Nanowerk May 30, 2020 Intrinsically stretchable optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting capacitors usually require high driving alternating voltages and excitation frequencies to achieve sufficient luminance in ambient lighting conditions. To lower the electronic operating conditions an international team of researchers (Singapore, USA – Cornell University) developed a material made up of unique blend of fluoroelastomer and surfactant. It has very high dielectric permittivity and self-healing properties, transparent, and elastic. A healable, low-field illuminating optoelectronic stretchable (HELIOS) device can turn on at voltages that are four times lower and achieve illumination that is more than 20 times brighter. Due to the […]
Making matter out of light: high-power laser simulations point the way
Phys.org May 29, 2020 An international team of researchers (USA – UC San Diego, UT Austin, Johns Hopkins University, France, Romania, Germany) aimed a high-power laser at a target to generate a magnetic field as strong as that of a neutron star. This field generates gamma ray emissions that collide to produce, for the very briefest instant, pairs of matter and antimatter particles. The current method used only light to produce matter. This method closely mimics conditions during the first minutes of the universe, offering an improved model for researchers looking to learn more about this critical time period. The […]
Lasers Write Data Into Glass
IEEE Spectrum May 29, 2020 Optical data storage was demonstrated in 2013 by researchers in UK. Under Project Silica, last November Microsoft completed its first proof of concept by writing the 1978 film Superman on a single small piece of glass and retrieving it. Researchers could theoretically store up to 360 terabytes of data on a disc the size of a DVD. The laser’s pulse deforms the glass at its focal point, forming a tiny 3D structure called a voxel makes it possible to represent several bits of data per voxel. Reading data from the glass requires an entirely different […]
Lab-made skin grows its own hair
Nature Podcast June 3, 2020 A team of researchers in the US (Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Indiana University, Stanford University) developed an organoid culture system that generates complex skin from human pluripotent stem cells. They used stepwise modulation of the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling pathways to co-induce cranial epithelial cells and neural crest cells within a spherical cell aggregate. During an incubation period of 4–5 months, a cyst-like skin organoid composed of stratified epidermis, fat-rich dermis and pigmented hair follicles that are equipped with sebaceous glands emerged and a network of […]
Graphene and 2D materials could move electronics beyond ‘Moore’s Law’
Science Daily June 3, 2020 After the first demonstration of spin transport in graphene in 2007 at room temperature, it was quickly realized that this novel material was relevant for both fundamental spintronics and future applications. In this colloquium an international team of researchers (Switzerland, USA – Columbia University, Spain, Singapore, the Netherlands, UK) reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances on electronic spin transport in graphene and related 2D materials. They focus on emergent phenomena in van der Waals heterostructures and the new perspectives provided by them, including proximity-enabled spin-orbit effects, the coupling of electronic spin to light, electrical tunability, […]
Configurable circuit technology poised to expand silicon photonic applications
Science Daily May 28, 2020 Researchers in the UK have designed and fabricated building blocks for the configurable circuits in the form of erasable directional couplers (DCs) using ion implanted waveguides. Once the configurable/one-time programmable (OTP) silicon photonic circuit is programmed, its signal routing is retained without the need for additional power consumption. This technology can potentially enable a multi-purpose design of photonic chips for a range of different applications and performance requirements, as it can be programmed for each specific application after chip fabrication. Proof-of-principle demonstrators in the form of generic 1×4 and 2×2 programmable switching circuits were fabricated […]
Carbon nanotube transistors make the leap from lab to factory floor
MIT News June 1, 2020 Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) have only been fabricated in academic or research laboratories. Developing a suitable method for depositing nanotubes uniformly over industry-standard large-area substrates has been the challenge for commercializing it. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, industry, Canada) has shown that a deposition technique in which the substrate is submerged within a nanotube solution can allow CNFETs to be fabricated within industrial facilities. They have developed process modifications to standard solution-based methods accelerating the deposition process by more than 1,100 times and reducing cost. They have demonstrated uniform and reproducible […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of May 29, 2020
01. Discovery about the edge of fusion plasma could help realize fusion power 02. New devices produce and detect twisted light 03. Tiny, self-assembling traps capture dangerous pollutants, PFAS 04. Untwisting plastics for charging Internet-of-things devices 05. Designing a flexible material to protect buildings, military personnel 06. A Devastating US ‘Dust Bowl’ Is Twice as Likely Now Than During The Great Depression 07. Formula may help 5G wireless networks efficiently share communications frequencies 08. Researchers breaking new ground in materials science 09. Solving the space junk problem 10. Long-term data show hurricanes are getting stronger And others… Einstein’s two mistakes […]
Designing a flexible material to protect buildings, military personnel
Phys.org May 27, 2020 Cloaking materials are mature because the properties of acoustic (radar, sonar) and optical waves (infrared) are well-understood. However, cloaking for elastic waves in solid media is lagging. A team of researchers in the US (University of Missouri, MIT) has designed and fabricated a new class of cloaking materials which is composed of a functionally graded lattice embedded in an isotropic continuum background. The layers were 3-D printed and manually assembled. They experimentally and numerically investigated the characteristics of the proposed cloak and found very good cloaking performance under both tension and shear loadings. Potential applications for […]
A Devastating US ‘Dust Bowl’ Is Twice as Likely Now Than During The Great Depression
Science Alert May 19, 2020 During 1930s Dust Bowl drought across North America’s Great Plains caused widespread crop failures, large dust storms and considerable out-migration. This coincided with the central United States experiencing its hottest summers of the twentieth century in 1934 and 1936, with over 40 heatwave days and maximum temperatures surpassing 44 °C at some locations. According to an international team of researchers (Australia, UK, Sweden) heatwave activity in similarly rare events would be much larger under today’s atmospheric green house gas forcing the return period of a 1-in-100-year heatwave summer (as observed in 1936) would be reduced to […]