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    Category Technology/Electronics

    Scientists discover Exotic Quantum State at Room Temperature

    October 27, 2022, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Physics

    Quantum Hall effect

    For the first time, physicists have observed novel quantum effects in a topological insulator at room temperature. This breakthrough, published as the cover article of the October issue of Nature Materials, came when Princeton scientists explored a topological material based on the element bismuth.

    The scientists have used topological insulators to demonstrate quantum effects for more than a decade, but this experiment is the first time these effects have been observed at room temperature. Typically, inducing and observing quantum states in topological insulators requires temperatures around absolute zero, which is equal to -459 degrees Fahrenheit (or -273 degrees Celsius).

    This finding opens up a new range of possibilities for the development of efficient quantum technologies, ...

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    The Next Wonder Semiconductor

    October 26, 2022, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    scanning ultrafast electron microscope
    The scanning ultrafast electron microscope (SUEM) couples a femtosecond pulsed laser with a scanning electron microscope, which enables time-resolved imaging of microscopic energy transport processes with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolutions
    Photo Credit: 
    MATT PERKO

    With scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, researchers unveil promising hot photocarrier transport properties of cubic boron arsenide. In a study that confirms its promise as the next-generation semiconductor material, UC Santa Barbara researchers have directly visualized the photocarrier transport properties of cubic boron arsenide single crystals.

    “We were able to visualize how the charge moves in our sample,” said Bolin Liao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineeri...

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    Improving Light Absorption in Perovskite/Si Tandem Solar Cells

    October 25, 2022, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    1. (a) A schematic of the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles, (b) photographs of the PDMS layer with SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles under ambient light and UV light (λ = 365 nm), (c) a schematic of perovskite/Si tandem solar cell with the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles, and (d) a cross-sectional SEM image of the perovskite–Si solar cell.

    A research team, affiliated with UNIST has succeeded in achieving a power conversion efficiency (PEC) of 23.50% in a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell built with a special textured anti-reflective coating (ARC) polymeric film. According to the research team, the PCE of the device with the ARC film was sustained for 120 hours, maintaining 91% of its initial value.

    This breakthrough has b...

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    New Computing Architecture: Deep Learning with Light

    October 21, 2022, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Artist’s rendering of a smart transceiver. The dark blue device has golden pathways and rectangles, which represent the wires that connect the smart transceiver chip to a circuit board. A light blue square covered with thin lines rises from the middle, to represent the smart transceiver chip. The thin lines represent an array of fibers that move light from lasers in and out of the chip.
    Caption:This rendering shows a novel piece of hardware, called a smart transceiver, that uses technology known as silicon photonics to dramatically accelerate one of the most memory-intensive steps of running a machine-learning model. This can enable an edge device, like a smart home speaker, to perform computations with more than a hundred-fold improvement in energy efficiency.
    Credits:Image: Alex Sludds. Edited by MIT New

    A new method uses optics to accelerate machine-learning computations on smart speakers and other low-power connected devices. The technique may enable self-driving cars to make decisions in realtime while only using a fraction of the energy that is currently demanded by their power-hungry on-board computers.

    Ask a smart home device for the weather forecast, and it...

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