daily March 16, 2023 An international team of researchers (United Arab Emirates, Macedonia, University of New York) found that the gradual widening of parallel microchannels on a surface of a slowly subliming hexachlorobenzene crystal can promote the autonomous and bidirectional transduction of condensed aerial water. Driven by topology changes on the surface of the crystal and water exchange with the gas phase, droplets of condensed water migrate over the crystal. These droplets are also able to transport silver particles and other particulate matter, such as dust. The velocity of the particles was shown to be dependent on both the […]
Qubits put new spin on magnetism: Boosting applications of quantum computers
Science Daily March 17, 2023 Unveiling the fundamental dynamics of naturally or artificially formed magnetic quasicrystals in the presence of an external magnetic field remains a difficult problem that may have implications for the design of information processing devices. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory embedded a qubit magnetic Penrose quasicrystal into a quantum annealer to reproduce the formation of magnetic phases driven by specific physical parameter selections. It allowed them to distinguish a wide range of frustrated magnetic configurations at the single-spin scale. They observed some spins dynamically activate, while others remained static, all within an average magnetization space […]
Research team develops multifunctional vortex beam for UV-visible spectra
Phys.org March 16, 2023 Metasurfaces have shown remarkable potential to manipulate many of light’s intrinsic properties, such as phase, amplitude, and polarization. An international team of researchers (Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, USA – New York University) has demonstrated a broadband multifunctional metasurface platform with the unprecedented ability to independently control the phase profile for two orthogonal polarization states of incident light over dual-wavelength spectra (ultraviolet to visible). They designed and fabricated multiple single-layered metasurfaces composed of bandgap-engineered silicon nitride nanoantennas and optically characterized to demonstrated broadband multifunctional light manipulation ability, including structured beam generation and meta-interferometer implementation. According to the researchers […]
A scalable and programmable quantum phononic processor based on trapped ions
Phy.org March 17, 2023 While network of bosons has mostly been implemented in optical systems using photons, alternative realizations addressing major limitations in photonic systems such as photon loss have been explored recently. Quantized excitations of vibrational modes of trapped ions are a promising candidate to realize such bosonic networks. An international team of researchers China, Italy, UK) has demonstrated a minimal-loss programmable phononic network in which any phononic state could be deterministically prepared and detected. They created networks with up to four collective vibrational modes, which could be extended to reveal quantum advantage. They benchmarked the performance of the […]
Scientists develop energy-saving, tunable meta-devices for high-precision, secure 6G communications
Nanowerk March 16, 2023 Researchers in Hong Kong has invented a synthetic phase design of rotary doublet Airy beam and triplet Gaussian beam varifocal meta-devices to fully control the terahertz beam’s propagation direction and coverage area. The focusing spot can be delivered to arbitrary positions in a two-dimensional plane or a three-dimensional space. The highly concentrated signal can be delivered to a specific position, and the transmission direction can be adjusted freely to enable secure, flexible, and high-directivity 6G communication systems. According to the researchers this technology avoids the high costs associated with extensive use of active components. 6G communication […]
Scientists Discover Intense Heatwaves Lurking at The Bottom of The Ocean
Science Alert March 20, 2023 While surface marine heat waves can have dramatic impacts on marine ecosystems, extreme warming along the seafloor can also have significant biological outcomes. A team of researchers in the US (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, University of Colorado, National Center for Atmospheric Research) has developed a new model which shows that marine heatwaves can unfold deep underwater, too. The analysis focused on the west and east coasts of North America, using data spanning three decades, from 1993 to 2019, to produce simulations with a resolution of 8 kilometers or about 5 miles, fine enough to […]
Scientists open door to manipulating ‘quantum light’
Nanowerk March 20, 2023 The nonlinearity provided by the atom leads to a strong dependence of the light–matter interface on the number of photons interacting with the two-level system within its emission lifetime. This nonlinearity unveils strongly correlated quasiparticles known as photon bound states, giving rise to key physical processes such as stimulated emission and soliton propagation. Although signatures consistent with the existence of photon bound states have been measured in strongly interacting Rydberg gases their hallmark excitation-number-dependent dispersion and propagation velocity have not yet been observed. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Australia, Germany) has reported the direct observation […]