Category Technology/Electronics

Dr. Png Rui-Qi (left), Mervin Ang (middle) and Cindy Tang (right) working on conducting polymers that can provide unprecedented ohmic contacts for better performance in a wide range of organic semiconductor devices. Credit: Seah Zong Long

Semiconductors, which are the very basic components of electronic devices, have improved our lives in many ways. They can be found in lighting, displays, solar modules and microprocessors that are installed in almost all modern day devices, from mobile phones, washing machines, and cars, to the emerging Internet of Things. To innovate devices with better functionality and energy efficiency, researchers are constantly looking for better ways to make them, in particular from earth-abundant materials using eco-friendly processes...

This is a schematic of the BIC laser: a high frequency laser beam (blue) powers the membrane to emit a laser beam at telecommunication frequency (red). Credit: Kanté group, UC San Diego

UCSD Researchers have demonstrated the world’s first laser based on an unconventional wave physics phenomenon called bound states in the continuum. The technology could revolutionize surface lasers, making them more compact and energy-efficient for communications and computing applications. The new BIC lasers could also be developed as high-power lasers for industrial and defense applications.

“Lasers are ubiquitous in the present day world, from simple everyday laser pointers to complex laser interferometers used to detect gravitational waves...

NIST researchers applied a special form of microwave light to cool a microscopic aluminum drum to an energy level below the generally accepted limit, to just one fifth of a single quantum of energy. Having a diameter of 20 micrometers and a thickness of 100 nanometers, the drum beat 10 million times per second while its range of motion fell to nearly zero. Credit: Teufel/NIST

NIST Physicists have cooled a mechanical object to a temperature lower than previously thought possible, below the”quantum limit.” The new theory and experiments showed that a microscopic mechanical drum – a vibrating aluminum membrane – could be cooled to <1/5 of a single quantum, or packet of energy, lower than ordinarily predicted by quantum physics...

Periosteum is a tissue fabric layer on the outside of bone, as seen in the upper diagonal segment of the tissue image volume. The natural weave of elastin (green) and collagen (yellow) are evident when viewed under the microscope. Elastin gives periosteum its stretchy properties and collagen imparts toughness. Muscle is organized into fiber bundles, observed as round structures in the lower diagonal segment of the tissue image volume. The volume is approximately 200 x 200 microns (width x height) x 25 microns deep. Credit: Professor Melissa Knothe Tate

For the first time, UNSW biomedical engineers have woven a ‘smart’ fabric that mimics the sophisticated and complex properties of bone tissue, periosteum...