EurekAlert December 17, 2020 Silicon crystallized in the usual cubic (diamond) lattice structure has dominated the electronics industry for more than half a century. However, cubic silicon, germanium and SiGe alloys are all indirect-bandgap semiconductors that cannot emit light efficiently. An international team of researchers (Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria) has demonstrated efficient light emission from direct-bandgap hexagonal Ge and SiGe alloys. They measured a sub-nanosecond, temperature-insensitive radiative recombination lifetime and observed an emission yield similar to that of direct-bandgap group-III–V semiconductors. They demonstrated that, by controlling the composition of the hexagonal SiGe alloy, the emission wavelength can be continuously […]
Tag Archives: Breakthrough technology
Exotic never before seen particle discovered at CERN
Phys.org July 1, 2020 Researchers at CERN led by UK scientists found the new tetraquark using the particle-hunting technique of looking for an excess of collision events called bumps, over a smooth background of events. The bump has a statistical significance of more than five standard deviations, the usual threshold for claiming the discovery of a new particle, and it corresponds to a mass at which particles composed of four charm quarks are predicted to exist. As with previous tetraquark discoveries, it is not completely clear whether the new particle is a “true tetraquark”, that is, a system of four […]
Storing data in everyday objects
Science Daily December 9, 2019 DNA storage offers substantial information density and exceptional half-life. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Israel) devised a ‘DNA-of-things’ (DoT) storage architecture to produce materials with immutable memory. In a DoT framework, DNA molecules record the data, and these molecules are then encapsulated in nanometer silica beads, which are fused into various materials that are used to print or cast objects in any shape. They applied DoT to three-dimensionally print a Stanford Bunny that contained a 45 kB digital DNA blueprint for its synthesis. Then they synthesized five generations of the bunny, each from the memory […]
Suspended layers make a special superconductor
Phys.org November 5, 2019 Researchers in the Netherlands created a suspended double layer of molybdenum disulfide with an ionic liquid on both sides that can be used to create an electric field across the bilayer. In the individual monolayer, such a field will be asymmetric, with positive ions on one side and negative charges induced on the other. However, in the bilayer, they could have the same amount of charge induced at both monolayers, creating a symmetrical system. The electric field that was thus created could be used to switch superconductivity on and off. This means that a superconducting transistor […]
Physicists can predict the jumps of Schrodinger’s cat (and finally save it)
Phys.org June 3, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – Yale University, New Zealand) used a special approach to indirectly monitor a superconducting artificial atom, with three microwave generators irradiating the atom enclosed in a 3-D cavity made of aluminum. Microwave radiation stirs the artificial atom as it is simultaneously being observed, resulting in quantum jumps. They amplified the tiny quantum signal of these jumps and monitored it in real time which enabled the researchers to see a sudden absence of detection photons which was a warning of a quantum jump. Despite its observation, coherence increased during the jump. […]