Category Physics

Scientists Discover Novel Way of Reading Data in Antiferromagnets, Unlocking their use as Computer Memory

A microscopic image of the tiny device containing antiferromagnetic manganese bismuth telluride (green) that the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore researchers did their experiments on. The lines (light yellow) radiating from the centre are electrodes from which current was passed through the manganese bismuth telluride. (Image: NTU Singapore)

Scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) investigators have made a significant advance in developing alternative materials for the high-speed memory chips that let computers access information quickly and that bypass the limitations of existing materials.

They have discovered a way that allows them to make sense of previously hard-to-read data stored in these alternative materials, known as antifer...

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Arrays of Quantum Rods could Enhance TVs or Virtual Reality devices

A blue squiggle-like DNA graphic points down in the center emitting light downwards. Two red DNA graphics are pointed up beside it. A structured array composed of triangular rods lie flat on dark gray surface, while the top rows of the arrays contain pieces resembling red pills.

MIT engineers developed a new way to create these arrays, by scaffolding quantum rods onto patterned DNA. Using scaffolds of folded DNA, engineers assembled arrays of quantum rods with desirable photonic properties that could enable them to be used as highly efficient micro-LEDs for televisions or virtual reality devices.

Flat screen TVs that incorporate quantum dots are now commercially available, but it has been more difficult to create arrays of their elongated cousins, quantum rods, for commercial devices. Quantum rods can control both the polarization and color of light, to generate 3D images for virtual reality devices.

Using scaffolds made of folded DNA, MIT engineers have come up with a new way to precisely assemble arrays of quantum rods...

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Simple Ballpoint Pen can Write Custom LEDs

Handwriting LEDs

The invention of the printing press revolutionized duplication of the written word, giving the hands of tired scribes a break and making written material more accessible. A similar breakthrough has happened in reverse in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

Researchers working with Chuan Wang, associate professor of electrical & systems engineering, have developed ink pens that allow individuals to handwrite flexible, stretchable optoelectronic devices on everyday materials including paper, textiles, rubber, plastics and 3D objects. Flexible optoelectronics for emitting and detecting light, which are already found in everyday objects like smartphones and fitness trackers, can bend, fold and flex while maintaining functionality.

In a paper pub...

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Physicists Demonstrate how Sound can be Transmitted through Vacuum

Sound waves tunneling across a vacuum gap

A classic movie was once promoted with the punchline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Physicists Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have demonstrated, on the contrary, that in certain situations sound can be transmitted strongly across a vacuum region!

In a recent publication they show that in some cases a sound wave can jump or “tunnel” fully across a vacuum gap between two solids if the materials in question are piezoelectric. In such materials, vibrations (sound waves) produce an electrical response, as well, and since an electric field can exist in vacuum, it can transmit the sound waves across...

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