Category Physics

University of Michigan researchers have created a transparent silver film that could be used in touchscreens, flexible displays and other advanced applications. L. Jay Guo, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, holds up a piece of the material. Image credit: Joseph Xu/Michigan Engineering.

Scientists have discovered that a sphere of cold helium atoms (in green) — interacting with a surrounding larger container of the same kind of atoms (in blue) — follows a bizarre rule of physics, called an entanglement area law, also observed in black holes. This discovery points to a “deeper reality,” says University of Vermont physicist Adrian Del Maestro and may be a step toward using superfluid helium as the fuel of a new generation of ultra-fast quantum computers. Credit: Adrian Del Maestro/Nature Physics

This computer-generated model shows the spherical core of the quantum dot nanoparticle (in red) along with the ‘flying saucer’ shape of the outer shell (in yellow). The tension in the core induced by the shell affects the electronic states and lowers the energy threshold required to trigger the laser. Credit: Alex Voznyy

This tiny US flag — just a few nanometers wide and invisible to the naked eye — is arguably the world’s smallest image of Old Glory, according to its creators at the University of Texas at Dallas. In an experiment, the nanoflag pattern emerged unexpectedly as sheets of the “stripe” material — molybdenum ditelluride — were heated to about 450 degrees Celsius, at which point its atoms began to rearrange and form new structures — the ‘stars’ in this false-color image. Each star consists of six central atoms of molybdenum surrounded by six atoms of tellurium. Stacked on top of one another, the stars form nanowires that might power advanced electronics. The transformation from stripes to stars is reported in the journal Advanced Materials. Credit: University of Texas at Dalla