“Raise shields!” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to external perturbations. This discovery was recently published in the renowned journal “Science” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to…

Researchers at the University of Rochester and Cornell University have taken an important step toward developing a communications network that exchanges information across long distances by using photons, mass-less measures of light that are key elements of quantum computing and quantum communications systems. The research team has designed a nanoscale node made out of magnetic and semiconducting materials that could interact with other nodes, using laser light to emit and accept photons. The development of such a quantum network–designed to…

Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching near Munich have developed the basic technology for a new “quantum modem”, which will allow users to connect to a future quantum internet that is based on the existing fibre optic network infrastructure. The first quantum revolution brought about semiconductor electronics, the laser and finally the internet. The second quantum revolution promises spy-proof communication or quantum computers for previously unsolvable computing tasks. But this revolution is still in its…

Physicists at Münster University have shown in model simulations that the COVID-19 infection rates decrease significantly through social distancing. For this, they combined the dynamical density functional theory to describe interacting particles and the SIR model, a theory to describe the spread of infectious diseases. Scientists worldwide have been working flat out on research into infectious diseases in the wake of the global outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This concerns not only virologists, but…

Intelligent cameras are the next milestone in image and video processing. A team of researchers at the Chair of Multimedia Communications and Signal Processing at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has developed an intelligent camera that achieves not only high spatial and temporal but also spectral resolution. The camera has a wide range of applications that can improve environmental protection and resource conservation measures as well as autonomous driving or modern agriculture. The findings of the research have been publishedas an open…

The goal of the TreeSatAI project is the development of artificial intelligence methods for the monitoring of forests and tree populations at local, regional and global level. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Using freely accessible geodata from different sources (remote sensing data, administrative information, social media, mobile apps, monitoring libraries, open image databases) prototypes for deep learning based extraction and classification of tree and stand features for four different use cases…

Turbulence is an omnipresent phenomenon – and one of the great mysteries of physics. A research team from the University of Oldenburg has now succeeded in generating realistic storm turbulence in the wind tunnel of the Center for Wind Energy Research (ForWind). Strong storms often seem to leave behind random destruction: While the roof tiles of one house are blown away, the neighboring property may not be damaged at all. What causes these differences are wind gusts – or, as…

Are you affected by your neighbours? So are nanoparticles in catalysts. New research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, published in the journals Science Advances and Nature Communications, reveals how the nearest neighbours determine how well nanoparticles work in a catalyst. “The long-term goal of the research is to be able to identify ‘super-particles’, to contribute to more efficient catalysts in the future. To utilise the resources better than today, we also want as many particles as possible to be…

The process of developing new generations of commercial vehicles and heavy equipment is complex. The hardware-in-the-loop technique gives researchers at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft the opportunity to reproduce and virtually test machines in a software simulation, making machine development faster and more affordable. This technology also enables the testing of malfunctions and critical borderline situations without endangering people or the machine. Heavy equipment is a familiar sight on streets in every city: It is used to excavate earth for subway tunnels, level roads…

Development of innovative technologies for beam steering of communication antennas. With the constant increase in data volumes, wireless communication and mobility lead to ever greater demands on electronic systems. In order to meet these requirements, complex, powerful, hardware-based high-frequency components are required, including with the essential function of beamforming, the spatial control of the antenna directivity to increase the capacity of a communication system or to improve the power efficiency. The EU-funded joint project SMARTWAVE started with a virtual kick-off…

Cavity-enhanced radiative energy transfer converts biomolecular information from a single droplet into trillions of distinctive photonic barcodes. Optical barcodes enable detection and tracking via unique spectral fingerprints. They’ve been widely applied in areas ranging from multiplexed bioassays and cell tagging to anticounterfeiting and security. Yu-Cheng Chen of the Bio+Intelligent Photonics Laboratory at Nanyang Technological University notes that the concept of optical barcodes typically refers to a fixed spectral pattern corresponding to a single target. “Optical barcodes have lacked the capability…

Magnets are to be found everywhere in our daily lives, whether in satellites, telephones or on fridge doors. However, they are made up of heavy inorganic materials whose component elements are, in some cases, of limited availability. Now, researchers from the CNRS, the University of Bordeaux and the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble)* have developed a new lightweight molecule-based magnet, produced at low temperatures, and exhibiting unprecedented magnetic properties. This compound, derived from coordination chemistry**, contains chromium, an…

… density fluctuations in amorphous silicon discovered Silicon does not have to be crystalline, but can also be produced as an amorphous thin film. In such amorphous films, the atomic structure is disordered like in a liquid or glass. If additional hydrogen is incorporated during the production of these thin layers, so-called a-Si:H layers are formed. “Such a-Si:H thin films have been known for decades and are used for various applications, for example as contact layers in world record tandem…

The artificial impactor disturbed boulders within a 30m radius from the center of the impact crater- providing important insight into asteroids’ resurfacing processes. Professor ARAKAWA Masahiko (Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Japan) and members of the Hayabusa2 mission discovered more than 200 boulders ranging from 30cm to 6m in size, which either newly appeared or moved as a result of the artificial impact crater created by Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2’s Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) on April 5th, 2019. Some boulders…

Neutrons make structural changes in molecular brushes visible They look like microscopic bottle brushes: Polymers with a backbone and tufts of side arms. This molecular design gives them unusual abilities: For example, they can bind active agents and release them again when the temperature changes. With the help of neutrons, a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded to unveil the changes in the internal structure in course of the process. “The structure of the…

Researchers proposed a new approach to describe the interaction of metals with electromagnetic fluctuations (i.e., with random bursts of electric and magnetic fields). Researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) proposed a new approach to describe the interaction of metals with electromagnetic fluctuations (i.e., with random bursts of electric and magnetic fields). The obtained results have great potential for application in both fundamental physics and for creating nanodevices for various purposes. The article was published in the International…