Phys.org September 3, 2021 Building on their earlier efforts to create a superconducting circuit integrated with magnetic elements, a team of researchers in the US (Argonne National Laboratory, University of Illinois) is investigating whether magnons could partner with microwave photons to ensure that microwaves can only travel in one direction, thereby essentially eliminating noise. They will be testing known and new material systems to find candidates that can handle an ultracold environment and operate in a real quantum device. According to the researchers if they are successful, it is possible to have magnetic structures directly integrated with quantum circuitry. The […]
Tag Archives: Sensors
Novel physics gives rise to the highest coherence for microscopic lasers
Phys.org August 27, 2021 Despite considerable progress in microscale and nanoscale lasers the coherence length remains very limited. Researchers in Denmark explored the physics and applications of a new class of photonic devices using Fano interference which operates in bound-state-in the-continuum, induced by the Fano resonance. They showed experimentally as well as theoretically that the characteristics of such a bound-state-in-the-continuum can be harnessed to improve the coherence of the laser. They developed an advanced nanotechnology platform, called Buried Heterostructure Technology which allows realizing small, nanometer-sized regions of active material, where the light generation takes place, while the remaining laser structure […]
Lightweight composite material inspects itself: Changes in color indicate deformations
Science Daily August 23, 2021 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, UK) developed a new type of laminate that changes color as soon as the material is deformed. The laminate is composed of alternating layers of a plastic polymer and artificial nacre or mother-of-pearl and is modelled on the biological example of the mussel shell. It consists of glass platelets arranged in parallel, which are compacted, sintered, and solidified using a polymeric resin making it extremely hard and break-resistant. The second layer consists of a polymer and an indicator molecule synthesised specifically for this application. The molecule is activated as […]
Engineers bend light to enhance wavelength conversion
Nanowerk July 30, 2021 Incoming light can hit the electrons in the semiconductor lattice and move them to a higher energy state creating an electric field which further accelerates the high-energy electrons. They unload the extra energy by radiating it at different optical wavelengths, thus converting the wavelengths. An international team of researchers (USA – UCLA, Iowa State University, Germany) devised a solution for improving wavelength conversion using the semiconductor surface state phenomenon. They incorporated a nanoantenna array that bends incoming light, so it is confined around the shallow surface of the semiconductor converting the wavelength easily and without any […]
Method uses radio signals to image hidden and speeding objects
Phys.org June 25, 2021 Light-in-flight sensing has emerged as a promising technique in image reconstruction applications at various wavelengths. A team of researchers in the US (NIST, industry, University of Colorado) has developed a microwave imaging system that uses an array of transmitters and a single receiver operating in continuous transmit-receive mode. Captures take a few microseconds, and the corresponding images cover a spatial range of tens of square meters with spatial resolution of 0.1 meter. The images are the result of a dot product between a reconstruction matrix and the captured signal with no prior knowledge of the scene. […]
COVID-19 testing method gives results within one second
Phys.org May 18, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Florida, Taiwan) has developed a sensor system which amplifies the binding signal for a target biomarker using a disposable and biofunctionalized strips, which can be connected externally to a reusable printed circuit board for signal amplification with an embedded MOSFET. The sensor was externally connected to the gate electrode of the MOSFET, and synchronous pulses were applied to both the sensing strip and the drain contact of the MOSFET. The resulting changes in the dynamics of drain waveforms were converted into analog voltages and digital readouts, which […]
Light-controlled nanoparticles will play key role in biosensor development
Phys.org May 11. 2021 An international team of researchers (Russia, Singapore) made nanoparticles composed of silicon cores and biopolymer shells. The substances that make up the shells have different hydrophobic/hydrophilic qualities using which they could make the particles contract or expand depending on external factors. The nanoparticles change both shape and color under thermal influence. The new controllable systems can also be used to create thermo- and light-controlled dyes akin to liquid-crystal modulators used in holography and lithography. Changes in the color of the particles occur solely due to structural transformations. Change in color allows monitoring the particle in real […]
Duke University Develops Portable Diagnostic to Detect Early Biomarkers of Ebola Virus
Global Biodefense April 7, 2021 Ebola virus (EBOV) hemorrhagic fever outbreaks have been challenging to deter due to the lack of health care infrastructure in disease-endemic countries and a corresponding inability to diagnose and contain the disease at an early stage. EBOV vaccines and therapies have improved disease outcomes, but the advent of an affordable, easily accessed, mass-produced rapid diagnostic test (RDT) that matches the performance of more resource-intensive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays would be invaluable in containing future outbreaks. A team of researchers in the US (Duke University, UT Galveston) has developed and demonstrated the performance of a […]
Silencing vibrations in the ground and sounds underwater
EurekAlert April 6, 2021 An international team of researchers (South Korea, Hong Kong) designed an artificial structure that can control not only the domain of underwater sound but also vibration. The research team has presented an underwater stealth metasurface independent from SONAR by controlling the acoustic resonance to absorb the wave. They also confirmed that the wave propagation through a curved plate, such as vibrations, can be drastically altered. Their methodology can achieve the cloaking effect with singularity of infinite refractive index. They designed a thin metasurface to absorb sound waves in broadband (14 kHz to 17 kHz). The metasurface […]
Toward perdurable flexible electronics
Nanowerk March 23, 20212 In wearable electronics, to acquire stability and simultaneously preserve stretchability, sensitivity, and scalability is of high significance yet challenging for practical device applications. Researchers in Japan developed a kirigami-structured graphene–polymer hybrid nanocomposite for strain sensors by a laser direct writing technique on a polyimide sheet. To protect the device, ecoflex polymer was applied as the passivation layer. Depending on the applications, ecoflex grid-wrapped and film-encapsulated have high stretchability and sensitivity. In demonstrations the sensor platform suffered almost no performance degradation even after >60 000 stretching cycle tests due to less strain within the sensor. As proof-of-concept for […]