Category Physics

Laser Paintbrush used to Create Miniature Masterpieces

 The researchers used their new laser painting method to make a miniature version of Van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night.”
Credit: Yaroslava Andreeva

Technique creates color on metal that can be changed, erased and rewritten. Researchers are blurring the lines between science and art by showing how a laser can be used to create artistic masterpieces in a way that mirrors classical paints and brushes. The new technique not only creates paint-like strokes of color on metal but also offers a way to change or erase colors.

“We developed a way to use a laser to create localized color on a metallic canvas using a technique that heats the metal to the point where it evaporates,” said research team leader Vadim Veiko from ITMO University in Russia...

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Fast Material Manipulation Through a Laser

A femtosecond burst of light drives an exotic electronic transition in a semi-metallic crystal, on an unprecedently fast timescale.
© Beaulieu

Researchers from the Physical Chemistry Department of the Fritz Haber Institute and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg have found out that ultrafast switches in material properties can be prompted by laser pulses – and why. This knowledge may enable new transistor concepts.

Making the speed of electronic technology as fast as possible is a central aim of contemporary materials research. The key components of fast computing technologies are transistors: switching devices that turn electrical currents on and off very quickly as basic steps of logic operations...

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Boosting Fiber Optics Communications with Advanced Quantum-enhanced Receiver

Illustration showing how single-photon detection is used for feedback. Once correct parameters for the reference beam are established, the input state is extinguished. CREDIT: Ivan Burenkov

Technology could avert capacity crunch by enhancing bandwidth while reducing energy consumption. Fiber optic technology is the holy grail of high-speed, long-distance telecommunications. Still, with the continuing exponential growth of internet traffic, researchers are warning of a capacity crunch.

In AVS Quantum Science, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland show how quantum-enhanced receivers could play a critical role in addressing this challenge.

The scientists developed a method to enhance receivers based on quantum physics properties to dramatically increase work performance while significantly reducing the error bit rate (EBR) and energy consumption.

Fiber optic technology relies on receive...

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Thermoelectric Material Discovery Sets Stage for New Forms of Electric Power in the future

Researchers have created a new and potentially paradigm-shifting high-performance thermoelectric compound. The team created a new hybrid compound in which the crystalline and amorphous sublattices are intertwined into a one-of-a-kind crystal-amorphic duality.

Thermoelectrics directly convert heat into electricity and power a wide array of items – from NASA’s Perseverance rover currently exploring Mars to travel coolers that chill beverages.

A Clemson University physicist has joined forces with collaborators from China and Denmark to create a new and potentially paradigm-shifting high-performance thermoelectric compound.

A material’s atomic structure, which is how atoms arrange themselves in space and time, determines its properties...

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