Category Physics

Hugo Dil and Juraj Krempasky with the experimental set-up at the Paul Scherrer Institut. Credit: Hugo Dil/EPFL

Physicists have found a way to reverse electron spins using electric fields for the first time, paving the way for programmable spintronics technologies. Spintronics is a field of physics that studies the spin of electrons, an intrinsic type of magnetism that many elementary particles have. The field of spintronics has given rise to technological concepts of “spintronic devices,” which would run on electron spins, rather than their charge, used by traditional electronics.

In order to build programmable spintronic devices we first need to be able to manipulate spins in certain materials...

For the first time, the quantum state of a superconducting qubit was transferred with a coaxial cable to another qubit. Credit: Copyright ETH Zurich /M. Pechal, T. Walter, P. Kurpiers

In the new quantum information technologies, fragile quantum states have to be transferred between distant quantum bits. Researchers have now realized such a quantum transmission between two solid-state qubits at the push of a button. At the ETH in Zurich, a team of physicists led by Andreas Wallraff of the Laboratory for Solid State Physics has now succeeded in transmitting quantum information, at the push of button and with high fidelity, between two quantum bits roughly a metre apart.

The main peculiarity of quantum information technologies, such as quantum computers and quantum cryptography, is the use of...

Photo of high-performance and high-density blue f-VLED arrays. Credit: KAIST

A KAIST research team developed a crucial source technology that will advance the commercialization of micro LEDs. Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and his team have developed a low cost production technology for thin-film blue flexible vertical micro LEDs (f-VLEDs).

In CES 2018, micro LED TV was spotlighted as a strong candidate for replacing the active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display. Micro LED is a sub-100 um light source for red, green and blue light, which has advantages of outstanding optical output, ultra-low power consumption, fast response speed, and excellent flexibility.

However, the current display industry has utilized the individual ...

MIT engineers have created soft, 3-D-printed structures whose movements can be controlled with a wave of a magnet, much like marionettes without the strings. Credit: Felice Frankel

New printing technique could be used to develop remotely controlled biomedical devices. MIT engineers have created soft, 3D-printed structures whose movements can be controlled with a wave of a magnet. The menagerie of structures that can be magnetically manipulated includes a smooth ring that wrinkles up, a long tube that squeezes shut, a sheet that folds itself, and a spider-like “grabber” that can crawl, roll, jump, and snap together fast enough to catch a passing ball. It can even be directed to wrap itself around a small pill and carry it across a table.

The researchers fabricated each structure from a new ...