Category Physics

More Stable Light comes from intentionally ‘Squashed’ Quantum Dots

Novel colloidal quantum dots are formed of an emitting cadmium/selenium (Cd/Se) core enclosed into a compositionally graded CdxZn1-xSe shell wherein the fraction of zinc versus cadmium increases towards the dot’s periphery. Due to a directionally asymmetric lattice mismatch between CdSe and ZnSe, the core, at top right, is compressed more strongly perpendicular to the crystal axis than along it. This leads to modifications of the electronic structure of the CdSe core, which beneficially affects its light-emission properties. Bottom image: Experimental traces of emission intensity from a conventional quantum dot (upper panel) and a novel asymmetrically compressed quantum dot (lower panel) resolved spectrally and temporally...
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Programming Light on a Chip

A new integrated photonics platform that can store light and electrically control its frequency (or color) in an integrated circuit.
Credit: Loncar Lab/HarvardSEAS

Research opens doors in photonic quantum information processing, optical signal processing and microwave photonics. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new integrated photonics platform that can store light and electrically control its frequency (or color) in an integrated circuit.

The platform draws inspiration from atomic systems and could have a wide range of applications including photonic quantum information processing, optical signal processing, and microwave photonics...

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Researchers discover AI Information-hiding behavior for Later Use

Researchers discover AI information-hiding behavior for later use
Details in x are reconstructed in GF x, despite not appearing in the intermediate map F x. Credit: arXiv:1712.02950 [cs.CV]

Call it clever, brand it a cheater, but don’t feel ashamed to find it terribly interesting. The “it” is CycleGAN, and its link to steganography—where messages and information are hidden within nonsecret text or data. So, in 2019 it cannot be that shocking for people to learn that a machine, not a human, can cheat its way though a task. The AI in this instance, like good human spies and cons, learned when to hide some information that can be used later.

In Packt, Bhagyashree R wrote that “The researchers discovered the machine was encoding data of the aerial map into the noise patterns of the street map on the down low...

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Controlling Neurons with light – but without wires or batteries

Wireless and battery-free implant with advanced control over targeted neuron groups.
Credit: Philipp Gutruf

New research demonstrates a new optogenetics method that eliminates the need for bulky optical fibers, gives researchers more precise control of the light’s intensity, and allows for stimulating multiple areas of the brain simultaneously. Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to turn specific neuron groups in the brain on or off. For example, researchers might use optogenetic stimulation to restore movement in case of paralysis or, in the future, to turn off the areas of the brain or spine that cause pain.

“We’re making these tools to understand how different parts of the brain work,” Gutruf said...

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