Optoelectronic integration offers a promising strategy to simultaneously obtain the merits of electrons and photons when they serve as information carriers, including high-density communication and high-speed information processing, paving the way for the next-generation integrated circuits (ICs). The ever-increasing demand on bandwidth and information density in ICs call for the micro/nano functional devices capable of […]
Pressure Helps to Make Better Li-Ion Batteries
Lithium titanium oxide (Li4Ti5O12, LTO), a “zero-strain” anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs), exhibits excellent cycling performance. However, it shows poor conductivity, which is the major drawback and limits its applications. In a recent paper published in National Science Review, it is reported that static compression can highly improve the conductivity of LTO by pressure-induced amorphization […]
A Smart Safe Rechargeable Zinc Ion Battery Based On Sol-Gel Transition Electrolytes
The thermal runaway issue has been a longstanding obstacle impeding the development of high-energy-density, high-power delivery batteries. These batteries would generate a lot of heat in ultrafast charge/discharge process or hazardous conditions, such as overcharging and short-circuits. To dissipate the heat accumulated in the batteries, physical safety designs such as fused disconnect switches, extinguishing agents, […]
MagicMark: A Marking Menu Using 2-D Direction And 3-D Depth Information
A recent study presents a novel marking menu, MagicMark, to extend the selection capability of large-screen interactions. By leveraging the 2-D directional information and 3-D depth information, MagicMark supports smooth freehand gestures to complete menu selection without any additional confirmation gesture. It can also provide seamless transition from a novice user to an expert user. […]
The World’s First All-Silicon Laser
Integrated silicon photonics incorporates microelectronics and optoelectronics, a combination expected to revolutionize a variety of fields such as communication, sensing, lighting, displays, imaging and detection. Silicon lasers are the key to achieve integrated silicon photonics. However, the optical gains of silicon are lower than those of III-V compound semiconductors by one order of magnitude or […]
70Gb/S Optical Intra-Connects In Data Centers Based On Band-Limited Devices
With the ever development of optical data-center intra-connects, the realization of high-capacity and low-cost optical communication links among severs in data centers has been more and more popular in the industry. Recently, a research result, completed by the researchers from Peking University, shows that a 70Gb/s optical link has been experimentally demonstrated using the 18GHz […]
Quantum Computing Building Blocks
For decades scientists have known that a quantum computer—a device that stores and manipulates information in quantum objects such as atoms or photons—could theoretically perform certain calculations far faster than today’s computing schemes. But building the “parts” for a quantum computer is a monumental research task. One promising approach involves using the quantum “spin” property […]
Scientists Proposed a Novel Regional Path Tracking Scheme for Autonomous Ground Vehicles
For autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs), one of the most important issues is path tracking. Conventionally, steering and velocity control are generally two typical aspects in path tracking problem. Steering control is discussed in this manuscript because it is important to path tracking and related to vehicle lateral stability. Most of the existing algorithms are developed […]
Challenges & R&D Opportunities of Smart Distribution Grids
After conducting an investigation about the current state of the operation of medium voltage distribution grids and the integration of distributed generation (DG) of renewable resources across China, scientists at the Key Laboratory of Smart Grid, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, at Tianjin University in the east coast city of Tianjin, set […]
Has solar activity influenced Earth’s global warming?
A recent study demonstrates the existence of significant resonance cycles and high correlations between solar activity and the Earth’s averaged surface temperature during centuries. This provides a new clue to reveal the phenomenon of global warming in recent years. Their work, entitled “Periodicities of solar activity and the surface temperature variation of the Earth and […]