For the first time ever, researchers direct bond gallium nitride and diamond, paving the way for the next generation of highly conductive semiconductors and high-power devices. The need for more powerful electronic devices in today’s society is curtailed by our ability to produce highly conductive semiconductors that can withstand the harsh, high temperature fabrication processes of high-powered devices. Gallium nitride (GaN)-on-diamond shows promise as a next-generation semiconductor material due to the wide band gap of both materials, allowing for high…
Forget about online games that promise you a “whole world” to explore. An international team of researchers has generated an entire virtual UNIVERSE, and made it freely available on the cloud to everyone. Uchuu (meaning “Outer Space” in Japanese) is the largest and most realistic simulation of the Universe to date. The Uchuu simulation consists of 2.1 trillion particles in a computational cube an unprecedented 9.63 billion light-years to a side. For comparison, that’s about three-quarters the distance between Earth…
Scientists reveal at an atomic scale how chlorine stabilizes next-gen solar cells. Cutting-edge imaging techniques settle a long-standing puzzle in the solar tech research community over the role and presence of chlorine. Scientists have imaged atoms on the surface layer of perovskite – a revolutionary crystal material that harvests light in next-gen solar cells The study reveals how chlorine, a dopant that boosts the stability of the perovskite layer, is incorporated into the perovskite crystal structure The researchers observed dark…
New research integrates the most effective practices for eye tracking in AR eyewear. The eyes have it. They are constantly on the move when viewing scenes in augmented reality (AR). Now, developers of AR headsets and mixed reality systems have become increasingly interested in the ability to track these eye movements with their eyewear, allowing system designers to improve image fidelity and contrast across the field of view without excessive demands on the power of the projection system. This in…
When listening to music, we don’t just hear the notes produced by the instruments, we are also immersed in its echoes from our surroundings. Sound waves bounce back off the walls and objects around us, forming a characteristic sound effect – a specific acoustic field. This explains why the same piece of music sounds very different when played in an old church or a modern concrete building. Architects have long been capitalising on this fact when building, say, concert halls….
“Loss is ubiquitous in nature, and by better understanding it, we make it more useful”. Natural and manmade physical structures all lose energy, and scientists work hard to eliminate that loss or compensate for it. Optical and photonic devices lose energy through light scattering, radiation or material absorption. In some situations, however, intentionally yet carefully designing loss in open optical devices and systems can lead to unconventional physical phenomena which inspires novel methods for optical control and engineering. Lan Yang,…
Demonstrating next-generation energy technology, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are using topology optimization and metal 3D printing to design ultra-compact, high-power heat exchangers. Used in most major industries – including energy, water, manufacturing, transportation, construction, electronic, chemical, petrochemical, agriculture and aerospace – heat exchangers transfer thermal energy from one medium to another. For decades, heat exchanger designs have remained relatively unchanged. Recent advancements in 3D printing allow the production of three-dimensional exchanger designs previously thought impossible. These new…
Ohm’s law is well-known from physics class. It states that the resistance of a conductor and the voltage applied to it determine how much current will flow through the conductor. The electrons in the material – the negatively charged carriers – move in a disordered fashion and largely independently of each other. Physicists find it far more interesting, however, when the charge carriers influence one another strongly enough for that simple picture not to be correct anymore. This is the…
Scientists have spent decades searching for faster, more energy-efficient memory technologies for everything from large data centers to mobile sensors and other flexible electronics. Among the most promising data storage technologies is phase-change memory, which is thousands of times faster than conventional hard drives but uses a lot of electricity. Now, Stanford University engineers have overcome a key obstacle that has limited widespread adoption of phase-change memory. The results are published in a Sept. 10 study in Science. “People have…
3D-printed origami technology at the heart of low-cost, portable ventilators aimed at improving pandemic treatment and revolutionizing healthcare delivery. Researchers in Simon Fraser University’s Additive Manufacturing Lab are replicating a distinctive artform—the subtle folding of origami—to create 3D printable technologies to aid in the fight against COVID-19, and help doctors to identify and diagnose various health conditions. Highlighting the work, led by SFU School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering’s associate professor Woo Soo Kim, is a low-cost, portable 3D-printed ventilator, driven…
… for Assembling Optical Systems with Maximum Precision. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen has been developing and building laser systems for use in space for several years. At the same time, the Aachen scientists are also researching technologies for metallic 3D printing. Using the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process, Fraunhofer ILT – along with the Chair for Digital Additive Production DAP – has developed and set up a new precision gripper arm made of metal…
How the brain’s motor system can support vocabulary learning. The motor cortex is a brain region known to control the body’s voluntary movements. However, the team of neuroscientists have now shown that it can also help translating foreign language words into one’s native language. Their study has been published recently in the renowned Journal of Neuroscience. The study Participants in the study learned foreign language words by performing semantically-related gestures over four days of training. After the training, the participants…
$6 million NIH grant launches UC San Diego consortium to study insulin-producing cells. Sequencing the human genome — a feat accomplished in 2003 — provided the list of ingredients that make up a human being, but not the instructions that explain how those ingredients are used by each cell type to create complex “meals.” In other words, just because we know the sequence of DNA in a cell, it doesn’t necessarily mean we know how those instructions inform cell function,…
International team of researchers develops algorithm that accelerates super-resolution microscopy. Scientists use super-resolution microscopy to study previously undiscovered cellular worlds, revealing nanometer-scale details inside cells. This method revolutionized light microscopy and earned its inventors the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In an international collaboration, AI researchers from Tübingen have now developed an algorithm that significantly accelerates this technology. Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) is a type of super-resolution microscopy. It involves labelling proteins of interest with fluorescent molecules and using light…
The chemically controlled chains reveal an ultrastrong attraction between electrons that may help cuprate superconductors carry electrical current with no loss at relatively high temperatures. When scientists study unconventional superconductors – complex materials that conduct electricity with zero loss at relatively high temperatures – they often rely on simplified models to get an understanding of what’s going on. Researchers know these quantum materials get their abilities from electrons that join forces to form a sort of electron soup. But modeling…
Physicists and chemists at University of Jena develop a method for nonlinear signal modulation in 2D materials. Nonlinear optics is of paramount importance in numerous fields of science and technology, in particular for second harmonic generation, namely the process of frequency doubling of a light beam. For instance, this process turns invisible infrared light into the visible light cursor of a laser pointer. In spectroscopy, this method allows to reach new wavelengths that are otherwise not available using conventional laser…
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