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    Category Physics

    The Hidden Inferno inside your Laser Pointer & the design of future microelectronic devices

    December 24, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    It may come as a surprise that temperature and voltage, basic notions developed in the 19th century, have until now lacked a mathematically rigorous definition, except for the case of an idealized equilibrium that does not actually occur in nature. The results of this study show that the two are intricately linked and could lead to a better understanding of what it means to be 'hot' or 'cold' at the subatomic and quantum scale. (Image: Charles Stafford/Abhay Shastry/UA)

    #Image1: What would happen if you threw an iceberg into the sun? Surprising as it may seem, physicists still aren’t sure. (Image: NASA/SDO/AIA, NASA/STEREO, SOHO/ESA/NASA) #Image2: It may come as a surprise that temperature and voltage, basic notions developed in the 19th century, have until now lacked a mathematically rigorous definition, except for the case of an idealized equilibrium that does not actually occur in nature. The results of this study show that the two are intricately linked and could lead to a better understanding of what it means to be ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ at the subatomic and quantum scale. (Image: Charles Stafford/Abhay Shastry/UA)

    If you thought that a kid’s room, a Norwegian Nobel Laureate and a laser pointer had nothing in common, 2 UA physicists are about to enlighten y...

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    Tapping into Long-lived Sound Waves in Glass

    December 23, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Tapping into long-lived sound waves in glass

    Laser light generates and probes sound waves in the core of a fiber optic waveguide. Credit: Yale University

    Yale scientists have shown how to enhance the lifetime of sound waves traveling through glass—the material at the heart of fiber optic technologies. Everyday experience tells us that glass (silica) is highly transparent. In fact, silica is one of the most transparent materials on earth. Light can propagate for tens of kilometers in silica before it experiences any appreciable weakening. This transparency, combined with glass’ formability and low cost, is why glass is used in so many of the fiber-optic technologies that shape the information age.

    Yet silica also has a mysterious side. At room temperature, silica is an excellent acoustic material...

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    One Step Closer to Reality: Devices that Convert Heat into Electricity

    December 23, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Scanning transmission electron microscope image of a nickel-platinum composite material created at The Ohio State University. At left, the image is overlaid with false-color maps of elements in the material, including platinum (red), nickel (green) and oxygen (blue). Credit: Imaging by Isabel Boona, OSU Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis; Left image prepared by Renee Ripley. Courtesy of The Ohio State University

    Scanning transmission electron microscope image of a nickel-platinum composite material created at The Ohio State University. At left, the image is overlaid with false-color maps of elements in the material, including platinum (red), nickel (green) and oxygen (blue). Credit: Imaging by Isabel Boona, OSU Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis; Left image prepared by Renee Ripley. Courtesy of The Ohio State University

    The same researchers who pioneered the use of a quantum mechanical effect to convert heat into electricity have figured out how to make their technique work in a form more suitable to industry...

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    Electron-Photon Small-talk could have big Impact on Quantum Computing

    December 23, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    A fully packaged device for trapping and manipulating single electrons and photons. A series of on-chip electrodes (lower left and upper right) lead to the formation of a double quantum dot that confines a single electron below the surface of the chip. The photon, which is free to move within the full 7-millimeter span of the cavity, exchanges quantum information with the electron inside the double quantum dot. (Photo courtesy of the Jason Petta research group, Department of Physics)

    A fully packaged device for trapping and manipulating single electrons and photons. A series of on-chip electrodes (lower left and upper right) lead to the formation of a double quantum dot that confines a single electron below the surface of the chip. The photon, which is free to move within the full 7-millimeter span of the cavity, exchanges quantum information with the electron inside the double quantum dot. (Photo courtesy of the Jason Petta research group, Department of Physics)

    In a step that brings silicon-based quantum computers closer to reality, researchers at Princeton University have built a device in which a single electron can pass its quantum information to a particle of light...

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