Category Technology/Electronics

Colloidal Quantum Dot Laser Diodes are just around the corner

Colloidal quantum dots operationg in LED mode.
Colloidal quantum dots operating in LED mode.

Los Alamos scientists have incorporated meticulously engineered colloidal quantum dots into a new type of light emitting diodes (LEDs) containing an integrated optical resonator, which allows them to function as lasers. These novel, dual-function devices clear the path towards versatile, manufacturing-friendly laser diodes. The technology can potentially revolutionize numerous fields from photonics and optoelectronics to chemical sensing and medical diagnostics.

“This latest breakthrough along with other recent advances in quantum dot chemistry and device engineering that we have achieved suggest that laser diodes assembled from solution may soon become a reality,” said Victor Klimov, head of the quantum dot group at Los Alamos Nationa...

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Living Robots built using Frog Cells

Computer-designed organisms. Left is simulated design, right is deployed physical green and red organism.
On the left, the anatomical blueprint for a computer-designed organism, discovered on a UVM supercomputer. On the right, the living organism, built entirely from frog skin (green) and heart muscle (red) cells. The background displays traces carved by a swarm of these new-to-nature organisms as they move through a field of particulate matter. (Credit: Sam Kriegman, UVM)

Tiny ‘xenobots’ assembled from cells promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up. Scientists repurposed living frog cells – and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These tiny ‘xenobots’ can move toward a target and heal themselves after being cut. These novel living machines are neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal...

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‘Superdiamond’ carbon-boron cages can trap and tap into different properties

The bipartite sodalite type clathrate structure, which consists of truncated octahedral “host” cages that trap strontium “guest” atoms, was synthesized under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions using a laser heating technique. Image is courtesy of Tim Strobel.

A long-sought-after class of “superdiamond” carbon-based materials with tunable mechanical and electronic properties was predicted and synthesized by Carnegie’s Li Zhu and Timothy Strobel. Their work is published by Science Advances.

Carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe and is fundamental to life as we know it. It is unrivaled in its ability to form stable structures, both alone and with other elements.

A material’s properties are determined by how its atoms are bonded and the structural ar...

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Machine Learning Shapes Microwaves for a Computer’s Eyes

Two swirling patterns, one of grey and black on the left, the other of yellow and purple on the right
An example of a wave pattern (right) and its intensity levels (left) developed by the machine learning algorithm to best illuminate the most important features of an object being identified.

Engineers from Duke University and the Institut de Physique de Nice in France have developed a new method to identify objects using microwaves that improves accuracy while reducing the associated computing time and power requirements.

The system could provide a boost to object identification and speed in fields where both are critical, such as autonomous vehicles, security screening and motion sensing.

The new machine-learning approach cuts out the middleman, skipping the step of creating an image for analysis by a human and instead analyzes the pure data directly...

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