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    Category Technology/Electronics

    A Surprising New Superconductor

    May 2, 2018, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Physics

    A PLATED QUBIT DEVICE. PHOTO: D. PAPAS/NIST

    A PLATED QUBIT DEVICE. PHOTO: D. PAPAS/NIST

    A powerful new plated metal combination that superconducts at easily attained temperatures could pave the road for the next critical steps in the development of cutting-edge supercomputers. CIRES chemist and instrument designer Don David and colleagues Dave Pappas and Xian Wu just published the new recipe: an ultrathin layer of rhenium sandwiched between layers of gold, each measuring 1/1000th the diameter of a human hair that can superconduct at critical temperature over 6 Kelvin.

    “The sheer magnitude of the critical temperature was unexpected,” said Don David, director of the CIRES Integrated Instrument Development Facility and coauthor on a paper published this week in Applied Physics Letters...

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    A Powerful Laser Breakthrough

    April 30, 2018, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Top: A scanning electron microscope image of a high-power surface-emitting terahertz semiconductor laser with hybrid gratings. Multiple lasers are fabricated on a Gallium Arsenide semiconductor chip. Each laser is approximately 1.5mm long, 10 microns thick and varies in width between 0.1mm to 0.2mm. Bottom: Artistic illustration of the terahertz laser in operation. The laser's semiconductor material is sandwiched between metallic layers on both top and bottom. A periodic grating is introduced in the top metallic layer in the form of apertures from where light could leak out. An interplay of second- and fourth-order Bragg gratings (manifested as alternating single and double slits) leads to intense radiation from alternating periods of the periodic structure, combining coherently into a high quality single-lobed laser beam in the surface-normal direction. Credit: Sushil Kumar, Lehigh University

    Top: A scanning electron microscope image of a high-power surface-emitting terahertz semiconductor laser with hybrid gratings. Multiple lasers are fabricated on a Gallium Arsenide semiconductor chip. Each laser is approximately 1.5mm long, 10 microns thick and varies in width between 0.1mm to 0.2mm. Bottom: Artistic illustration of the terahertz laser in operation. The laser’s semiconductor material is sandwiched between metallic layers on both top and bottom. A periodic grating is introduced in the top metallic layer in the form of apertures from where light could leak out...

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    World’s Oldest Insect Inspires a New Generation of Aerogels

    April 26, 2018, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    The potential of this discovery in terms of reducing energy use and therefore our energy bills is really exciting. Dr Lidija Šiller, joint lead author, Newcastle University

    The potential of this discovery in terms of reducing energy use and therefore our energy bills is really exciting. Dr Lidija Šiller, joint lead author, Newcastle University

    Experts have created a new form of highly-efficient, low-cost, sustainable insulation based on the wings of a dragonfly. The material, known as an aerogel, is the most porous material known to man and ultralight, with a piece the size of a family car weighing less than a kilogram. Starting out as a wet silica gel, similar in structure to jelly, the material is carefully dried to create a strong, porous material...

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    3D Print Electronics and Cells Printed Directly on Skin

    April 26, 2018, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    One of the key innovations of the new 3-D-printing technique on skin is that the printer uses computer vision to track and adjust to movements in real-time. Credit: McAlpine group, University of Minnesota

    One of the key innovations of the new 3-D-printing technique on skin is that the printer uses computer vision to track and adjust to movements in real-time. Credit: McAlpine group, University of Minnesota

    Groundbreaking technology could help soldiers on the battlefield and people with skin disorders. In a groundbreaking new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota used a customized, low-cost 3D printer to print electronics on a real hand for the first time. The technology could be used by soldiers on the battlefield to print temporary sensors on their bodies to detect chemical or biological agents or solar cells to charge essential electronics.

    Researchers also successfully printed biological cells on the skin wound of a mouse...

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