In June, the W-Cube nanosatellite began its journey aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral to polar orbit. About a month later, it was placed in its orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers and has now been successfully transmitting test signals to Earth in the Q and W band since August. It collects important data for the development of new frequency ranges for future satellite communication systems. The development of the W-Cube took place in the course of…

Metamaterials and metasurfaces have attracted great interests in recent years for their versatile possibilities in manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves. Embedded tunable devices such as positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) diodes and varactors enable digital representations of metasurfaces and programmability of functions in real time, and hence provide new avenues to tailor the EM waves and digital information dynamically. Based on the programmable metasurface, the concept of time-domain digital coding metasurface (TDCM) was proposed to manipulate the frequency harmonics by changing the external biasing…

A new method for generating quantum-entangled photon pairs employs nonlinear metasurfaces to enhance and tailor photon emissions—an important step towards creating miniaturized quantum devices for everyday applications. Quantum nanophotonics is an active research field with emerging applications that range from quantum computing to imaging and telecommunications. This has motivated scientists and engineers to develop sources for entangled photons that can be integrated into nano-scale photonic circuits. Practical application of nanoscale devices requires a high photon-pair generation rate, room-temperature operation, and…

A surprise result for solid state physicists hints at an unusual electron behavior. While studying the behavior of electrons in iron-based superconducting materials, researchers at the University of Tokyo observed a strange signal relating to the way electrons are arranged. The signal implies a new arrangement of electrons the researchers call a nematicity wave, and they hope to collaborate with theoretical physicists to better understand it. The nematicity wave could help researchers understand the way electrons interact with each other…

Astronomers have found dramatic evidence that a black hole or neutron star spiraled its way into the core of a companion star and caused that companion to explode as a supernova.  The astronomers were tipped off by data from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), a multi-year project using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). “Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen such an event,”…

A Department of Energy-funded project between Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores coupling magnetism and microwaves for quantum discoveries. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recently funded both DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana (UIUC) in a new project related to quantum information science. The Argonne team will bring to the project its expertise in coupling superconducting and magnetic systems. The UIUC team will contribute its world-class capabilities for developing new magnetic materials for quantum systems….

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy allows to observe the motion of atoms at their natural time scales in the range of femtoseconds, the millionth of a billionth of a second. Electron microscopy, on the other hand, provides atomic spatial resolution. By combining electrons and photons in one instrument, the group of Professor Peter Baum at the University of Konstanz has developed some of the fastest electron microscopes for obtaining detailed insight into materials and their dynamics at ultimate resolutions in both space…

Topological feature could prove useful for encoding information in electron spins. Rice physicists have confirmed the topological origins of magnons, magnetic features they discovered three years ago in a 2D material that could prove useful for encoding information in the spins of electrons. The discovery, described in a study published online this week in the American Physical Society journal PRX, provides a new understanding of topology-driven spin excitations in materials known as in 2D van der Waals magnets. The materials…

The troughs on Vesta have long been a topic of scientific speculation. The asteroid Vesta is the second largest asteroid in our solar system. With a diameter of about 330 miles, it orbits the sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids have long played a part in building popular fascination with space. “Marooned off Vesta” was the first story published by American writer Isaac Asimov, the third story he wrote, appearing in the March 1939 issue of the science fiction…

Astronomers have discovered a strangely shaped spot on the surface of a baby star 450 million light-years away, revealing new insights into how our solar system formed. The familiar star at the center of our solar system has had billions of years to mature and ultimately provide life-giving energy to us here on Earth. But a very long time ago, our sun was just a growing baby star. What did the sun look like when it was so young? That’s long been…

Physicists and engineers have found a way to identify and address imperfections in materials for one of the most promising technologies in commercial quantum computing. The University of Queensland team was able to develop treatments and optimise fabrication protocols in common techniques for building superconducting circuits on silicon chips. Dr Peter Jacobson, who co-led the research, said the team had identified that imperfections introduced during fabrication reduced the effectiveness of the circuits. “Superconducting quantum circuits are attracting interest from industry…

To develop quantum networks, the unique needs of industry must be considered and may provide a solution. Large-scale quantum networks have been proposed, but so far, they do not exist. Some components of what would make up such networks are being studied, but the control mechanism for such a large-scale network has not been developed. In AVS Quantum Science, by AIP Publishing, investigators outline how a time-sensitive network control plane could be a key component of a workable quantum network….

Physicists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have developed a unique scanning tunnelling microscope with magnetic cooling to study quantum effects. Scanning tunnelling microscopes capture images of materials with atomic precision and can be used to manipulate individual molecules or atoms. Researchers have been using the instruments for many years to explore the world of nanoscopic phenomena. A new approach by physicists at Forschungszentrum Jülich is now creating new possibilities for using the devices to study quantum effects. Thanks to magnetic cooling, their…

Christian Luft, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Minister of Science of Schleswig-Holstein, Karin Prien, and the State Secretary for Science, Research, Equalities and District Authority of the City of Hamburg, Dr. Eva Gümbel, inaugurated the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF) at the European XFEL in Schenefeld, near Hamburg, yesterday (31 August, 2021). Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in cooperation with the Hamburg research Centre DESY, HIBEF pools equipment and…

Research reveals how star-making pollutes the cosmos. Galaxies pollute the environment they exist in, researchers have found. A team of astronomers led by Alex Cameron and Deanne Fisher from the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) used a new imaging system on at the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm that what flows into a galaxy is a lot cleaner than what flows out. The research is published today in The Astrophysical Journal….

In their search for distant galaxies, rapidly rotating neutron stars and black holes, radio astronomers are collecting an ever-increasing amount of data. In the future, this flood of data will also be analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence. To this end, eight institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia have joined forces under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) to form the “NRW Cluster for Data-Intensive Radio Astronomy: Big Bang to Big Data”. Three Bonn-based institutions, the…