Category Physics

Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface through optical spin-orbit coupling. Researchers from TU Delft combine spintronics and nanophotonics in 2D material Delft University of Technology

Spintronics is an emerging field in which the spin of electrons, rather than the charge, is used to process data. Unfortunately, the spin only lasts for a very short time, making it difficult to exploit in electronics. Researchers from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft, working with the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research’s AMOLF institute, have now found a way to convert spin information into a predictable light signal at room temperature...

Blue Waters numerical relativity simulation of two colliding black holes with the open source, numerical relativity software, the Einstein Toolkit. Authors: R. Haas and E. Huerta (NCSA/University of Illinois); Visualization: R. Haas.

Scientists at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have pioneered the use of GPU-accelerated deep learning for rapid detection and characterization of gravitational waves. This new approach will enable astronomers to study gravitational waves using minimal computational resources, reducing time to discovery and increasing the scientific reach of gravitational wave astrophysics. This innovative research was recently published in Physics Letters B.

Combining deep learning algorithms, numer...

Student Erich Nygaard is depicted as a 3-D volumetric image, mimicking the popular Princess Leia hologram. Credit: Dan Smalley Lab

Nature study outlines method to make the images of science fiction. In the original Star Wars film, R2D2 projects an image of Princess Leia in distress. The iconic scene includes the line still famous 40 years later: “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” BYU electrical and computer engineering professor and holography expert Daniel Smalley has long had a goal to create the same type of 3D image projection. In a paper published this week in Nature, Smalley details the method he has developed to do so. “We refer to this colloquially as the Princess Leia project,” Smalley said...

Modulator researchers. Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University

Researchers at Oregon State University have designed and fabricated the world’s smallest electro-optic modulator, which could mean major reductions in energy used by data centers and supercomputers. An electro-optic modulator plays the key role in fiber optic networks. Just as a transistor is a switch for electronic signals, an electro-optic modulator is a switch for optical signals. Optical communication uses light, so the modulator turns on and off the light that sends a stream of binary signals over optical fibers.

The new modulator is 10 times smaller and can potentially be 100X more energy efficient than the best previous devices. It is roughly the size of a bacterium, measuring 0.6 by 8 microns...