Category Physics

Pivotal discovery in Quantum and Classical Information processing

Tuned photon-magnon interactions. The team’s device is in the center. Arrow indicates direction of spin excitation for magnons. The purplish shroud represents reflectance measurements. The separated darker lines on each side that intersect at the top indicate tunable strong photon-magnon coupling. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)
Tuned photon-magnon interactions. The team’s device is in the center. Arrow indicates direction of spin excitation for magnons. The purplish shroud represents reflectance measurements. The separated darker lines on each side that intersect at the top indicate tunable strong photon-magnon coupling. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

Researchers have achieved, for the first time, electronically adjustable interactions between microwaves and a phenomenon in certain magnetic materials called spin waves. This could have application in quantum and classical information processing.

Working with theorists in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, researchers in the U.S...

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Engineers create Hybrid Chips with Processors and Memory to run AI on Battery-powered devices

A digital rendering of a computer chip illuminated
Hardware and software innovations give eight chips the illusion that they’re one mega-chip working together to run AI. | Stocksy/Javier Pardina

Transactions between processors and memory can consume 95% of the energy needed to do machine learning and AI, which severely limits battery life. A team of engineers has designed a system that can run AI tasks faster, and with less energy, by harnessing eight hybrid chips, each with its own data processor built right next to its own memory storage.

Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms...

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A Better Pen-and-Ink system for Drawing Flexible Circuits

010621-ballpointpen
A pen containing conductive ink can draw circuits on a variety of surfaces — even a loofah (seen here).
Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied Electronic Materials 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acsaelm.0c00866

Conductive ink is a great tool for printing flexible electronic circuits on surfaces. But these inks can be costly, they do not work on some materials, and devices to apply them can plug up. Now, scientists report in ACS Applied Electronic Materials that they have developed inexpensive conductive inks for clog-free ballpoint pens that can allow users to “write” circuits almost anywhere — even on human skin.

Flexible electronics are widely used in applications such as biosensors, electronic skin and energy storage...

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Breaking through the Resolution Barrier with Quantum-limited Precision

Photo (Paderborn University, Besim Mazhiqi). 

Researchers develop new method of measurement. Researchers at Paderborn University have developed a new method of distance measurement for systems such as GPS, which achieves more precise results than ever before. Using quantum physics, the team led by Leibniz Prize winner Professor Christine Silberhorn has successfully overcome the so-called resolution limit, which causes the “noise” we may see in photos, for example. Their findings have just been published in the academic journal Physical Review X Quantum (PRX Quantum).

Physicist Dr Benjamin Brecht explains the problem of the resolution limit: “In laser distance measurements a detector registers two light pulses of different intensities with a time difference...

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