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    Category Physics

    Step towards Light-based, Brain-like Computing Chip

    May 10, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Schematic illustration of a light-based, brain-inspired chip. By mimicking biological neuronal systems, photonic neuromorphic processors provide a promising platform to tackle challenges in machine learning and pattern recognition.© Johannes Feldman

    Scientists have succeeded in developing a piece of hardware which could pave the way for creating computers resembling the human brain. They produced a chip containing a network of artificial neurons that works with light and can imitate neurons and their synapses. This network is able to ‘learn’ information and use this as a basis for computing. The approach could be used later in many different fields for evaluating patterns in large quantities of data.

    The researchers were able to demonstrate, that such an optical neurosynaptic network...

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    Experimental device generates Electricity from the Coldness of the Universe

    May 7, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    A drawback of solar panels is that they require sunlight to generate electricity. Some have observed that for a device on Earth facing space, the chilling outflow of energy from the device can be harvested using the same kind of optoelectronic physics we have used to harness solar energy. New work, in Applied Physics Letters, looks to provide a potential path to generating electricity like solar cells but that can power electronics at night. This is a schematic of the experimental infrared photodiode that has generated electricity directly from the coldness of space.
    Credit: Masashi Ono

    The obvious drawback of solar panels is that they require sunlight to generate electricity...

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    A Novel Technique that uses Quantum Light to Measure Temperature at the Nanoscale

    May 5, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Illustration of nanoscale diamonds probing temperature of electronic circuits. Credit: Dr. Trong Toan Tran

    Being able to measure, and monitor, temperatures and temperature changes at miniscule scales—inside a cell or in micro and nano-electronic components—has the potential to impact many areas of research from disease detection to a major challenge of modern computation and communication technologies, how to measure scalability and performance in electronic components.

    A collaborative team, led by scientists from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), developed a highly-sensitive nano-thermometer that uses atom-like inclusions in diamond nanoparticles to accurately measure temperature at the nanoscale...

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    Sculpting Super-fast Light Pulses

    May 5, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Schematic shows a novel technique to reshape the properties of an ultrafast light pulse. An incoming pulse of light (left) is dispersed into its various constituent frequencies, or colors, and directed into a metasurface composed of millions of tiny silicon pillars and an integrated polarizer. The nanopillars are specifically designed to simultaneously and independently shape such properties of each frequency component as its amplitude, phase or polarization. The transmitted beam is then recombined to achieve a new shape-modified pulse (right).
    Credit: S. Kelley/NIST

    Nanopillars shape light precisely for practical applications...

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