A new hybrid energy-harvesting device may one day replace the need for batteries in certain low-power electronics devices. The new device collects ambient wasted energy from both mechanical vibrations and magnetic fields to generate sustainable electricity, which could potentially provide enough power to run wireless sensors, cardio pacemakers, and other applications. The researchers, led by […]
Compact 3-D Quantum Memory Addresses Long-Standing Tradeoff
Physicists have designed a 3-D quantum memory that addresses the tradeoff between achieving long storage times and fast readout times, while at the same time maintaining a compact form. The new memory has potential applications in quantum computing, quantum communication, and other technologies. The physicists, Edwar Xie and coauthors at the Walther-Meissner-Institut, Technical University of […]
Magnonic Interferometer Paves Way Toward Energy-Efficient Information Processing Devices
Researchers have designed an interferometer that works with magnetic quasiparticles called magnons, rather than photons as in conventional interferometers. Although magnon signals have discrete phases that normally cannot be changed continuously, the magnonic interferometer can generate a continuous change of the magnon signal. In the future, this ability could be used to design magnonic integrated […]
Invisible Magnetic Sensors Measure Magnetic Fields Without Disturbing Them
Currently, most of the magnetic sensors used in today’s computers, airplanes, cars, and other systems distort the magnetic fields that they are measuring. These distortions can cause major problems for some applications, in particular biomedical techniques, that require highly accurate measurements, and can also cause cross-talk in sensor arrays. In a new study, researchers have […]
Fire Alarm Wallpaper Detects, Resists, And Warns Of House Fires
Researchers have designed a “fire alarm wallpaper” made of environmentally friendly, nonflammable materials—including some of the materials found in bone, teeth, and hormones—that can detect a fire, prevent the fire from spreading, and give off an alarm when a fire occurs. When exposed to heat, the wallpaper is transformed from an electrically insulating state into […]
Entangled LED First To Operate In The Telecom Window
Researchers have demonstrated the first quantum light-emitting diode (LED) that emits single photons and entangled photon pairs with a wavelength of around 1550 nm, which lies within the standard telecommunications window. A single-photon source that operates at this wavelength is expected to serve as a key component in future quantum networks, long-distance quantum communication systems, […]
Energy Harvester Collects Energy From Sunlight And Raindrops
By attaching a transparent nanogenerator to a silicon solar cell, researchers have designed a device that harvests solar energy in sunny conditions and the mechanical energy of falling raindrops in rainy conditions. The dual functionality may provide a way to harvest energy with greater consistency in the midst of constantly changing weather conditions. The researchers, […]
Researchers Create First Superatomic 2-D Semiconductor
Atoms are the basic building blocks of all matter—at least, that is the conventional picture. In a new study, researchers have fabricated the first superatomic 2-D semiconductor, a material whose basic units aren’t atoms but superatoms—atomic clusters that exhibit some of the properties of one or more individual atoms. The researchers expect that the new […]
Stock Market Forces Can Be Modeled With A Quantum Harmonic Oscillator
Traditionally, a quantum harmonic oscillator model is used to describe the tiny vibrations in a diatomic molecule, but the description is also universal in the sense that it can be extended to a variety of other situations in physics and beyond. One example of this is illustrated in a new study, in which researchers show […]
Organic Vortex Lasers Could Be Used In Future 3-D Displays
Researchers have developed a new type of organic vortex laser, which is a laser that emits a helical beam of light. In the future, miniature arrays of these vortex lasers, each with a slightly different spiral shape, may be used in applications such as 3D TV displays, microscopy, and as information carriers for visible light […]