Category Technology/Electronics

A recipe for creating a microscopic crystal structure that can hold 2 wavelengths of light at once is a step toward faster telecommunications and quantum computers. Five years ago, Stanford postdoctoral scholar Momchil Minkov encountered a puzzle that he was impatient to solve. At the heart of his field of nonlinear optics are devices that change light from one color to another – a process important for many technologies within telecommunications, computing and laser-based equipment and science...

A new study found that Weyl semimetals, a class of quantum materials, have bulk quantum states whose electrical properties can be controlled using light. Insights from quantum physics have allowed engineers to incorporate components used in circuit boards, optical fibers, and control systems in new applications ranging from smartphones to advanced microprocessors...

Engineers have designed a new system that can help cool buildings in crowded metropolitan areas without consuming electricity, an important innovation at a time when cities are working to adapt to climate change.

The system consists of a special material – an inexpensive polymer/aluminum film – that’s installed inside a box at the bottom of a specially designed solar “shelter.” The film helps to keep its surroundings cool by absorbing heat from the air inside the box and transmitting that energy through the Earth’s atmosphere into outer space...

Insect-sized device scurries at the speed of a cockroach and can withstand the weight of a human...