Category Physics

Purified tin selenide has extraordinarily high thermoelectric performance. Perseverance, NASA’s 2020 Mars rover, is powered by something very desirable here on Earth: a thermoelectric device, which converts heat to useful electricity.

On Mars, the heat source is the radioactive decay of plutonium, and the device’s conversion efficiency is 4-5%. That’s good enough to power Perseverance and its operations but not quite good enough for applications on Earth.

A team of scientists from Northwestern University and Seoul National University in Korea now has demonstrated a high-performing thermoelectric material in a practical form that can be used ...

A team of scientists has developed a means to create a new type of memory, marking a notable breakthrough in the increasingly sophisticated field of artificial intelligence.

“Quantum materials hold great promise for improving the capacities of today’s computers,” explains Andrew Kent, a New York University physicist and one of the senior investigators. “The work draws upon their properties in establishing a new structure for computation.”

The creation, designed in partnership with researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Paris-Saclay, is reported in Scientific Reports.

“Since conventional computing has reached its limits, new computational methods and devices are being developed,” adds Ivan Schuller, a UCSD physicist and one of the...

A new type of wireless charger can charge multiple devices simultaneously, researchers report. The device transfers energy with 90% efficiency within 20cm charging range. Mobile phones and tablets have allowed us to stay in touch regardless of our location, yet they still rely on plugs, sockets, and charging pads to power up. New technology developed at Aalto University may be the key to true wireless charging for these and other electronics in years to come. The research team includes researches Dr. Prasad Jayathurathnage and Dr. Xiaojie Dang, and professors Sergei Tretyakov and Constantin Simovski...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated a low-cost technique for retrieving nanowires from electronic devices that have reached the end of their utility, and then using those nanowires in new devices. The work is a step toward more sustainable electronics.

“There is a lot of interest in recycling electronic materials because we want to both reduce electronic waste and maximize the use we get out of rare or costly materials,” says Yuxuan Liu, first author of a ...