Category Physics

Using electronic devices for too long can cause them to overheat, which might slow them down, damage their components or even make them explode or catch fire. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed a hydrogel that can both cool down electronics, such as cellphone batteries, and convert their waste heat into electricity.

Some components of electronic devices, including batteries, light-emitting diodes (known as LEDs) and computer microprocessors, generate heat during operation. Overheating can reduce the efficiency, reliability and lifespan of devices, in addition to wasting energy...

Engineers have demonstrated for the first time that it’s possible to connect a network of sensors through quantum entanglement. The experiment opens a door to unprecedented levels of sensitivity in GPS navigation, medical imaging and astronomy.

Your phone’s GPS, the WiFi in your house and communications on aircraft are all powered by radio-frequency waves, or waves, which carry information from a transmitter at one point to a sensor at another. The sensors interpret this information in different ways. For example, a GPS sensor uses the angle at which it receives an RF wave to determine its own relative location. The more precisely it can measure the angle, the more accurately it can determine location.

In a paper pu...

Scientists have theorized that organometallic halide perovskites— a class of light harvesting “wonder” materials for applications in solar cells and quantum electronics— are so promising due to an unseen yet highly controversial mechanism called the Rashba effect. Scientists at the U.S...

A proof-of-concept study promises warmer, cheaper and more robust quantum computing. And it can be manufactured using conventional silicon chip foundries.

Most quantum computers being developed around the world will only work at fractions of a degree above absolute zero. That requires multi-million-dollar refrigeration and as soon as you plug them into conventional electronic circuits they’ll instantly overheat.

But now researchers led by Professor Andrew Dzurak at UNSW Sydney have addressed this problem...