Science Daily September 8, 2020 To develop the models researchers at the University of Central Florida linked large-scale climate variability events, such as El Niño, to variability in storm surge activity. They tested the models by having them predict past storm surge variability and compared their predictions with what actually occurred. The results indicated that the models matched the overall trends and variability of storm surge indicators for almost all coastal regions of the U.S during both the tropical and extra-tropical storm seasons. According to the researchers there is some capability in predicting storm surge variability over inter-annual to decadal […]
Mineral undergoes self-healing of irradiation damage
Phys.org September 9, 2020 Monazite–(Ce) is a common accessory rock component that bears petrogenetic information, which is widely used in geochronology and thermochronology, and is considered a potential host material for immobilization of radioactive waste. An international team of researchers (Austria, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic) conducted an ion-irradiation study that has unraveled the causes of the self-healing of monazite. They found that only in radiation-damaged monazite–(Ce), 4He ions cause gradual structural restoration. In contrast, its high-temperature annealed analogue and synthetic CePO4 experience He-irradiation damage. Alpha-assisted annealing contributes to preventing irradiation-induced amorphization of monazite–(Ce); however, this process is only significant above […]
New evidence that the quantum world is even stranger than we thought
Nanowerk September 7, 2020 Researchers at Purdue University have shown that anyons exhibit fractional charge and fractional statistics that maintain a “memory” of their interactions with other quasiparticles by inducing quantum mechanical phase changes. They demonstrated this behavior by routing the electrons through a specific maze-like etched nanostructure made of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide. The interferometer confined the electrons to move in a two-dimensional path. When the device was cooled to within one-hundredth of a degree from absolute zero and subjected to a powerful 9-Tesla magnetic field. the electrical resistance of the interferometer generated an interference pattern which […]
Nanoearthquakes control spin centers in SiC
Science Daily September 4, 2020 An international team of researchers (Germany, Russia) demonstrated the use of elastic vibrations to manipulate the spin states of optically active color centers in SiC at room temperature. They used a surface acoustic wave cavity to selectively address spin transitions with magnetic quantum number differences of ±1 and ±2 in the absence of external microwave electromagnetic fields. These spin-acoustic resonances reveal a nontrivial dependence on the static magnetic field orientation, which is attributed to the intrinsic symmetry of the acoustic fields combined with the peculiar properties of a half-integer spin system. These findings establish silicon […]
Painting with light: Novel nanopillars precisely control intensity of transmitted light
EurekAlert September 4, 2020 By shining white light on a glass slide stippled with millions of tiny titanium dioxide pillars, an international team of researchers (China, USA – NIST, University of Maryland) has reproduced luminous hues and subtle shadings of a painting. By adding or dropping a particular color, or wavelength, of light traveling in an optical fiber, scientists can control the amount of information carried by the fiber. By altering the intensity, researchers can maintain the brightness of the light signal as it travels long distances in the fiber. The approach has potential applications in improving optical communications and […]
Paving the way for tunable graphene plasmonic THz amplifiers
Nanowerk September 8, 2020 An international team of researchers (Japan, Poland, France, Russia) has demonstrated room-temperature coherent amplification of terahertz radiation in graphene, electrically driven by a dry cell battery. They designed a series of monolayer-graphene channel transistor structures that worked as a highly efficient antenna to couple the THz radiations and graphene plasmons. They demonstrated THz radiation amplification gain of up to 9% in the monolayer graphene–far beyond the well-known landmark level of 2.3% that is the maximum available when photons directly interact with electrons without excitation of graphene plasmons. Because all results were obtained at room temperature, the […]
Quantum light squeezes the noise out of microscopy signals
Phys.org September 8, 2020 A team of researchers in the US (Tulane University, MIT, University of Colorado) demonstrated the first practical application of nonlinear interferometry by measuring the displacement of an atomic force microscope microcantilever with quantum noise reduction of up to 3 dB below the standard quantum limit, corresponding to a quantum-enhanced measurement of beam displacement. They minimized photon backaction noise while taking advantage of quantum noise reduction by transducing the cantilever displacement signal with a weak squeezed state while using dual homodyne detection with a higher power local oscillator. This approach may enable quantum-enhanced broadband, high-speed scanning probe […]
Researchers make tiny, yet complex fiber optic force sensor
Phys.org September 8, 2020 Researchers in Slovenia designed sensor consisting of a thin silica diaphragm created at the tip of the fiber. The central part of the diaphragm is extended into a silica pole, which ends with a round-shaped probe or a sensing cylinder. The entire sensor is made of silica glass and has a cylindrical shape with a length of about 800 µm and a diameter of about 105 µm. Force sensing resolution of about 0.6 µN was demonstrated experimentally while providing an unambiguous sensor measurement range of about 0.6 mN. It overcomes the limitations of force sensors and […]
Scientists predicted new hard and superhard ternary compounds
EurekAlert September 4, 2020 An international team of researchers (Russia, Armenia) has predicted new hard and superhard ternary compounds in the tungsten-molybdenum-boron system using computational methods. Mixing tungsten and molybdenum atoms produced compounds that were disordered and, therefore, had varying stability depending on temperature. They predicted five new stable ternary compounds with various chemical compositions at different temperatures and calculated the composition–temperature phase diagrams. Electronic properties of the new compounds were studied in detail to find their correlation with the mechanical properties, crystal structure, and atomic composition…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Seeing objects through clouds and fog
EurekAlert September 9, 2020 The presence of scattering places fundamental limits on our ability to image through fog, rain, dust, or the atmosphere. Conventional approaches for imaging through scattering media operate at microscopic scales or require a priori knowledge of the target location for 3D imaging. Researchers at Stanford University have introduced a technique that co-designs single-photon avalanche diodes, ultra-fast pulsed lasers, and a new inverse method to capture 3D shape through scattering media. They demonstrated acquisition of shape and position for objects hidden behind a thick diffuser at macroscopic scales. The technique complements other vision systems that can see […]