Physics World June 18, 2018 An international team of researchers (Germany, Japan, Sweden, South Korea) has discovered a variety of new colour centres in lateral p-i-n diodes made from a polytype (a crystal structure) of silicon carbide called 4H-SiC that contains naturally occurring divacancies. The newly-discovered centres emit non-classical light in the visible and near-infrared range. One type of defect can even be excited using electrical means. This means that it might be integrated into compact electronics devices as there would be no need for an additional bulky laser system to optically excite it. The work opens new directions both […]
A surprising twist on skyrmions
Phys.org June 12, 2018 An international team of researchers (UK, China, Germany) measured the helicity angle of surface skyrmions, providing direct experimental evidence that a twisted skyrmion surface state also exists in bulk systems. The exact surface helicity angles of twisted skyrmions for both left- and right-handed chiral bulk Cu2OSeO3, in the single as well as in the multidomain skyrmion lattice state, are determined, revealing their detailed internal structure. The findings suggest that a skyrmion surface reconstruction is a universal phenomenon, stemming from the breaking of translational symmetry at the interface. The study suggests the importance of free surfaces has […]
Why 50,000 ships are so vulnerable to cyberattacks
The Conversation June 13, 2018 The maritime industry has been slow to realize that ships, just like everything else, are now part of cyberspace. There are several core issues that make cybersecurity for the maritime industry particularly challenging to address. There are many different classes of vessel, all of which operate in very different environments; the users of these maritime computer systems are constantly in flux; the complexity is the linkage between onboard and terrestrial systems. In 2017, the IMO amended two of their general security management codes to explicitly include cybersecurity…read more.
Top 10 Science and Technology Innovations for the Week of June 15, 2018
01. Multiple lasers could be replaced by a single microcomb 02. New approach to generating ultrashort laser pulses 03. New laser makes silicon ‘sing’ 04. Photonics – Getting into the groove 05. Novel transmitter protects wireless devices from hackers 06. Cooling by laser beam 07. Evidence for a new property of quantum matter revealed 08. MOF material offers selective, reversible and repeatable capture of toxic atmospheric gas 09. A nanotech sensor that turns molecular fingerprints into bar codes 10. Scientists find ordered magnetic patterns in disordered magnetic material And others… In desert trials, next-generation water harvester delivers fresh water from […]
Cooling by laser beam
Science Daily June 8, 2018 Researchers in Italy explain that the laser pulse can, in some circumstances, populate high-energy states, which heat up, and simultaneously depopulate low energy ones, which thus cool down which is responsible for superconductivity. This selective cooling, shown rigorously in a very simplified theoretical model, could explain not only the experimental observations, but also open the way to new and potentially important research activities… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
In desert trials, next-generation water harvester delivers fresh water from air (w/video)
Eurekalert June 8, 2018 In 2017, researchers at UC Berkeley successfully field tested their newest prototype water harvester in the Arizona desert. It worked as designed, sucking water out of the air without any power other than sunlight. They demonstrated that the harvester should be easy to scale up by simply adding more of the water absorber, a highly porous MOF. A team of researchers in the US (UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) has created a new MOF based on aluminum, called MOF-303, that is at least 150 times cheaper and captures twice as much water in lab tests. This […]
Evidence for a new property of quantum matter revealed
Science Daily June 12, 2018 Quantum spin liquids do not achieve an ordered magnetic state, even at the lowest temperatures. An international team of researchers (USA – Johns Hopkins University, Georgia Institute of Technology, NSF, Argonne National Laboratory, Russia) studied an organic compound called k-(BEDT-TTF)2Hg(SCN)2 Br that may be both a spin liquid and a dipole liquid. They observed that in this quantum material even at super-cold temperatures, electrical dipoles are still present and fluctuate according to the laws of quantum mechanics. The discovery has potential application in quantum computing and information storage… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Light-bending nano-patterns for LEDs
Nanowerk June 8, 2018 Researchers in Singapore designed and experimentally realized high efficiency beam deflecting and polarization beam splitting metasurfaces consisting of GaN nanostructures etched on the GaN epitaxial substrate itself. They demonstrated a polarization insensitive beam deflecting metasurface with 64% and 90% absolute and relative efficiencies, and the broad functionality that can be realized on this platform. The broadband response in the blue wavelength range of 430–470 nm. The nanophotonic platform of GaN shows the way to off- and on-chip nonlinear and quantum photonic devices working efficiently at blue emission wavelengths common to many atomic quantum emitters such as Ca+ […]
Institute launches the MIT Intelligence Quest
MIT News February 1, 2018 MIT has launched the MIT Intelligence Quest, an initiative to discover the foundations of human intelligence and drive the development of technological tools that can positively influence virtually every aspect of society. The Intelligence Quest will encourage researchers to investigate the societal implications of their work as they pursue hard problems lying beyond the current horizon of what is known. To power the Quest and achieve results that are consistent with its ambitions, the Institute will raise financial support through corporate sponsorship and philanthropic giving… read more.
MOF material offers selective, reversible and repeatable capture of toxic atmospheric gas
Science Daily June 11, 2018 An international team of researchers (UK, USA – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Russia, France, China) has developed an MOF, denoted as MFM-300(Al), which exhibits reversible, selective capture of nitrogen dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures — at low concentrations — in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Despite the highly reactive nature of nitrogen dioxide, the MFM-300(Al) material proved extremely robust, demonstrating the capability to be fully regenerated, or degassed, multiple times without loss of crystallinity or porosity. This work may pave the way for the development of future capture and conversion technologies… […]