Next Big Future October 11, 2023 The Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program aims to design, build, and flight test a novel X-plane that incorporates Active Flow Control (AFC) as a primary design consideration. The X-65 has no external moving parts. No flaps. No rotors. No elevators, rudders, stabilators. The flight can be improved while also reducing costs, and wear and tear on the aircraft. The smoother surface should help improve the X-65s stealth characteristics. Crane seeks to optimize the benefits of active flow control by maturing technologies and design tools, and incorporating them early in the […]
Scientists demonstrate electrically tunable microlens array using simple PSCOF approach
Phys.org October 11, 2023 Microlens construction methods involve multiple fabrication processes, thereby increasing the complexity and cost of fabrication. Researchers in China demonstrated an optically anisotropic, electrically tunable liquid crystal (LC) microlens array using one-step fabrication method. The microlens array was formed via photopolymerization-induced phase separation inside a polymer/LC composite. Without applying voltage, the microlens array had a natural focal length of 8 mm. Upon applying voltage above the threshold, the LC molecules reorient along the electric field direction and the focal length of the microlens array gradually increased. According to the researchers LC microlens arrays could find numerous potential […]
Scientists discover ‘flipping’ layers in heterostructures to cause changes in their properties
Nanowerk October 10, 2023 Assembling different TMD layers into vertical stacks creates a new artificial material called a van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure. By incorporating different materials, it becomes possible to combine the properties of individual layers, producing new optoelectronic devices with tailor-made properties. To understand the unusual stacking sequence, an international team of researchers (South Korea, Germany, USA – Oak Ridge National Laboratory) introduced the excitonic Elliot formula by imposing strain exclusively on the top layer that could be a consequence of the stacking process. They found that the intensity ratio of Q- to K-excitons in the same layer […]
Toward metropolitan free-space quantum networks
Phys.org October 10, 2023 An international team of researchers (Germany, Austria) developed a deployable free-space QKD system and demonstrated its use in realistic scenarios. They developed and launched a low-Earth-orbit satellite for implementing decoy-state QKD—a form of QKD that uses weak coherent pulses at high channel loss and was secure because photon-number-splitting eavesdropping could be detected. They achieved a kilohertz key rate from the satellite to the ground over up to 1,200 kilometres. The key rate was around 20 orders of magnitudes greater than that expected using an optical fibre of the same length. According to the researchers their work […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of October 6, 2023
01. Curving light in a record-setting way 02. From physics to generative AI: An AI model for advanced pattern generation 03. How quantum light sees quantum sound 04. Living hydrogel fibers unveiling a new era of sustainable engineered materials 05. Novel liquid metal circuits for flexible, self-healing wearables 06. Physicists coax superconductivity and more from quasicrystals 07. Powering the quantum revolution: Quantum engines on the horizon 08. Scientists unveil fire-safe fuel 09. Seeking Innovative Concepts for Space Superiority 10. Ultrafast quantum simulation of large-scale quantum entanglement And others Biological particles play crucial role in Arctic cloud ice formation Striking rare […]
Biological particles play crucial role in Arctic cloud ice formation
Science Daily September 28, 2023 Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP) play an important role in the climate system, facilitating the formation of ice within clouds, consequently PBAP may be important in understanding the rapidly changing Arctic climate. An international team of researchers (Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Norway) used single-particle fluorescence spectroscopy to identify and quantify PBAP at an Arctic mountain site, with transmission electronic microscopy analysis supporting the presence of PBAP. They found that PBAP concentrations ranged between 10−3–10−1 L−1 and peak in summer. Evidence suggested that the terrestrial Arctic biosphere was an important regional source of PBAP, given the high […]
Curving light in a record-setting way
Phys.org September 27, 2023 Materials with large birefringence are sought after for polarization control, nonlinear optics, micromanipulation, and as a platform for unconventional light–matter coupling, such as hyperbolic phonon polaritons. Layered 2D materials can feature some of the largest optical anisotropy; however, their use in most optical systems is limited because their optical axis is out of the plane of the layers and the layers are weakly attached. A team of researchers in the US (University of Wisconsin, Washington University, University of Southern California, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) demonstrated that a bulk crystal with subtle periodic […]
From physics to generative AI: An AI model for advanced pattern generation
MIT News September 27, 2023 Researchers at MIT have introduced a new family of physics-inspired generative models termed PFGM++ that unifies diffusion models and Poisson Flow Generative Models (PFGM). The models produced generative trajectories for N dimensional data by embedding paths in N+D dimensional space while still controlling the progression with a simple scalar norm of the D additional variables. The new model reduced to PFGM when D=1 and to diffusion models when D→∞. The flexibility of choosing D allowed them to trade off robustness against rigidity as increasing D resulted in more concentrated coupling between the data and the […]
How quantum light sees quantum sound
Nanowerk October 3, 2023 Researchers in the UK have proposed a new way of using quantum light to ‘see’ quantum sound. They showed that the second-order, two-time correlation functions for phonons and photons emitted from a vibronic molecule in a thermal bath resulted in bunching and antibunching (a purely quantum effect), respectively. Signatures relating to phonon exchange with the environment were revealed in photon-photon correlations. They demonstrated that cross-correlation functions have a strong dependence on the order of detection giving insight into how phonon dynamics influences the emission of light. It is hoped that the discovery may help scientists better […]
Living hydrogel fibers unveiling a new era of sustainable engineered materials
Nanowerk September 27, 2023 A major challenge in creating living materials for functional material design, integrating synthetic biology tools to endow materials with programmable, dynamic, and life-like characteristics, is balancing the tradeoff between structural stability, mechanical performance, and functional programmability. To address this problem researchers in China proposed a sheath–core living hydrogel fiber platform that synergistically integrated living bacteria with hydrogel fibers to achieve both functional diversity and structural and mechanical robustness. The microfluidic spinning was used to produce hydrogel fiber, which offered advantages in both structural and functional designability due to their hierarchical porous architectures that could be tailored […]