IEEE Spectrum September 13, 2019 The University of Maryland has announced the launch of the Quantum Technology Center which aims to translate quantum physics research into innovative technologies. The center will pursue collaborations with industry and government labs to help take promising quantum advances from the lab to the marketplace. It will also train students in the development and application of quantum technologies to produce a workforce educated in quantum-related engineering. UMD already hosts more than 200 researchers in quantum science, one of the greatest concentrations in the world. Much of the effort has been led by the Joint Quantum […]
Device generates light from the cold night sky
EurekAlert September 12, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (UCLA, Stanford University) built a thermoelectric generator that sidesteps the limitations of solar power by taking advantage of radiative cooling, in which a sky-facing surface passes its heat to the atmosphere as thermal radiation, losing some heat to space and reaching a cooler temperature than the surrounding air harnessing temperature differences to generate electricity. The device consists of a polystyrene enclosure covered in aluminized mylar to minimize thermal radiation and protected by an infrared-transparent wind cover. In tests the device generated 25 milliwatts of energy per square meter in […]
EmTech Asia 2020
Asia Research News September 18, 2019 EmTech Asia, co-sponsored by MIT Technology Review will take place in Singapore in February 2020. It brings together the brightest minds in artificial intelligence, materials science, biomedicine, immersive media, space (and much more) from around the world to share breakthrough research and discoveries connecting the best from academia and industry to collaborate. It creates a platform for scientists with the capability to change the world to meet investors to commercialize ideas and tech executives to distribute it globally…read more.
The future of ‘extremely’ energy-efficient circuits
Science Daily September 18, 2019 Information communication technology is projected to account for 20% of total energy consumption in the United States by 2020. To reduce energy consumption while improving efficiency, an international team of researchers (Japan, USA – Northeastern University) used Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron (AQFP) to replace direct current with alternating current which acts as both the clock signal and the power supply — as the current switches directions, it signals the next time phase for computing. According to the researchers it could improve conventional communication technologies with currently available fabrication processes. They developed a computation logic that takes the […]
MIT engineers develop “blackest black” material to date
MIT News September 12, 2019 The material reported by researchers at MIT is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record. They suspect that it may have something to do with the combination of etched aluminum, which is somewhat blackened, with the carbon nanotubes. In an exhibit called Redemption of Vanity they demonstrated the material by making a brilliantly faceted 16.78 carat diamond appear as a flat, black void by coating it with […]
New topological insulator reroutes photonic ‘traffic’ on the fly
Phys.org September 13, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Pennsylvania, Italy) has developed a prototype photonic chip that is roughly 250 microns square and features a tessellated grid of oval rings. By pumping the chip with an external laser, targeted to alter the photonic properties of individual rings, they are able to alter which of those rings constitute the boundaries of a waveguide. The result is a reconfigurable topological insulator. By changing the pumping patterns, photons headed in different directions can be routed around each other, allowing photons from multiple data packets to travel through the […]
Pearls: New light on enhancing lightweight armor for soldiers
Science Daily September 16, 2019 The bulk of the material created by researchers at SUNY, Buffalo, is ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, or UHMWPE, which is used to make products like artificial hips and guitar picks. Their design is based on the mother of pearl, which mollusks create by arranging a form of calcium carbonate into a structure that resembles interlocking bricks. Like mother of pearl, the researchers designed the material to have an extremely tough outer shell with a more flexible inner backing that is capable of deforming and absorbing projectiles. The material is stiff, strong, tough and has high […]
Researchers join forces; experiment with latest technologies to support future military operations
EurekAlert September 19, 2019 The United States hosted multiple teams of scientists and engineers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for the Technical Cooperation Program Contested Urban Environment, or TTCP CUE 2019, strategic challenge last month. Remote Autonomous Systems of the future will need to protect the Soldier and enable them to fight with a technological overmatch. These systems allow the Soldier to have a virtual presence removing them from the harm of an initial contact. Gesture and other modalities of control such as speech and haptics allow these autonomous systems to be controlled in a more […]
Researchers use laser light to transform metal into magnet
Phys.org September 16, 2019 Up to now, researchers have only been capable of manipulating the properties already found in a material using light. An international team of researchers (Denmark, Singapore) has shown that when the material is irradiated with laser light, plasmons in the metal disk begin to rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. However, these plasmons change the quantum electronic structure of a material, which simultaneously alters their own behavior, catalyzing a feedback loop. Feedback from the plasmons’ internal electric fields eventually causes the plasmons to break the intrinsic symmetry of the material and trigger an instability […]
Scientists create fully electronic 2-D spin transistors
Nanowerk September 17, 2019 Using gold electrodes, researchers in the Netherlands were able to send a pure charge current through graphene and generate a spin current, referred to as the Rashba-Edelstein effect. This happens due to the interaction with the heavy atoms of the TMD monolayer (in this case, tungsten disulfide). The charge current induces a spin current in the graphene, which they could measure with spin-selective ferromagnetic cobalt electrodes. The charge-to-spin conversion makes it possible to build all-electrical spin circuits with graphene. They showed that the efficiency of the generation of the spin accumulation can be tuned by the […]