Category Physics

A-list Candidate for Fault-Free Quantum Computing Delivers Surprise

An artist’s impression of a neutron striking a sample of superconducting uranium ditelluride in experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Crystals of uranium (dark gray) and tellurium (brown) are suspected of hosting spin-triplet superconductivity, a state marked by electron pairs with spins pointed in the same direction (blue). In neutron scattering experiments, incoming neutrons disrupt pairs by flipping one spin in the opposite direction (red), revealing telltale evidence of the pair’s quantum mechanical state. (Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL)

Puzzling result forces physicists to rethink ‘spin-triplet’ superconductivity...

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Researchers offer Future 6G Network Concept

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

NIST and international researchers propose a “cognitive” 6G network—significantly enhancing the 5G network that encodes and transmits data with their meaning or semantics.

With commercial 5G rapidly deploying, researchers have begun to look at 6G. Its key technologies for mobile communication networks are expected to become available as early as 2023, with 6G networks emerging in 2030, according to Saad et al. Compared to 5G, the 6G network will increase data rates by over 100 times, to one terabyte per second or more, enabling the inclusion of edge intelligent devices and computing. To move large amounts of data to where and when it is needed, 6G networks will need to customize services to meet demands, transmit valued data, and interact with users.

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New Data-Decoding approach could lead to Faster, Smaller Digital Tech

Photo-illustration by Craig Chandler | University Communication
Evgeny Tsymbal “holds” a rendering of the atomic structure found in ruthenium oxide, a material whose properties could point the way to faster digital devices packed with more memory.

Most scientists would blanch at being labeled a spin doctor. But when it comes to Evgeny Tsymbal, Ding-Fu Shao and their colleagues, the lab coat fits.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln physicists have charged to the forefront of spintronics, a next-gen class of data storage and processing poised to complement the digital electronics that have ruled the realm of high tech for decades.

Ahead of that future, though, loom nanoscale obstacles whose size belies their difficulty...

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Templating Approach Stabilizes ‘Ideal’ Material for Alternative Solar Cells

Artist’s impression of formamidinium (FA)-based crystal
Credit: Tiarnan Doherty

Researchers have developed a method to stabilise a promising material, perovskite for cheap solar cells, without compromising its near-perfect performance.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used an organic molecule as a ‘template’ to guide perovskite films into the desired phase as they form. Their results are reported in the journal Science.

Perovskite materials offer a cheaper alternative to silicon for producing optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and LEDs.

There are many different perovskites, resulting from different combinations of elements, but one of the most promising to emerge in recent years is the formamidinium (FA)-based FAPbI3 crystal.

The compound is thermal...

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