Phys.org April 15, 2024 Researchers at the University of Virginia have developed an iminium-based organoelectrocatalyst (im+) for oxygen reduction reaction with trifluoroacetic acid as a proton source in acetonitrile solution under both electrochemical and spectrochemical conditions using decamethylferrocene as a chemical reductant. Under spectrochemical conditions, H2O2 was the primary reaction product. They attributed this difference in selectivity to the interception of the free superoxide intermediate under electrochemical conditions by the reduced catalyst… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The experimental demonstration of a verifiable blind quantum computing protocol
Phys.org April 13, 2024 An international team of researchers (UK, France, USA -University of Maryland) used a trapped-ion quantum server and a client-side photonic detection system networked via a fiber-optic quantum link. The availability of memory qubits and deterministic entangling gates enabled interactive protocols without post selection which previous realizations could not provide. They quantified the privacy at ≲0.03 leaked classical bits per qubit. According to the researchers their experiment demonstrated a path to fully verified quantum computing in the cloud… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Hidden threat: Global underground infrastructure vulnerable to sea-level rise
Phys.org April 15, 2024 Sea-level rise (SLR) is influencing coastal groundwater by both elevating the water table and shifting salinity profiles landward, making the subsurface increasingly corrosive. Low-lying coastal municipalities worldwide are vulnerable to an array of impacts spurred by these phenomena, which can occur decades before SLR-induced surface inundation. Damage is accumulating across a variety of infrastructure networks that extend partially and fully beneath the ground surface and it is largely overlooked as part of infrastructure management and planning. Researchers at the University of Hawaii provided an overview of SLR-influenced coastal groundwater and related processes that have the potential […]
Internet can achieve quantum speed with light saved as sound
Phys.org April 15, 2024 An international team of researchers (Denmark, Croatia) demonstrated a memory for light based on optomechanically induced transparency. They achieved a long storage time by leveraging the ultralow dissipation of a soft-clamped mechanical membrane resonator, which oscillated at MHz frequencies. At room temperature, they demonstrated a lifetime T1≈23 ms and a retrieval efficiency η≈40% for classical coherent pulses. According to the researchers the storage of quantum light is possible at moderate cryogenic conditions (T≈10K) and such systems could find applications in emerging quantum networks, where they could serve as long-lived optical quantum memories by storing optical information in […]
A magnetic nanographene butterfly poised to advance quantum technologies
Phys.org April 15, 2024 Conventional design approaches are typically limited to a single magnetic origin, which can restrict the number of correlated spins or the type of magnetic ordering in open shell nanographenes. An international team of researchers (Singapore, Czech Republic) developed a design strategy that combined topological frustration and electron–electron interactions to fabricate a large fully fused ‘butterfly’-shaped tetraradical nanographene on Au(111). They resolved the molecular backbone and revealed the strongly correlated open-shell character. The nanographene contained four unpaired electrons with both ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic interactions, harbouring a many-body singlet ground state and strong multi-spin entanglement. They studied the […]
Northern permafrost region emits more greenhouse gases than it captures, study finds
Phys.org April 15, 2024 An international team of researchers (Sweden, USA – University of New Hampshire, independent org., Northern Arizona University, University of Colorado, NASA, Germany, Finland, Australia, France, Denmark, Canada) has presented comprehensive budgets of CO2, CH4, and N2O by key permafrost land cover types over the period 2000–2020 across the northern permafrost region which was emitting green house gasses (GHGs) throughout the period. While the region was a source of methane and nitrous oxide, the carbon dioxide budget was near neutral with large uncertainties. Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires and inland waters largely offset the sink in vegetated […]
Quantum precision: A new kind of resistor
Nanowerk April 15, 2024 Metrological applications of the quantum anomalous Hall effect are currently restricted by the need for low measurement currents and low temperatures. Researchers in Germany developed a measurement scheme that increases the robustness of a zero-magnetic-field quantum anomalous Hall resistor and extends its operating range to higher currents. In the scheme, they simultaneously injected current into two disconnected perimeters of a multi-terminal Corbino device to balance the electrochemical potential between the edges. This screened the electric field that drove backscattering through the bulk and thus improved the stability of the quantization at increased currents. According to the […]
Researchers control quantum properties of 2D materials with tailored light
Phys.org April 15, 2024 The stacking and twisting of atom-thin structures with matching crystal symmetry has provided a unique way to create new superlattice structures in which new properties emerge. An international team of researchers (Germany, Spain, USA – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University) demonstrated a tailored light-wave-driven analogue to twisted layer stacking. Tailoring the spatial symmetry of the light waveform to that of the lattice of a hexagonal boron nitride monolayer and then twisting this waveform resulted in optical control of time-reversal symmetry breaking and the realization of the topological Haldane model in a laser-dressed two-dimensional insulating crystal. […]
Study reveals giant store of global soil carbon
Phys.org April 11. 2024 Soil inorganic carbon (SIC) remain largely unquantified. A team researchers from many countries found that nearly one billion tons of inorganic carbon are lost to inland waters annually, and that future losses will reduce global SIC by 23 billion tons over the next 30 years under the current scenario. By compiling 223,593 field-based measurements and developing machine-learning models, they reported that global soils store 2305 ± 636 (±1 SD) billion tonnes of carbon as SIC over the top 2-meter depth. Under future scenarios, soil acidification associated with nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems would reduce global SIC […]
‘Surprising’ hidden activity of semiconductor material spotted by researchers
Science Daily April 11, 2024 Studies of electric field-driven insulator-to-metal (IMT) in the prototypical vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin-film channel devices are largely focused on the electrical and elastic responses of the films, but the response of the corresponding Titanium dioxide (TiO2) substrate is often overlooked. An international team of researchers (USA – Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University, Argonne National Laboratory, Germany) found that in-operando spatiotemporal imaging of the coupled elastodynamics using X-ray diffraction microscopy of a VO2 film channel device on TiO2 substrate the film channel bulged during the IMT instead shrinking as expected. A micron thick proximal layer in […]