Category Physics

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering doctoral candidate Joshua DeGraff developed an advanced class of scalable motion sensors using silver ink electrodes and sheets of pure carbon nanotube buckypaper. Credit: FSU Photography Services

Researchers from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have developed a class of breakthrough motion sensors that could herald a near future of ubiquitous, fully integrated and affordable wearable technology...

An IBM cryostat wired for a 50 qubit system. Credit: IBM

IBM has announced a milestone in its race against Google and other big tech firms to build a powerful quantum computer. Dario Gil, who leads IBM’s quantum computing and artificial intelligence research division, said it’s scientists have successfully built and measured a processor prototype with 50 qubits. Gil says it’s the first time any company has built a quantum computer at this scale.

This new processor expands upon the 20 qubit architecture and will be made available in the next generation IBM Q systems. Clients will have online access to the computing power of the first IBM Q systems by the end of 2017, with a series of planned upgrades during 2018...

(Photo by Elle Starkman) PPPL physicist Will Fox

Lasers that generate plasma can provide insight into bursts of subatomic particles that occur in deep space, scientists have found. Such findings could help scientists understand cosmic rays, solar flares and solar eruptions – emissions from the sun that can disrupt cell phone service and knock out power grids on Earth.

Physicists have long observed that particles like electrons and atomic nuclei can accelerate to extremely high speeds in space. Researchers believe that processes associated with plasma, the hot fourth state of matter in which electrons have separated from atomic nuclei, might be responsible...

Light on a CMOS chip. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Twente

Electronics and light don’t go well together on a standard ‘CMOS’ chip. Researcher Satadal Dutta of the University of Twente succeeded in introducing a light connection into the heart of a semiconductor chip. In this way, two circuits can communicate. Or: the worlds of electronics and photonics are connected.

What is particularly attractive about Dutta’s solution is that no special materials or manufacturing processes are needed: the light comes from silicon. The light source, detector and the light channel can be made using the technology that is used to make the electronic circuits...