Category Physics

A microchip that filters out unwanted radiation with the help of graphene has been developed by scientists from the EPFL and tested by researchers of the University of Geneva (UNIGE). The invention could be used in future devices to transmit wireless data ten times faster.

“Our graphene based microchip is an essential building block for faster wireless telecommunications in frequency bands that current mobile devices cannot access,” says EPFL scientist Michele Tamagnone. Their microchip works by protecting sources of wireless data from unwanted radiation, ensuring that the data remain intact by reducing source corruption.

They discovered that graphene can filter out radiation in much the same way as polarized glasses. The vibration of radiation has an orientation...

In order to allow rain to produce electricity as well, the research team coated a solar cell with a whisper-thin film of graphene. Credit: Copyright Angewandte Chemie International Edition; courtesy of ResearchSEA

Many advances have made solar cells quite efficient and affordable but a disadvantage is that solar cells produce no power when it’s raining. This may change, however. Chinese researchers have now introduced a new approach for making an all-weather solar cell that is triggered by both sunlight and raindrops. They developed a highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cell. In order to allow rain to produce electricity as well, they coated this cell with a whisper-thin film of graphene.

Graphene can readily be prepared by the oxidation, exfoliation, and subsequent reduction of graphite...

Part of the team members from NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute are: (from left to right) Dr. Renshaw Wang, Dr. Huang Zhen, Assistant Professor Ariando and Professor T. Venkatesan. They are looking at a four-inch wafer on which a multi-component oxide film has been deposited using the pulsed laser deposition process.

A team led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has achieved a major breakthrough in magnetic interaction. By adding a special insulator, they make electrons “twirl” their neighbouring “dance partners” to transfer magnetic information over a longer range between two thin layers of magnetic materials...

The excitation of a spin liquid on a honeycomb lattice with neutrons. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Cambridge

This state, quantum spin liquid, causes electrons – thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature – to break into pieces. The researchers, including physicists from the Uni of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a 2D material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.

The observation of one of their most in...