Technology reported in UC Riverside-led study has nanoelectronic applications. A research team led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has demonstrated a new magnetized state in a monolayer of tungsten ditelluride, or WTe2, a new quantum material. Called a magnetized or ferromagnetic quantum spin Hall insulator, this material of one-atom thickness has an insulating interior but a conducting edge, which has important implications for controlling electron flow in nanodevices. In a typical conductor, electrical current flows evenly everywhere….
Research team develops model to explain how cilia beat. Cilia are tiny, hair-like structures on cells throughout our bodies that beat rhythmically to serve a variety of functions when they are working properly, including circulating cerebrospinal fluid in brains and transporting eggs in fallopian tubes. Defective cilia can lead to disorders including situs inversus — a condition where a person’s organs develop on the side opposite of where they usually are. Researchers know about many of cilia’s roles, but not…
The research has been published in Science Robotics. One of the first demonstrations is that of a pneumatic hand made using a simple 3D printer. Artificial pneumatic muscles consisting of 3D-printed structures that can extend and contract as required: this is the innovative design of the GRACE actuators devised by researchers from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT, Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies) in Pisa. The work has…
Superconductors — materials that conduct electricity with zero loss of energy — have been well-understood since the development of what’s called the BCS theory in the mid-1950s. However, the recent development of superconducting diodes using twisted, multi-layer graphene has made understanding how unconventional superconductors function an important new topic of fundamental research. Now, an international research group that includes Brown Assistant Professor of Physics Jia Li has reached a critical milestone: Using graphene, a material with unique properties, they’ve demonstrated…
… for next-generation quantum and electronic devices. New approach leverages artificial intelligence to augment automated experiments. Two-dimensional materials, which consist of a single layer of atoms, exhibit unusual properties that could be harnessed for a wide range of quantum and microelectronics systems. But what makes them truly special are their flaws. “That’s where their true magic lies,” said Alexander Weber-Bargioni at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Defects down to the atomic level can influence the material’s…
The EU project ReMade@ARI starts on September 1st under the coordination of the HZDR. According to the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan, the industry can determine up to 80 percent of a product’s subsequent environmental impact at the design phase. However, the linear manufacturing pattern offers few incentives to make products more sustainable. The research infrastructure project ReMade@ARI, which deals with innovative materials for key components in various areas such as electronics, packaging or textiles, wants to change this:…
Penn State-led collaboration builds on decades-old research to engineer advanced material. Someone taps your shoulder. The organized touch receptors in your skin send a message to your brain, which processes the information and directs you to look left, in the direction of the tap. Now, Penn State and U.S. Air Force researchers have harnessed this processing of mechanical information and integrated it into engineered materials that “think”. The work, published today (Aug. 24) in Nature, hinges on a novel, reconfigurable alternative…
Ocean trash and overflowing landfills have drawn widespread attention to the plastic waste that we put into our environment. In response, communities around the world work hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle. But what does it mean for something to be recyclable? A research team led by Guoliang “Greg” Liu, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Science, is working to expand the frontiers of plastic recycling. Many of us are comfortable tossing a metal can or a glass jar into the…
Researchers at the University of Tsukuba report a new procedure to produce microscopic single crystals in the shape of hollow vases based on spontaneous crystal growth, which may provide a source of storage containers for nanotechnology applications. Scientists from the Department of Materials Science at the University of Tsukuba developed a new method to produce micrometer-scale single crystals in the form of hollow vessels. By drop-casting an ethanol solution onto a quartz substrate, the molecules can spontaneously assemble into the…
EPFL researchers have discovered that Vanadium Dioxide (VO2), a compound used in electronics, is capable of “remembering” the entire history of previous external stimuli. This is the first material to be identified as possessing this property, although there could be others. Mohammad Samizadeh Nikoo, a PhD student at EPFL’s Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Research Laboratory (POWERlab), made a chance discovery during his research on phase transitions in Vanadium Dioxide (VO2). VO2 has an insulating phase when relaxed at room temperature,…
Neutron scattering monitors structures during post-production heat treatment to validate production models. The Science Researchers are optimizing industrial designs to produce more efficient parts using additive manufacturing (AM). AM involves “printing” 3-D metal parts layer by layer. Material made using AM methods that employ lasers can have residual strain resulting from rapid heating and cooling during printing. Heat treating, or annealing, parts after they are printed reduces the strain. But too much heat can cause unwanted structural changes. Using neutron…
… could lead to novel ways to manipulate electron flow with much less energy loss. Newly discovered magnetic interactions in the Kagome layered topological magnet TbMn6Sn6 could be the key to customizing how electrons flow through these materials. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted an in-depth investigation of TbMn6Sn6 to better understand the material and its magnetic characteristics. These results could impact future technology advancements in fields such as quantum…
Preservation of the high-pressure states of materials at ambient conditions is a long-sought-after goal for fundamental research and practical applications. A team of scientists led by Drs. Zhidan (Denise) Zeng, Qiaoshi Zeng, and Ho-Kwang Mao from the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR) and Prof. Wendy Mao from Stanford University report an innovative breakthrough where they were able to maintain the extraordinary properties of high-pressure materials in free-standing, nanostructured diamond capsules without the support of traditional…
Rice lab leads effort to generate thickness-independent piezoelectricity in atom-thick materials. There’s still plenty of room at the bottom to generate piezoelectricity. Engineers at Rice University and their colleagues are showing the way. A new study describes the discovery of piezoelectricity — the phenomenon by which mechanical energy turns into electrical energy — across phase boundaries of two-dimensional materials. The work led by Rice materials scientists Pulickel Ajayan and Hanyu Zhu and their colleagues at Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, the University of Southern California, the University of Houston,…
During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, an incident occurred where vaccines exposed to room temperature had to be discarded. Biomedical substances, including vaccines, risk deterioration if not stored properly, so strict management is required during production and storage. In particular, exposure to light may reduce the vaccine’s efficacy, so it is important to check whether it has been damaged by light exposure. Recently, a POSTECH research team led by Professor Junsuk Rho (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Chemical…
Rare earth metals, when linked, can act as a conduit for energy flow, and show promise for the development of novel materials. Scientists have connected two soft crystals and observed energy transfer between them—a finding that could lead to the development of sophisticated, responsive materials. The study, by scientists at Hokkaido University in Japan, was published in the journal Nature Communications. Soft crystals are flexible molecular solids with highly ordered structures. When they are subjected to external stimuli, such as…
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