Phys.org August 31, 2021 Researchers at Pennsylvania State University used magnesium-substituted zinc oxide thin films to make tiny capacitors. They could set their polarization orientation so that their surface charge is either plus or minus. The setting is nonvolatile. This type of storage requires no additional energy. The magnesium-substituted zinc oxide thin films can be deposited at much lower temperatures than other ferroelectric materials. Substrate temperature can be lowered to ambient conditions, and when doing so, capacitor stacks show only minor sacrifices to crystal orientation and nearly identical remanent polarization values; however, coercive fields drop below 2 MV/cm. This ability could […]
Novel physics gives rise to the highest coherence for microscopic lasers
Phys.org August 27, 2021 Despite considerable progress in microscale and nanoscale lasers the coherence length remains very limited. Researchers in Denmark explored the physics and applications of a new class of photonic devices using Fano interference which operates in bound-state-in the-continuum, induced by the Fano resonance. They showed experimentally as well as theoretically that the characteristics of such a bound-state-in-the-continuum can be harnessed to improve the coherence of the laser. They developed an advanced nanotechnology platform, called Buried Heterostructure Technology which allows realizing small, nanometer-sized regions of active material, where the light generation takes place, while the remaining laser structure […]
Physicists Have Successfully Advanced a Key Device For Producing Fusion Power
Science Alert September 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (Germany, Belgium, Spain, USA – Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MIT, University of Wisconsin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Auburn University, University of Maryland, Los alamos National Laboratory, Hungary, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, France, Russia, Poland, Japan, Austria, Ukraine, Finland, UK) sought to shape the magnets in W7-X to try and reduce the effects of neoclassical transport. Measurements, taken using an instrument called an X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS), have shown very high temperatures inside the reactor. These are supported by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) measurements. With both data […]
Physicists mix classical light with half a photon on a qubit
Phys.org August 31, 2021 An international team of researcher (Russia, UK) theoretically considered wave mixing under the irradiation of a single qubit by two photon fields. The first signal was a classical monochromatic drive, while the second one was a nonclassical light. They addressed two examples of a nonclassical light: (i) a broadband squeezed light and (ii) a periodically excited quantum superposition of Fock states with 0 and 1 photons. The mixing of classical and nonclassical photon fields gives rise to side peaks due to the elastic multiphoton scattering. They showed that a side peaks structure is distinct from the […]
Quantum emitters: Beyond crystal clear to single-photon pure
Phys.org September 2, 2021 Quantum dots often suffer from adjacent unwanted emitters, which contribute to the background noise of the QD emission and fundamentally limit the single-photon purity. Researchers in South Korea developed a technique that can isolate the desired quality emitter by reducing the noise surrounding the target with what they have dubbed a ‘nanoscale focus pinspot. The technique is a structurally nondestructive technique under an extremely low dose ion beam and is generally applicable for various platforms to improve their single-photon purity while retaining the integrated photonic structures. Using this technique they focused the ion beam on a […]
Researchers develop novel analog processor for high performance computing
Phys.org August 27, 2021 The lack of modularization and lumped element reconfigurability in photonics has prevented the transition to an all-optical analog computing platform. A team of researchers in the US (George Washington University, UCLA, City College of New York) explored using numerical simulation, a nanophotonic platform based on epsilon-near-zero materials capable of solving in the analog domain partial differential equations (PDE). Wavelength stretching in zero-index media enables highly nonlocal interactions within the board based on the conduction of electric displacement, which can be monitored to extract the solution of a broad class of PDE problems. By exploiting the experimentally […]
‘Tipping points’ in Earth’s system triggered rapid climate change 55 million years ago
Science Daily August 31, 2021 The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a period of geologically-rapid carbon release and global warming ~56 million years ago. Although modelling, outcrop and proxy records suggest volcanic carbon release occurred, it has not yet been possible to identify the PETM trigger, or if multiple reservoirs of carbon were involved. An international team of researchers (UK, Denmark, USA – UC Riverside) report that elevated levels of mercury relative to organic carbon—a proxy for volcanism—directly preceding and within the early PETM from two North Sea sedimentary cores, signifying pulsed volcanism from the North Atlantic Igneous Province likely […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of August 27, 2021
01. One material with two functions could lead to faster memory 02. An innovative process prevents irreversible energy loss in batteries 03. Laser scribed graphene for supercapacitors 04. High-rate magnesium rechargeable batteries move one step closer to realization 05. New form of carbon in a mesh tantalizes with prospects for electronics 06. New insulation material provides more efficient electricity distribution 07. A new platform for integrated photonics 08. Lightweight composite material inspects itself: Changes in color indicate deformations 09. New Exotic Magnetic Quasiparticle: “Skyrmion Bundle” Joins Topological Zoo 10. Energy harvesting technology based on ferromagnetic resonance And others… Dual-phase alloy […]
Dual-phase alloy extremely resistant to fractures
Phys.org August 20, 2021 An international team of researchers (China, USA – Argonne National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, Germany) has developed a new type of multi-principal element alloys (MPEA) called DS: EHEA (Directly Solidified: Eutectic High-Entropy Alloy) that features multiscale spatial heterogeneities using eutectic high-entropy alloys. They found that a particular aluminum-iron-cobalt-nickel dual-phase alloy solidified in a herringbone micropattern that was very highly resistant to fracturing. Its secret, they discovered, was in its hard and soft phases and the way cracks formed. Those that formed during the hard phase were stopped when they reached a border with a soft phase—the […]
Energy harvesting technology based on ferromagnetic resonance
Phys.org August 24, 2021 Researchers in Japan demonstrated electrical charging using the electromotive force (EMF) generated in a ferromagnetic metal (FM) film under ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). In the case of Ni80Fe20 films, electrical charge due to the EMF generated under FMR can be accumulated in a capacitor; however, the amount of charge is saturated well below the charging limit of the capacitor. In the case of Co50Fe50, electrical charge generated under FMR can be accumulated in a capacitor and the amount of charge increases linearly with the FMR duration time. The difference between the Ni80Fe20 and Co50Fe50 films is due […]