MIT News June 15, 2020 Kohn anomalies reflect a sudden change in the graph describing a change of the capability of electrons for shielding phonons. This can give rise to instabilities in the propagation of electrons through the material and can lead to many new electronic properties. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Pennsylvania State University, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NIST, University of Maryland) predicted and observed Kohn anomaly in the topological Weyl semimetal (WSM) tantalum phosphide. It exhibits multiple topological singularities of Weyl nodes, leading to a distinct nesting condition with chiral selection, a […]
A quantum memory that operates at telecom wavelengths
Phys.org June 15, 2020 Researchers in the Netherlands designed and fabricated the fully engineerable, device with operational wavelength of 1550 nanometers to enable the system to work in the low-loss telecommunication band wavelength. The system’s optical and mechanical resonances are fully artificial. They were able to show that the memory has a satisfactory lifetime and coherence while successfully creating the superposition state. In future studies, they plan to gain a better understanding of why the de-phasing of a quantum state, to avoid having such a short coherence, understand the underlying microscopic mechanisms, and increase the overall efficiency of the memory. […]
The smallest motor in the world
Science Daily June 16, 2020 Researchers in Switzerland have developed a molecular motor which consists of only 16 atoms and rotates reliably in one direction. It could allow energy harvesting at the atomic level. The special feature of the motor is that it moves exactly at the boundary between classical motion and quantum tunneling — and has revealed puzzling phenomena to researchers in the quantum realm…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Using sunlight to save satellites from a fate of ‘space junk’
EurekAlert June 16, 2020 Satellites are almost always illuminated by the sun, apart from short transitions to Earth’s shadow. According to researchers at Purdue University the light that a satellite reflects can help reveal the solution to a structural malfunction. The proposed method calls for using telescopes on Earth to collect the light reflected by a satellite or one of its parts. Changes in the brightness of a “dot” over time are recorded as light curves and processed and used to extract information about an object’s appearance or rotational state. However, the more complex an object is, the harder it […]
Voices from DARPA- Episode 28: Swarm Commander
DARPA Outreach June 11, 2020 In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, the Tactical Technology Office manager delves into robotics and autonomous technology programs – the Subterranean (SubT) Challenge and OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET). From robot soccer to live-fly experimentation programs involving dozens of UASs, how the programs aim to assist humans heading into unknown environments via advances in collaborative autonomy and robotics…read more.
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of June 12, 2020
01. Scientists apply ‘twistronics’ to light propagation and make a breakthrough discovery 02. Ultra-thin camera lenses of the future could see the light of day 03. Engineers put tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses on a single chip 04. Long-range Communications without Large, Power-Hungry Antennas 05. Metasurface opens world of polarization 06. Researchers advance fuel cell technology 07. Surprisingly strong and deformable silicon 08. Three research groups, two kinds of electronic properties, one material 09. Researchers develop viable sodium battery 10. Reality check: COVID-19 and UV disinfection. And others… A ‘hole’ lot of sponge! New technique to create super-sponges […]
Engineers put tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses on a single chip
MIT News June 8, 2020 To make memristors an international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, IBM, China, South Korea) first fabricated a negative electrode out of silicon, a positive electrode by depositing a slight amount of copper, followed by a layer of silver. They sandwiched the two electrodes around an amorphous silicon medium patterning a millimeter-square silicon chip with tens of thousands of memristors. When they ran the chip through several visual tasks, the chip was able to “remember” stored images and reproduce them many times over, in versions that were crisper, and cleaner compared […]
A ‘hole’ lot of sponge! New technique to create super-sponges is a game changer
EurekAlert June 10, 2020 Unlike traditional porous materials, in theory MOFs structure can be controlled through careful selection of the components of the synthesis process. But in practice, this process is challenged by the restricted synthetic conditions and high thermal and chemical sensitivity of MOFs. Researchers in South Korea introduced stable carbon-carbon bonds by converting existing carbon-hydrogen bonds using elevated temperatures and adding “electrophilic organic halides or carbonyl compounds”, allowing simultaneous introduction of the required functional groups as well as the mesoscopic holes. This technique could potentially improve the safety of workers in enclosed, gas-filled environments such as in the […]
Killing coronavirus with handheld ultraviolet light device may be feasible
Pennsylvania State University June 1, 2020 To sanitize and disinfect areas from bacteria and viruses requires UV radiation sources that emit sufficiently high doses of UV light. Current UV radiation sources are typically expensive mercury-containing gas discharge lamp, which requires high power, has a relatively short lifetime, and is bulky. Current materials absorb too much UV radiation. An international team of researchers (USA – Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, Japan) found that strontium niobate films held the promise of the theoretical predictions. They successfully grew the films using sputtering. The process makes it possible to integrate this new material […]
A layered approach to safety
MIT News June 11, 2020 In the wake of an earthquake-triggered tsunami sparked a global race for solutions to improve nuclear safety and develop accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) to avert future reactor breakdowns. In Fukushima, there were hydrogen explosions because of interactions between the conventional zirconium-based fuel cladding and high temperature steam produced when the safety system failed, and coolant water heated up. Researchers at MIT packed CVD-fabricated, cylindrically shaped fuel particles into a bundle that fits into a typical fuel rod and replace the conventional zirconium fuel rod cladding with silicon carbide composite to slow down hydrogen generation. This would […]