Future information technologies… A team led by HZB physicist Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has gained new insights into the ultrafast response of topological states of matter to femtosecond laser excitation. The laws of quantum physics rule the microcosm. They determine, for example, how easily electrons move through a crystal and thus whether the material is a metal, a semiconductor or an insulator. Quantum physics may lead to exotic properties in certain materials: In so-called topological insulators, only the electrons that can…

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Scientists on the hunt for an unconventional kind of superconductor have produced the most compelling evidence to date that they’ve found one. In a pair of papers, researchers at the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Quantum Materials Center (QMC) and colleagues have shown that uranium ditelluride (or UTe2 for short) displays many of the hallmarks of a topological superconductor–a material…

When there is a gas leak in a large building or at an industrial site, human firefighters currently need to go in with gas sensing instruments. Finding the gas leak may take considerable time, while they are risking their lives. Researchers from TU Delft (the Netherlands), University of Barcelona, and Harvard University have now developed the first swarm of tiny – and hence very safe – drones that can autonomously detect and localize gas sources in cluttered indoor environments. The…

The super-energetic jets that shoot out of black holes are in the focus of a new DFG research group. The researchers are being funded with 3.6 million euros. Black holes are found at the centre of almost all galaxies that have been studied so far. They have an unimaginably large mass and therefore attract matter, gas and even light. Only recently, astronomical images showing the accumulation of matter onto a supermassive black hole have caused public excitement. Such black holes…

The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings, led by Graz University of Technology, open new doors for ultra-fast electron microscopy. The investigation and development of materials crucially depends on the ability to observe smallest objects at fastest time scales. The necessary spatial resolution for investigations in the (sub-)atomic range can be achieved with electron…

In particle physics, a Majorana Fermion is charge neutral and its antiparticle is just itself. In condensed matter physics, a Majorana zero mode (MZM) is a quasi-particle excitation, which appears in the surfaces or edges of topological superconductors. Unlike the ordinary particles or quasi-particles that obey boson or fermion statistics, MZM obeys non-abelian statistics, a key property that makes MZM the building block for realizing topological quantum computation. Currently major experimental efforts focus on heterostructures made of superconductors and spin-orbit…

As the Parker Solar Probe ventures closer to the sun, we are learning new things about our home star. In a new study, physicists led by the University of Iowa report the first definitive measurements of the sun’s electric field, and how the electric field interacts with the solar wind, the fast-flowing current of charged particles that can affect activities on Earth, from satellites to telecommunications. The physicists calculated the distribution of electrons within the sun’s electric field, a feat…

Members of the group around Sven Sturm in the division of Klaus Blaum at MPIK present a novel technique that allows to efficiently cool arbitrary ions by coupling them to a directly laser-cooled ion in a separate Penning trap. The results demonstrate how a common tank circuit can drastically enhance the coupling and holds promise to enable cooling of arbitrary ions in Penning traps to millikelvin temperatures. Inside Penning traps, ions can be stored by means of magnetic and electric…

Spectral-volumetric compressed ultrafast photography simultaneously captures 5D information in a single snapshot. Information-rich optical imaging can provide multidimensional information to enable observation and analysis of a detected target, contributing insights into mysterious and unknown worlds. With its ability to capture dynamic scenes on picosecond—and even femtosecond—timescales, ultrafast multidimensional optical imaging has important applications in the detection of the ultrafast phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology. While pump-probe-based ultrafast imaging can acquire high-resolution multidimensional information, it cannot adequately capture unstable or…

The study could have applications in spintronics and quantum computing; it was conducted by an international collaboration and published in Nature; its first author is a researcher at the University of São Paulo. Pure quantum systems can undergo phase transitions analogous to the classical phase transition between the liquid and gaseous states of water. At the quantum level, however, the particle spins in states that emerge from phase transitions display collective entangled behavior. This unexpected observation offers a new avenue…

Astronomers have made the rare sighting of two stars spiraling to their doom by spotting the tell-tale signs of a teardrop-shaped star. The tragic shape is caused by a massive nearby white dwarf distorting the star with its intense gravity, which will also be the catalyst for an eventual supernova that will consume both. Found by an international team of astronomers and astrophysicists led by the University of Warwick, it is one of only a very small number of star…

“Topological defects” are formed when the symmetry of a magnetic material is disrupted. Domain walls (DWs) are a type of topological defect that separates regions of different magnetic orientations. A widely studied phenomenon, the manipulation of these defects has potential applications in high-performance memory storage devices, energy processing devices, and quantum computing. Recently, the possibility of other topological defects embedded in or combined with DWs has gained attention for their potential applications in different fields of physics. Some examples of…

Scientists combine two promising photocatalysts to obtain higher solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency and durability in a water splitting cell. Turning away from fossil fuels is necessary if we are to avert an environmental crisis due to global warming. Both industry and academia have been focusing heavily on hydrogen as a feasible clean alternative. Hydrogen is practically inexhaustible and when used to generate energy, only produces water vapor. However, to realize a truly eco-friendly hydrogen society, we need to be able to…

Team develops simulator with 256 qubits, largest of its kind ever created. A team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and other universities has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum bits, or “qubits.” The system marks a major step toward building large-scale quantum machines that could be used to shed light on a host of complex quantum processes and eventually help bring about real-world…

“Heavy fermions” are an appealing theoretical way to produce quantum entangled phenomena, but until recently have been observed mostly in dangerously radioactive compounds. A new paper shows it is possible to make them in subtly modified graphene. Rare-earth compounds have fascinated researchers for decades due to the unique quantum properties they display, which have so far remained totally out of reach of everyday compounds. One of the most remarkable and exotic properties of those materials is the emergence of exotic…

With its latest release of development tools for RISC-V processors, Swedish software manufacturer IAR Systems offers support for the ISO 26262 ASIL-D ready certified RISC-V processor core “EMSA5-FS” of the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS. Users of the toolchain software will thus benefit from simplified certification processes for functional safety, lower costs over the entire product lifecycle and maximum performance in RISC-V-based applications. The new EMSA5-FS processor core from Fraunhofer IPMS is marketed by partner CAST Inc. Safety-relevant applications…