Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers develop technique to electrically manipulate light through interaction with an atomically thin semiconductor. Credit: Image courtesy of North Carolina State University

Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered a technique for controlling light with electric fields. “Our method is similar to the technique used to provide the computing capabilities of computers,” says Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State. “In computers, an electric field is used to turn electric current on or off, which corresponds to logic 1 and logic 0, the basis of binary code. With this new discovery, a light may be controlled to be strong or weak, spread or focused, pointing one direction or others by an electric field...

University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Debashis Chanda and physics PhD student Daniel Franklin have made a breakthrough that could produce much higher resolution for TVs, smartphones and other video screens.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a new color changing surface tunable through electrical voltage – a breakthrough that could lead to 3X the resolution for televisions, smartphones and other devices. With current technology, each of the pixels contain 3 subpixels – one red, one green, one blue. Assistant Professor Debashis Chanda and physics doctoral student Daniel Franklin have come up with a way to tune the color of these subpixels...

These images show the orbital paths of electrons trapped within a circular region within graphene. In the classical orbit (top image), an electron that travels in a complete circuit has the same physical state as when it started on the path. However, when an applied magnetic field reaches a critical value, (bottom image), an electron completing a circuit has a different physical state its original one. The change is called a Berry phase, and the magnetic field acts as a switch to turn the Berry phase on. The result is that the electron is raised to a higher energy level.
Credit: Christopher Gutiérrez, Daniel Walkup/NIST

The discovery promises new insight into quantum theory and may lead to new quantum electronic devices...

Pure platinum with thin fixed foils of yttrium have been used to create the new nanoalloys that are ten times as effective as pure platinum in fuel cells. Credit: Mia Halleröd Palmgren CC BY 3.0

A new type of nanocatalyst can result in the long-awaited commercial breakthrough for fuel cell cars. Research results from Chalmers University of Technology and Technical University of Denmark show that it is possible to significantly reduce the need for platinum, a precious and rare metal, by creating a nanoalloy using a new production technique. The technology is also well suited for mass production.

“A nano solution is needed to mass-produce resource-efficient catalysts for fuel cells. With our method, only 1/10 as much platinum is needed for the most demanding reactions...