Category Physics

The detected pattern of an electron neutrino candidate event observed by Super-Kamiokande. Credit: University of Tokyo

The different rates of neutrino and anti-neutrino oscillations recorded by an international collaboration of researchers in Japan—including from Kavli IPMU—is an important step in the search for a new source of asymmetry in the laws that govern matter and antimatter. The Standard Model of particle physics describes the basic building blocks of matter and how they interact. It also makes a point that for every particle created, there is an anti-particle...

Electrons and light are moving in concert along the graphene sheet.
Credit: ICFO/ F. Vialla

Researchers have studied how light can be used to “see” the quantum nature of an electronic material. They managed to do that by capturing light in a net of carbon atoms and slowing down light it down so that it moves almost as slow as the electrons in the graphene. Then something special happens: electrons and light start to move in concert, unveiling their quantum nature at such large scale that it could observed with a special type of microscope.

The experiments were performed with ultra-high quality graphene...

Scanning electron microscopy image of a calcite crystal generated in the presence of the sea urchin protein rSM50 on a silicon wafer showing organized nanotexturing on exposed surfaces

Researchers are investigating a protein found inside the spicules of a sea urchin embryo to understand what makes these proteins such efficient ‘brick organizers’. Calcium carbonate, or CaCO3, comprises more than 4% of Earth’s crust. Its most common natural forms are chalk, limestone, and marble, produced by the sedimentation of the shells of small fossilized snails, shellfish, and coral over millions of years. NYU Dentistry researchers are studying how nature creates 3D CaCO3 inorganic/organic based materials to form seashells, invertebrate exoskeletons, and vertebrate bone, dentine, and enamel.

John Evans,...

Novel Strategy for Photopatterning Emissive Polymer Brushes for Organic Light Emitting Diode Applications

From smartphones to TVs and laptops, light emitting diode (LED) displays are ubiquitous. OLEDs (where the O denotes they are organic, or carbon-based) are among the most energy efficient of these devices, but they generally have higher production costs due to the laborious fabrication processes needed to arrange them properly. Today in ACS Central Science, researchers introduce a new way to efficiently create patterns of OLEDs.

In an LED display, the emissions from red, green and blue diodes are blended to create the white and colored light necessary to render images. It is crucially important to precisely position the different types of diodes in relation to one another...