Category Technology/Electronics

A laser pulse hits nickel (green). Spin-up-electrons (red) change into silicon (yellow). Electrons with both spin-orientations change back from silicon into nickel. Credit: Image courtesy of Vienna University of Technology, TU Vienna

They are essential for spintronics, a technology that could replace today’s electronics.For years scientists have been working on elements using electrons angular momentum (their spin) rather than their electrical charge. This new approach, “spintronics” has major advantages compared to common electronics. It can operate with much less energy. TU Wien (Vienna) scientists have now proposed a new method to produce gigantic spin currents in a very small period of time. The secret is using ultra short laser pulses.

For every electron, 2 different spin-states are p...

Atoms in silicon dioxide are hit by the yellow light wave (from the left) causing the electrons around each atom to oscillate. This displacement absorbs energy from the light wave. At the end of the cycles the absorbed energy is returned to the light wave. Recording of the temporal evolution of the light field after passage through the sample allows the first real-time observation of the attosecond-speed electron motion inside solids. Credit: Image courtesy of Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics

Light waves might be able to drive future transistors. The electromagnetic waves of light oscillate approximately 1M times in a billionth of a second, hence with petahertz frequencies. In principle also future electronics could reach this speed and become 100...

Research by Cho and Yongping Zheng (pictured) focuses on the electrolyte catalysts inside the battery, which, when combined with oxygen, create chemical reactions that create battery capacity. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Texas at Dallas

Dr. Kyeongjae Cho, professor of materials science and engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has discovered new catalyst materials for lithium-air batteries that jumpstart efforts at expanding battery capacity. Lithium-air (or lithium-oxygen) batteries “breathe” oxygen from the air to power the chemical reactions that release electricity, rather than storing an oxidizer internally like lithium-ion batteries do...

E band transmitters with parabolic antenna. The installed integrated circuits achieve particularly high performance. Credit: © Photo Jörg Eisenbeis, KIT

Transmitting the contents of a conventional DVD in <10s by radio transmission is incredibly fast – and a new world record in wireless data transmission. With a data rate of 6 Gb/s over 37km, a collaborative project ACCESS (Advanced E Band Satellite Link Studies) with researchers from University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF exceeded the state of the art by a factor of 10.

The team achieved the record data transmission on a stretch between Cologne and Wachtberg...