Category Physics

Quantum Discovery offers Glimpse into Other-Worldly Realm

Artistic illustration of an Alice ring, which researchers have just observed for the first time in nature. Credit: Heikka Valja/Aalto University

Experiments promote a curious flipside of decaying monopoles: A reality where particle physics is quite literally turned on its head. The field of quantum physics is rife with paths leading to tantalising new areas of study, but one rabbit hole offers a unique vantage point into a world where particles behave differently — through the proverbial looking glass.

Dubbed the ‘Alice ring’ after Lewis Carroll’s world-renowned stories on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the appearance of this object verifies a decades-old theory on how monopoles decay...

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New Quantum Device Generates Single Photons and Encodes Information

2023-08-24
Formed within wells indented into the stack of two different layered materials, a monolayer semiconductor and an anti-ferromagnetic crystal, the chiral quantum light emissions rise up out of the material and could be used for quantum information and communication applications.

A new approach to quantum light emitters generates a stream of circularly polarized single photons, or particles of light, that may be useful for a range of quantum information and communication applications. A Los Alamos National Laboratory team stacked two different atomically thin materials to realize this chiral quantum light source.

“Our research shows that it is possible for a monolayer semiconductor to emit circularly polarized light without the help of an external magnetic field,” said Han Htoon, scien...

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Brain-computer interface enables woman with Severe Paralysis to speak through Digital Avatar

Brain-computer interface enables woman with severe paralysis to speak through digital avatar
Multimodal speech decoding in a participant with vocal-tract paralysis. Credit: Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06443-4

Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that has enabled a woman with severe paralysis from a brainstem stroke to speak through a digital avatar.

It is the first time that either speech or facial expressions have been synthesized from brain signals. The system can also decode these signals into text at nearly 80 words per minute, a vast improvement over commercially available technology.

Edward Chang, MD, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF, who has worked on the technology, known as a brain computer interface, or BCI, for more than a decade, hopes this latest research breakthrough, appearing Aug...

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Researchers develop Arrays of Tiny Crystals that deliver Efficient Wireless Energy

Photo-actuators via epitaxial growth of microcrystal arrays ...
DAE in biaxially aligned microcrystal composites.

Imagine a person on the ground guiding an airborne drone that harnesses its energy from a laser beam, eliminating the need for carrying a bulky onboard battery.

That is the vision of a group of University of Colorado at Boulder scientists from the Hayward Research Group.

In a new study, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering researchers have developed a novel and resilient photomechanical material that can transform light energy into mechanical work without heat or electricity, offering innovative possibilities for energy-efficient, wireless and remotely controlled systems. Its wide-ranging potential spans across diverse industries, including robotics, aerospace and biomedical devices.

“We cut out the middle man,...

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