Nanowerk March 3, 2021 In quantum integrated photonics integrated detectors offer optical readout and when interfaced with reconfigurable circuits, allow feedback and adaptive control, crucial for deterministic quantum teleportation, training of neural networks, and stabilization of complex circuits. However, the heat generated by thermally reconfigurable photonics is incompatible with heat-sensitive superconducting single-photon detectors, and thus their on-chip co-integration remains elusive. An international team of researchers (Sweden, Austria) has designed low-power microelectromechanical reconfiguration of integrated photonic circuits interfaced with superconducting single-photon detectors on the same chip. They demonstrated three key functionalities for photonic quantum technologies: 28 dB high-extinction routing of classical […]
Intriguing particles emerge when two photons couple
EurekAlert March 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (UK, Russia) has reported a way to create quasiparticles that bind together two differently coloured particles of light. They have named these formations photon-photon polaritons. They tuned a laser to the specific resonance frequency where a photon is expected to be absorbed, yet no resonance absorption happened. Instead, the photon-photon interaction made up two new resonance frequencies away from the old one. The microresonator provided a whole set of split resonances, where each photon-photon pair displayed its own momentum and energy, allowing the researchers to apply the quasiparticle concept and calculate […]
Magnetic whirls in confined spaces
Nanowerk March 4, 2021 An international team of researchers (Germany, China) experimentally probed the dramatic influence of confinement on diffusion and study the skyrmion diffusion in confined geometries varying both the symmetry of the elements and the number of skyrmions within the element, studying the evolution from a sparse population to a fully lattice‐like situation and skyrmion population. In the triangular geometry, they found that the dynamics varies drastically for numbers of skyrmions that can form a regular order, thus being commensurate with the geometry, as compared to numbers of skyrmions that are incommensurate with the geometry. The findings confirm experimentally […]
On calm days, sunlight warms the ocean surface and drives turbulence
Science Daily March 1, 2021 Over land, afternoon warming can lead to atmospheric convection and turbulence resulting in thunderstorms. Over the ocean, the afternoon convection also draws water vapor from the ocean surface to moisten the atmosphere and form clouds. The warming over the ocean is more subtle and gets stronger when the wind is weak. A team of researchers in the US (Oregon State University, NOAA Boulder Co) gathered lidar data around the clock for about two months. At one point, surface temperatures warmed each afternoon for four straight days with calm wind speeds, giving researchers the right conditions […]
Pushing computing to the edge by rethinking microchips’ design
EurekAlert February 24, 2021 Two years ago, researchers at Princeton University fabricated a new chip designed to improve the performance of neural networks. The chip performed tens to hundreds of times better than other advanced microchips. But the chip’s major drawback was that it uses a very unusual and disruptive architecture as it needs to be reconciled with the massive amount of infrastructure and design methodology that we have and use today. Now the team has created software that would allow the new chips to work with different types of networks, allow the systems to be scalable both in hardware […]
A quantum internet is closer to reality, thanks to this switch
Phys.org March 2, 2021 In the emerging field of quantum networking, the need for effective resource provisioning is particularly acute, given the generally lower power levels, higher sensitivity to loss, and inapplicability of optical detection and retransmission. A team of researchers in the US (Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory) has demonstrated reconfigurable distribution of quantum entanglement in a four-user tabletop network. By adaptively partitioning bandwidth with a single wavelength-selective switch, they successfully equalized two-party coincidence rates that initially differed by over two orders of magnitude. Their scalable approach introduces loss that is fixed with the number of users, offering […]
Researchers introduce a new generation of tiny, agile drones
MIT News March 2, 2021 Current state-of-the-art subgram microaerial-vehicles (MAVs) are predominately powered by rigid actuators such as piezoelectric ceramics, but they have low fracture strength (120 MPa) and failure strain (0.3%). Although the existing systems can achieve a high lift-to-weight ratio, they have not demonstrated insect-like maneuvers such as somersault or rapid collision recovery. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Harvard University, Hong Kong) has developed a 665 mg aerial robot that is powered by novel dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) which achieves high power density (1.2 kW/kg) and relatively high transduction efficiency (37%). They incorporated this soft actuator […]
Vaccine shows signs of protection against dozen-plus flu strains
Science Daily March 3, 2021 Influenza A virus infection in swine impacts the agricultural industry in addition to its zoonotic potential. A team of researchers in the US (University of Nebraska, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, TN, Los Alamos National Laboratory) designed a universal swine H3 influenza vaccine using epigraph, a computational algorithm. The epigraph hemagglutinin proteins were delivered using an Adenovirus type 5 vector and compared to a wild type of hemagglutinin and the commercial inactivated vaccine, FluSure. In mice, epigraph vaccination leads to significant cross-reactive antibody and T-cell responses against a diverse panel of swH3 isolates. Epigraph vaccination also […]
Virtually unlimited solar cell experiments
EurekAlert March1, 2021 Researchers in Japan used machine learning to screen hundreds of thousands of donor: acceptor pairs based on an algorithm trained with data from previously published experimental studies. Trying all possible combinations of 382 donor molecules and 526 acceptor molecules resulted in 200,932 pairs that were virtually tested by predicting their energy conversion efficiency. Basing the construction of our machine learning model on an experimental dataset drastically improved the prediction accuracy. To verify this method, one of the polymers predicted to have high efficiency was synthesized in the lab and tested. Its properties were found to conform with […]
A world first: A robot able to “hear” through the ear of a locust
EurekAlert March 2, 2021 During hundreds of millions of years of evolution, insects have evolved some of the most efficient and robust sensing organs, often far more sensitive than their man-made equivalents. Researchers in Israel integrated a locust tympanic ear with a robotic platform using hybrid bio-technological approach. Using an Ear-on-a-Chip method, they created a long-lasting miniature sensory device that operates as part of a bio-hybrid robot. The neural signals recorded from the ear in response to sound pulses, are processed and used to control the robot’s motion. This work is a proof of concept, demonstrating the use of biological […]