Very thin wires made of a topological insulator could enable highly stable qubits, the building blocks of future quantum computers. Scientists see a new result in topological insulator devices as an important step towards realizing the technology’s potential. An international group of scientists have demonstrated that wires more than 100 times thinner than a human hair can act like a quantum one-way street for electrons when made of a peculiar material known as a topological insulator. The discovery opens the…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way provided a dense star field to test Webb’s performance. Here, a close-up of…
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM) in Erlangen present a large step forward in the characterization of nanoparticles. They used a special microscopy method based on interfereometry to outperform existing instruments. One possible application of this technique may be to identify illnesses. Nanoparticles are everywhere. They are in our body as protein aggregates, lipid vesicles, or viruses. They are in our drinking water in the form of…
TU Dresden spin-off project PRUUVE launched… With the EXIST research transfer PRUUVE (Phosphorescent Response Under UV Excitation) three physicists of the TU Dresden want to bring reusable UV sensor foils and labels to market maturity. With this idea, the team is currently also nominated for the Saxon Founders Award 2022 (futureSAX). Artificially generated UV radiation is used in numerous industrial applications: for example, for the sterilization of air, water and surfaces or for the rapid curing of coated surfaces, printing…
Laser spectroscopic measurements on methylidene ions in the CSR using the elektron cooler. A lone molecule free in cold space will cool by slowing down its rotation − it will spontaneously lose its rotational energy in quantum transitions, typically only once in many seconds. This process can be accelerated, slowed down, or even inverted by collisions with surrounding particles. In an experiment at the ultracold storage ring CSR, researchers of the MPI for Nuclear Physics measured the rate of quantum…
They are everywhere, around us and within us. Phenomena lasting trillionths of a second form the core of chemistry and biology. It is only recently that we have begun to try to accurately record their actual course, with moderate success. However, physicists from Cracow have proven that the new window to the world of attophysics can be built, offering a very promising view. Whether in the depths of a cell or inside a test tube, chemical reactions involving changes in the configuration of electrons…
Solid-state nanophotonic technology could potentially replace cabinets of equipment. Rice University photonics researchers have created a potentially disruptive technology for the ultraviolet optics market. By precisely etching hundreds of tiny triangles on the surface of a microscopic film of zinc oxide, nanophotonics pioneer Naomi Halas and colleagues created a “metalens” that transforms incoming long-wave UV (UV-A) into a focused output of vacuum UV (VUV) radiation. VUV is used in semiconductor manufacturing, photochemistry and materials science and has historically been costly…
Entanglement or non-separability constitutes a cornerstone of quantum mechanics from which many of its unique characteristics arise. For example, non-separability in entangled particle pairs leads to apparent instantaneous transfer of information and counterintuitive states of matter. Such phenomena find applications in diverse areas, such as quantum computing or quantum cryptography. Nevertheless, non-separability is also ubiquitous in the classical domain. Indeed, even prism dispersion of light as observed by Newton over three centuries ago can be considered as an example of…
The balloon-borne 1m solar telescope SUNRISE III has reached an important milestone: First light at the launch site in Sweden for the telescope and the various instruments and the new image stabilization developed by the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) in Freiburg. In June, the 1m Sunrise telescope will lift off from Esrange Space Center, the balloon and rocket base of the Swedish Space Agency (SSC) in Kiruna (Sweden), and for the third time fly west along the Arctic…
Helmholtz Institute Jena opens up new possibilities at the European X-ray laser European XFEL. A research team was able to generate polarized X-rays with unprecedented purity at the European XFEL in Hamburg. The experiments involved scientists from the Helmholtz Institute Jena, a branch of GSI, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf. The method is supposed to be used in the coming years to show that even vacuum behaves like a material under certain circumstances — a prediction…
The discovery helps explain the puzzle of hydrogen loss pre-supernova, and supports the theory that most massive stars are paired. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a witness at the scene of a star’s explosive death: a companion star previously hidden in the glare of its partner’s supernova. The discovery is a first for a particular type of supernova – one in which the star was stripped of its entire outer gas envelope before exploding. The finding provides crucial insight…
A model with increased accuracy of calculations helped to explain the unusual shape. Researchers from Finland, Canada, and Russia have discovered an unusual, hourglass-shaped dust trail of the comet 17P/Holmes. The particles that formed the dust trail were released by the most powerful of the documented thus far outbursts by a comet. It happened in October 2007. Astronomers carried out observations of the cometary dust trail using telescopes in Australia, Finland, and the USA. The first stage of observations lasted…
The remnants of a collapsed neutron star, called a pulsar, are magnetically charged and spinning anywhere from one rotation per second to hundreds of rotations per second. These celestial bodies, each 12 to 15 miles in diameter, generate light in the x-ray wavelength range. Researchers at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a new way spacecraft can use signals from multiple pulsars to navigate in deep space. “We can use star trackers to determine the direction a…
Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently received samples of the lunar surface that have been curated in a freezer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since Apollo 17 astronauts returned them to Earth in December 1972. This research is part of the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program, or ANGSA, an effort to study the samples returned from the Apollo Program in advance of the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon’s South Pole. However, the process of getting the samples from…
Adding a little oxygen to particle accelerator structures may make them more efficient and easier to build. The Science Scientists have developed a new theoretical model for preparing particle accelerator structures made of niobium metal. The model predicts how oxygen in the thin oxide layer on the surface of the niobium metal moves deeper into the metal. This happens as the oxide layer dissolves during gentle heating. This heating is part of how a particle accelerator is made and prepared…
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on April 30, 2022, peaking at 9:47 a.m. EDT. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. This flare is classified as an X-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its…
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