Category Technology/Electronics

By harnessing the photoswitchable Rabi splitting, all-optical light modulators and rewritable waveguides were developed. The demonstration of Rabi splitting in the HPWMs (hybrid plasmon–waveguide modes)  will further advance scientific research and device applications of hybrid plasmon–molecule systems.

A military drone flying on a reconnaissance mission is captured behind enemy lines, setting into motion a team of engineers who need to remotely delete sensitive information carried on the drone’s chips. Because the chips are optical and not electronic, the engineers can now simply flash a beam of UV light onto the chip to instantly erase all content. Disaster averted...

Scientists have elucidated a surprising novel mechanism of cascading electron emission caused by the Coulombic interaction between highly excited atoms.

Tohoku University research could have implications for radiation therapy. Physical chemist Kiyoshi Ueda’s team used a free electron laser (FEL) at Japan’s SPring-8 Compact SASE Source test accelerator to investigate how electrons are ‘knocked out’ of neon atom clusters. Intense extreme ultraviolet FEL pulses were directed at the clusters and the resultant energy distribution of electrons knocked out of the clusters was measured using a ‘velocity map imaging spectrometer’.

Electrons inside a material absorb energy when the material is exposed to light. Normally, this energy is used to ‘knock electrons out’ of the material...

Polymer film for organic PV2 Close-up of polymer films used in polymeric solar cells doped by the new solution-based electrical doping technique. (Credit: Christopher Moore, Georgia Tech)

A simple solution-based electrical doping technique could help reduce the cost of polymer solar cells and organic electronic devices, potentially expanding the applications for these technologies. By enabling production of efficient single-layer solar cells, the new process could help move organic photovoltaics into a new generation of wearable devices and enable small-scale distributed power generation.

Developed by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and colleagues from 3 other institutions, the technique provides a new way of inducing p-type electrical doping in organic semiconductor films...

EM Drive in forward thrust configuration. (NASA Photo)

After months of speculation and rumor, NASA has finally released its long-awaited research paper, published in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ peer-reviewed Journal of Propulsion and Power. If the electromagnetic technology proves sound, it could radically change the way humans travel in space, opening up the possibility of journeys to Mars in just 70 days. But there is no shortage of skeptics who are adamant that the drive is more science fiction than science fact. Critics are quick to point out that the drive violates one of the fundamental laws of physics, namely: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction...