Nanowerk February 15, 2021 Researchers in Australia studied the electronic properties of magnesium phthalocyanine (MgPc) sprinkled on a metal surface and demonstrated that the quantum mechanical properties of electrons within the molecules (energy and spatial distribution) are significantly affected by the presence of neighbouring molecules. This effect was observed for intermolecular separation distances of several nanometres. Quantitative analysis of the experimental results and theoretical modelling showed that this interaction was due to mixing between the quantum mechanical orbitals of neighbouring molecules. The molecular orbital mixing leads to significant changes in electron energies and electron distribution symmetries. The long range of […]
Tag Archives: S&T -Australia
New tool to combat terrorism
EurekAlert November 19, 2020 Environmental samples serve as ideal forms of contact trace evidence as detection at a scene can establish a link between a suspect, location, and victim. Translation of these tools to forensic science remains in its infancy, due in part to the merging of traditional forensic ecology practices with unfamiliar DNA technologies and complex datasets, biomass environmental signals carried by people and objects. However, the sensitivity, and reducing cost, of MPS is now unlocking the power of both high and low biomass environmental DNA (eDNA) samples as useful sources of genetic information in forensic science. Researchers in […]
60-year-old limit to lasers overturned by quantum researchers
Phys.org October 27, 2020 Researchers in 1958 showed theoretically that the coherence of a beam cannot be greater than the square of the number of photons stored in the laser based on the assumptions they made about how energy is added to the laser and how it is released to form the beam. Now according to researchers in Australia the assumptions made sense at the time, and still apply to most lasers today, but they are not required by quantum mechanics. They have shown that the true limit imposed by quantum mechanics is that the coherence cannot be greater than […]
Good vibrations for new energy
Nanowerk October 20, 2020 Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can be made at low cost in different configurations, making them suitable for driving small electronics such as mobile phones, biomechanics devices, and sensors. Researchers in Australia provide experimental and theoretical models for augmented rotary TENGs. The power generated by TENGs is found to be a function of the number of segments, rotational speed, and tribo-surface spacing. They applied mathematical modeling combined with artificial intelligence to characterize the TENG output under various kinematics and geometric conditions. Sensitivity analysis reveals that the generated energy and the matched resistance depend highly on segmentation and angular […]
The Big 3 Infectious Diseases Besides COVID-19 Scientists Are Trying to Find a Vaccine For
Global Biodefense October 5, 2020 Researchers in Australia regard malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS as the “big three” infectious diseases. Together they are responsible for about 2.7 million deaths a year around the world. Although anti-malarial drugs are routinely used to treat and prevent malaria infection, the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a major cause of death and a serious public health concern. Since the discovery of HIV in the 1980s, the disease has caused 33 million deaths. Some 38 million people have HIV/AIDS worldwide. There is currently no cure or protective vaccine. The current pandemic highlights the need for […]
The world’s first photodetector that can see all shades of light
Nanowerk September 22, 2020 Atomically thin materials face an ongoing challenge of scalability, hampering practical deployment despite their fascinating properties. Although tin monosulfide (SnS) displays properties of superior carrier mobility and large absorption coefficient at atomic thicknesses, the lack of successful synthesis techniques to prepare large‐area and stoichiometric atomically thin SnS layers has prevented exploration of these properties for versatile applications. Researchers in Australia printed SnS layers with thicknesses varying from a single unit cell (0.8 nm) to multiple stacked unit cells (≈1.8 nm) synthesized from metallic liquid tin, with lateral dimensions on the millimeter scale. They exhibit a broadband […]
Beating noise via superposition of order
Phys.org August 25, 2020 Classically no information can be transmitted through a completely noisy channel. But with quantum mechanics, adding a second channel actually provides a way to successfully get the information through. Researchers in Australia have shown that by combining the noisy channels such that you don’t know which noisy channel was applied first, it becomes possible to transmit some information. They considered two limiting cases – when both channels are fully depolarising, the ideal limit is communication of 0.049 bits;, when one channel is fully depolarising the ideal limit is communication of 1 bit. Their results offer intriguing […]
Glass blowing inspires new class of quantum sensors
Nanowerk August 12, 2020 By embedding micron-scale diamond particles at an annular interface within the cross section of a silicate glass fiber, researchers in Australia demonstrated a robust fiber material capable of sensing magnetic fields. NV centers in the diamond microcrystals are well preserved throughout the fiber drawing process. The hybrid fiber presents a low propagation loss of ∼4.0 dB/m in the NV emission spectral window, permitting remote monitoring of the optically detected magnetic resonance signals. They demonstrated NV-spin magnetic resonance readout through 50 cm of fiber. The study paves a way for the scalable fabrication of fiber-based diamond sensors […]
Novel approach improves graphene-based supercapacitors
EurekAlert August 3, 2020 Researchers in Australia have developed a technique to improve the performance of quasi‐solid‐state supercapacitors made by graphitized silicon carbide on silicon electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)+H2SO4 gel electrolyte. They increased the specific capacitance of the cell up to 3‐fold resulting from a simple agent‐free, in situ, electrochemical treatment leading to functionalization of the graphitic electrodes. The functionalization of the electrodes simultaneously enables redox reactions, without adding any redox agent, and increases the overall capacitance…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
New organic material unlocks faster and more flexible electronic devices
Science Daily July 15, 2020 Long-range and fast transport of coherent excitons is important for the development of high-speed excitonic circuits and quantum computing applications. By precisely stacking carbon and hydrogen molecules one over the other researchers in Australia have designed an organic semiconductor. The material is just one carbon atom thick which gives it the flexibility to be bent into any shape. The material is biodegradable or easily recyclable, thus avoiding the tonnes of e-waste generated by current generation electronic devices…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE