Category Technology/Electronics

(a) Coupling efficiency (ηC) versus source angle (φ) for a planar solar panel. The panel projected area decreases with the cosφ. (b) A kirigami tracking structure that, upon stretching, simultaneously changes the angle of the elements comprising the sheet. By incorporating thin-film solar cells into this structure, it may be used as a low-profile alternative to conventional single-axis solar tracking. (c) The direction of feature tilt (that is, clockwise or counter-clockwise with respect to the original plane) is controlled by lifting or lowering one end of the sheet (step 1) before the straining process (step 2).

Solar cells capture up to 40% more energy when they can track the sun, but conventional, motorized trackers are too heavy and bulky for pitched rooftops and vehicle surfaces...

A team of physicists has taken pictures of a theorized but previously undetected magnetic wave, which offers the potential to be an energy-efficient means to transfer data in electronics. “This is an exciting discovery because it shows that small magnetic waves–known as spin-waves–can add up to a large one in a magnet, a wave that can maintain its shape as it moves,” explains NYU Prof Andrew Kent. “A specialized x-ray method that can focus on particular magnetic elements with very high spatial resolution enabled this discovery and should enable many more insights into this behavior.”

To push the limits of energy efficiency in the future we need to understand better how magnetic devices behave on fast timescales at the nanoscale, which is why we are using this dedicated ultrafast x-ra...

A solitary oxygen dopant (red sphere) covalently attached to the sidewall of the carbon nanotube (gray) can generate single photons (red) at room temperature when excited by laser pulses (green).

In optical communication, critical info eg credit card numbers to national security data needs to be secure. Eavesdropping can be prevented by encoding bits of information on quantum mechanical states (e.g. polarization state) of single photons. The ability to generate single photons on demand holds the key. Now, by incorporating single-walled carbon nanotubes, CNTs into a SiO2 matrix, it could lead to creation of solitary oxygen dopant state capable of fluctuation-free, room-temperature single photon emission, ie on-demand single photon generation.

Photons emitted from lasers are distributed rand...

Nanoporous gold is like a sponge of tiny pores. It could be used to make new devices to detect pathogens. Credit: Erkin ?eker, UC Davis

UC Davis Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering demonstrated that they could detect nucleic acids using nanoporous gold, a novel sensor coating material, in mixtures of other biomolecules that would gum up most detectors. This method enables sensitive detection of DNA in complex biological samples, such as serum from whole blood.

“Nanoporous gold can be imagined as a porous metal sponge with pore sizes that are a 1000X smaller than the diameter of a human hair,” said Assist. Prof Erkin Seker...