Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have created a quantum circuit that enables them to listen to the weakest radio signal allowed by quantum mechanics. This new quantum circuit opens the door to possible future applications in areas such as radio astronomy and medicine (MRI). It also enables researchers to do experiments that can shed light on the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity.

We have all been annoyed by weak radio signals at some point in our lives: our favourite song in the car turning to noise, being too far away from our wifi router to check our email...

A new study reveals how aligned layers of atomically thin semiconductors can yield an exotic new quantum material. A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a simple method that could turn ordinary semiconducting materials into quantum machines – superthin devices marked by extraordinary electronic behavior. Such an advancement could help to revolutionize a number of industries aiming for energy-efficient electronic systems – and provide a platform for exotic new physics.

The study describing th...

Electric currents drive all our electronic devices. The emerging field of spintronics looks to replace electric currents with what are known as spin currents. Researchers from the University of Tokyo have made a breakthrough in this area. Their discovery of the magnetic spin Hall effect could lead to low-power, high-speed and high-capacity devices. They have created sample devices which can further research into potential applications.

“Electricity lit up the world and electronics connected it,” says Professor Yoshichika Otani from the Institute for Solid State Physics. “Spintronics will be the next step forward in this procession and we can only imagine what advances it may bring.”

So wha...

Scientists have found a way to build the ‘opposite’ of a laser – a device that absorbs a specific light wave perfectly. This can be done even in complicated systems, in which waves are scattered randomly, and has many technological applications.

At TU Wien (Vienna), a method has now been developed to make use of this effect, even in very complicated systems in which light waves are randomly scattered in all directions. The method was developed in Vienna with the help of computer simulations, and confirmed by experiments in cooperation with the University of Nice. This opens up new possibilities for all technical disciplines that have to do with wave phenomena. The new method has now been published in the journal Nature.

“Every day we are de...