Instrument at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source achieves world-leading resolution of nanomaterials. COSMIC, a multipurpose X-ray instrument at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Advanced Light Source (ALS), has made headway in the scientific community since its launch less than 2 years ago, with groundbreaking contributions in fields ranging from batteries to biominerals. COSMIC is the brightest X-ray beamline at the ALS, a synchrotron that generates intense light – from infrared to X-rays – and delivers it to dozens of…
Mobility of skyrmions in geometric structures depends on their arrangement. In a close collaboration between experimental and theoretical physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the research groups of Professor Mathias Kläui and Dr. Peter Virnau investigated the behavior of magnetic whirls within nanoscale geometric structures. In their work published in “Advanced Functional Materials”, the researchers confined small magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions, in geometric structures. Skyrmions can be created in thin metal films and have particle-like properties: They exhibit high…
Much like the Jedis in Star Wars use ‘the force’ to control objects from a distance, scientists can use light or ‘optical force’ to move very small particles. The inventors of this ground-breaking laser technology, known as ‘optical tweezers’, were awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics. Optical tweezers are used in biology, medicine and materials science to assemble and manipulate nanoparticles such as gold atoms. However, the technology relies on a difference in the refractive properties of the trapped…
Tiny photonic devices could be used to find new exoplanets, monitor our health, and make the internet more energy efficient. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, now present a game changing microcomb that could bring advanced applications closer to reality. A microcomb is a photonic device capable of generating a myriad of optical frequencies – colours – on a tiny cavity known as microresonator. These colours are uniformly distributed so the microcomb behaves like a ‘ruler made of light’….
Breakthrough greatly enhances the ultrafast resolution achievable with X-ray free-electron lasers. A large international team of scientists from various research organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has developed a method that dramatically improves the already ultrafast time resolution achievable with X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). It could lead to breakthroughs on how to design new materials and more efficient chemical processes. An XFEL device is a powerful combination of particle accelerator and laser technology producing extremely brilliant and…
Researchers exploring the interactions between light particles, photons and matter find that optical microresonators host quasiparticles made by two photons. Scientists at the University of Bath in the UK have found a way to bind together two photons of different colours, paving the way for important advancements in quantum-electrodynamics – the field of science that describes how light and matter interact. In time, the team’s findings are likely to impact developments in optical and quantum communication, and precision measurements of…
Hurricane resembling those in lower atmosphere observed over Earth’s polar ionosphere. The first observations of a space hurricane have been revealed in Earth’s upper atmosphere, confirming their existence and shedding new light on the relationship between planets and space. Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are known, but they had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere. An international team of scientists led by Shandong University in China analysed observations made by satellites in 2014 to reveal a long-lasting…
Using a new method, physicists from TU Bergakademie Freiberg, in cooperation with researchers from Berkeley (USA) and Hamburg, are for the first time analyzing at the femtosecond scale the processes in a model system for organic solar cells in detail. The results can be used to develop high-performance and efficient solar cells. The key are the ultra-fast flashes of light, with which the team led by Dr. Friedrich Roth works at FLASH in Hamburg, the world’s first free-electron laser in…
Nanoscale sound waves vibrate artificial atom A German-polish research team from Augsburg, Münster, Munich and Wrocław successfully mixed nanoscale sound waves and light quanta. In their study published in Optica the scientists use an ’artificial atom’ that converts the vibrations of the sound wave to single light quanta – photons – with unprecedented precision. The demonstrated fundamental principle marks an important step toward the development of future hybrid quantum technologies. Light and sound waves form the backbone of modern communication…
Fraunhofer IAF starts a project on compact on-chip sources for entangled photons, which are an important component for the realization of industrial quantum technology applications. In the project “QuoAlA”, scientists are researching waveguides based on aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) as sources for generating entangled photons. AlGaAs enables a particularly compact design and chip integration. The project started in February and is funded by the BMBF within the funding program “Quantum technologies—from basic research to market” as “WiVoPro” (Scientific Preliminary Project)….
In a new publication in the scientific journal “Nature Materials”, researchers of the Institute for Applied Physics at TU Dresden introduce a novel device concept towards high-efficient and low-voltage vertical organic lighting-emitting transistors. With the new device architecture and fabrication technology, the team paves the way for a broad application of efficient OLED active matrix displays. In the group of Prof. Karl Leo, physicists, material scientists and engineers are working jointly on the development of novel organic materials and devices…
The scientists have demonstrated how to structure light such that its polarization behaves like a collective of spins in a ferromagnet forming half-skyrmion (also known as merons). To achieve this the light was trapped in a thin liquid crystal layer between two nearly perfect mirrors. Skyrmions in general are found, e.g., as elementary excitations of magnetization in a two-dimensional ferromagnet but do not naturally appear in electromagnetic (light) fields. One of the key concepts in physics, and science overall is…
Radioactivity in meteorites sheds light on origin of heaviest elements in our solar system. A team of international researchers went back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to gain new insights into the cosmic origin of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Led by scientists who collaborate as part of the International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) (irenaweb.org) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics – Center for the Evolution of the Elements…
Astronomers accurately measure the temperature of red supergiant stars. Red supergiants are a class of star that end their lives in supernova explosions. Their lifecycles are not fully understood, partly due to difficulties in measuring their temperatures. For the first time, astronomers develop an accurate method to determine the surface temperatures of red supergiants. Stars come in a wide range of sizes, masses and compositions. Our sun is considered a relatively small specimen, especially when compared to something like Betelgeuse…
A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving ‘normal’ matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centres of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in the early Universe, and is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Exactly how supermassive black holes initially…
Physicists from the University of Regensburg develop a new method for counting molecules. Who hasn’t looked at the sky on a mild summer night and thought about the vastness of the universe? The trained eye can see the Andromeda galaxy as a distant spot. Thanks to the latest telescopes, we know that it consists of over a trillion stars. In the “nanocosm”, clusters of individual light sources, such as molecules, also appear as points. Resolving these light sources spatially is…
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