Category Technology/Electronics

All-optical data memory: ultra-short light pulses make the GST material change from crystalline to amorphous and back. Weak light pulses read out the data. Credit: C. Rios/Oxford University

Researchers develop the first non-volatile all-optical chip memory based on phase change materials. This is an important step on the way towards optical computers. Phase change materials that change their optical properties depending on the arrangement of the atoms allow for the storage of several bits in a single cell.

Light determines the future of information and communication technology: With optical elements, computers can work more rapidly and more efficiently. Optical fibers have long since been used for the transmission of data with light...

Fabrication process of the Au-doped MnO2 electrodes. b,c) STEM images of the Au-doped MnO2. The inset of (c) indicates the intensity difference between Au-occupied columns and undoped MnO atomic columns.

A simple approach to synthesize novel environmentally friendly manganese dioxide ink by using glucose has been developed by a group of scientists. The MnO2 ink could be used for the production of light, thin, flexible and high performance energy storage devices via ordinary printing or even home-used printers. The capacity of the MnO2 ink supercapacitor is more than 30X higher than that of a commercial capacitor of the same weight of active material (e.g...

An Impeller-based active mixer. Each fluid enters the mixing chamber through a separate inlet and is mixed in a narrow gap by an impeller rotating at a constant rate. Credit: Thomas Ober, Harvard SEAS/Wyss Institute

>>Researchers have designed new multimaterial printheads that mix and print concentrated viscoelastic inks that allow for the simultaneous control of composition and geometry during printing. Using active mixing and fast-switching nozzles, these novel printheads change material composition on the fly and could pave the way for entirely 3D printed wearable devices, soft robots, and electronics.

To print a flexible device, including the electronics, a 3D printer must be able to seamlessly transition from a flexible material that moves with your joints for wearable applications, t...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have “teleported” or transferred quantum information carried in light particles over 100 kilometers of optical fiber, 4X farther than the previous record. The experiment confirmed that quantum communication is feasible over long distances in fiber. Other research groups have teleported quantum information over longer distances in free space, but the ability to do so over conventional fiber-optic lines offers more flexibility for network design.

Teleportation is useful in both quantum communications and quantum computing, which offer prospects for novel capabilities such as unbreakable encryption and advanced code-breaking, respectively.
The new record, described in Optica, involved the transfer of quantum inform...