Category Physics

A research team develops semiconductor devices for high-performance AI operations by applying IGZO materials widely used in OLED displays. ChatGPT’s impact extends beyond the education sector and is causing significant changes in other areas. The AI language model is recognized for its ability to perform various tasks, including paper writing, translation, coding, and more, all through question-and-answer-based interactions. The AI system relies on deep learning, which requires extensive training to minimize errors, resulting in frequent data transfers between memory and processors...

In recent years, researchers have been trying to create increasingly efficient solar technologies and more sustainable battery designs. Among emerging sustainable energy solutions are solar batteries, systems that can store the energy collected by solar cells or photovoltaic (PV) systems.

A research group at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, supervised by Prof. Bettina Lotsch, recently introduced a sustainable integrated solar battery design based on materials that abundant on Earth. Their design, presented in a paper published in Energy & Environmental Science, is based on a bi-functional carbon nitride (K-PHI) photoanode that can both absorb light and store electric charge.

“The solar battery research field is still young and as such very diverse in concepts a...

The transformative changes brought by deep learning and artificial intelligence are accompanied by immense costs. For example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT algorithm costs at least $100,000 every day to operate. This could be reduced with accelerators, or computer hardware designed to efficiently perform the specific operations of deep learning. However, such a device is only viable if it can be integrated with mainstream silicon-based computing hardware on the material level.

This was preventing the implementation of one highly promising deep learning accelerator—arrays of electrochemical random-access memory, or ECRAM—until a research team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign achieved...

The cold blast of an air conditioner can be a welcome relief as temperatures soar, but “A/C” units require large amounts of energy and can leak potent greenhouse gases. Today, scientists report an eco-friendly alternative — a plant-based film that gets cooler when exposed to sunlight and comes in a variety of textures and bright, iridescent colors. The material could someday keep buildings, cars and other structures cool without requiring external power.

The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

“To make materials that remain cooler than the air around them during the day, you need something that reflects a lot of solar light and doesn’t absorb it, which would transform energy from the light into heat,” says Silvia V...