Phys.org October 5, 2020 An international team of researchers (USA – Los Alamos National Laboratory, industry, UK) has developed a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm, called variational fast forwarding (VFF) which is a hybrid combining aspects of classical and quantum computing. Although well-established theorems exclude the potential of general fast forwarding with absolute fidelity for arbitrary quantum simulations, the researchers get around the problem by tolerating small calculation errors for intermediate times to provide useful, if slightly imperfect, predictions. The errors that build up as simulation times increase limits potential calculations. Still, the algorithm allows simulations far beyond the time scales that […]
3D-printed ‘invisible’ fibres can sense breath, sound, and biological cells
Nanowerk October 2, 2020 Researchers in the UK 3D printed the composite fibres which are made from silver and/or semiconducting polymers. It creates a core-shell fibre structure, with a high-purity conducting fibre core wrapped by a thin protective polymer sheath, a few micrometres in diameter. The printing technique can also be used to make biocompatible fibres of a similar dimension to biological cells, which enables them to guide cell movements and ‘feel’ this dynamic process as electrical signals. The sensor was used for testing respiratory conditions such as normal breathing, rapid breathing, and simulated coughing. It significantly outperformed comparable commercial […]
The Big 3 Infectious Diseases Besides COVID-19 Scientists Are Trying to Find a Vaccine For
Global Biodefense October 5, 2020 Researchers in Australia regard malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS as the “big three” infectious diseases. Together they are responsible for about 2.7 million deaths a year around the world. Although anti-malarial drugs are routinely used to treat and prevent malaria infection, the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a major cause of death and a serious public health concern. Since the discovery of HIV in the 1980s, the disease has caused 33 million deaths. Some 38 million people have HIV/AIDS worldwide. There is currently no cure or protective vaccine. The current pandemic highlights the need for […]
An electrical trigger fires single, identical photons
Phys.org October 8, 2020 An international team of researchers (USA – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Montana State University, Spain) has demonstrated electrically stimulated photon emission from individual atomic defects in monolayer WS2 and directly correlated the emission with the local atomic and electronic structure. Radiative transitions are locally excited by sequential inelastic electron tunneling from a metallic tip into selected discrete defect states in the WS2 bandgap. Coupling to the optical far field is mediated by tip plasmons, which transduce the excess energy into a single photon. The applied tip-sample voltage determines the transition energy. Inelastic charge carrier injection into […]
Engineering team develops novel miniaturized organic semiconductor
Science Daily October 8, 2020 Organic Field Effect Transistors (OFETs) have the advantage of being flexible when compared with their inorganic counterparts like silicon. The main limitation on enhanced performance and mass production of OFETs lies in the difficulty in miniaturizing them. Products currently using OFETs in the market are still in their primitive forms, in terms of product flexibility and durability. The major problem now confronting scientists in reducing the size of OFETs is that the performance of the transistor will drop significantly with a reduction in size, partly due to the problem of contact resistance. Researchers in Hong […]
Generating photons for communication in a quantum computing system
Phys.org October 10, 2020 Realizing a fully connected network of quantum processors requires the ability to distribute quantum entanglement. For distant processing nodes, this can be achieved by generating, routing, and capturing spatially entangled itinerant photons. Researchers at MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory have demonstrated the deterministic generation of such photons using superconducting transmon qubits that are directly coupled to a waveguide. They generated two-photon N00N states and showed that the state and spatial entanglement of the emitted photons are tunable via the qubit frequencies. Using quadrature amplitude detection, they reconstructed the moments and correlations of the photonic modes and […]
Intelligent nanomaterials for photonics
Science Daily October 7, 2020 2D materials – combined with optical fibers – can enable novel applications in the areas of sensors, non-linear optics, and quantum technologies. An international team of researchers (Germany, Australia) studied the chemical vapor deposition of monolayer MoS2 and WS2 crystals on the core of microstructured exposed‐core optical fibers and their interaction with the fibers’ guided modes. Two distinct application possibilities of 2D‐functionalized waveguides to exemplify their potential are demonstrated. First, the excitonic 2D material photoluminescence is simultaneously excited and collected with the fiber modes. Then it is shown that third‐harmonic generation is modified by the highly […]
‘Like a fishing net,’ nanonet collapses to trap drug molecules
Science Daily October 5, 2020 Natural biomolecules such as peptides and DNA can dynamically self-organize into diverse hierarchical structures. Researchers at the Northwestern University have reported both experiments and simulations on the dynamic network self-assembly and subsequent collapse of the synthetic homopolymer poly(propylene sulfone). The assembly is directed by dynamic noncovalent sulfone–sulfone bonds that are susceptible to solvent polarity. The hydration history controls the homopolymer assembly into uniform nanostructured hydrogels of spherical, vesicular, or cylindrical morphologies. The electrostatic hydrogels achieve >95% encapsulation efficiency for hydrophilic small molecules and biologics. This system validates sulfone–sulfone bonding for dynamic self-assembly, presenting a robust […]
A new interpretation of quantum mechanics suggests that reality does not depend on the person measuring it
Phys.org October 6, 2020 According to the traditional interpretation of the Heisenberg principle, location and momentum cannot be determined simultaneously to an arbitrary degree of precision, as the person conducting the measurement always affects the values. In their study researchers in Finland used stochastic optimal control theory to conclude that the correlation between a location and momentum, i.e., their relationship, is fixed. In other words, reality is an object that does not depend on the person measuring it. In their theory’s frame of reference, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is a manifestation of thermodynamic equilibrium, in which correlations of random variables do […]
New shortcut enables faster creation of spin pattern in magnet
Nanowerk October 5, 2020 The fast creation of topological phases in matter requires massive reorientation of charge or spin degrees of freedom. An international team of researchers (Germany, Belgium, USA – MIT, Italy, the Netherlands) report the picosecond emergence of an extended topological phase that comprises many magnetic skyrmions. The nucleation of this phase, followed in real time via single-shot soft X-ray scattering after infrared laser excitation, is mediated by a transient topological fluctuation state. This state is enabled by the presence of a time-reversal symmetry-breaking perpendicular magnetic field and exists for less than 300 ps. Atomistic simulations indicate that the […]