Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers are testing an array of new combinations that may vastly expand the options available to create faster, smaller, more efficient energy storage, advanced electronics and wear-resistant materials.

They created 2 entirely new, layered 2D materials using molybdenum, titanium and carbon. “By ‘sandwiching’ one or two atomic layers of a transition metal like titanium, between monoatomic layers of another metal, such as molybdenum, with carbon atoms holding them together, we discovered that a stable material can be produced,” Anasori said. “It was impossible to produce a 2D material having just 3 or 4 molybdenum layers in such structures, but because we added the extra layer of titanium as a connector, we were able to synthesize them.”

It represents a new way of combining element...

20 km Space Tower

This is the present-day realm of creative thinking over space elevators, in the use of a giant tower to carry us to space. Scientists working on space elevators are thinking about materials and designs that can be used to access space as an alternative to rocket technology. A sign of the times is the upcoming Space Elevator Conference 2015 which takes place this month in Seattle.

Imagine, said The Spaceward Foundation, the space elevator, serving as a track on which electric vehicles called “climbers” can travel up and down carrying about 10 tons of payload. “There are no intense gravity-loads during the trip, no acoustic vibration, no onboard fuel, nor any of the rest of the drama (and cost) associated with rocket launches,” it added.

Canadian company, Thoth Technology ...

The research revealed an abrupt magnetic transition brought about by the slightest change in thickness of the layer. Materials with exceptional electronic and magnetic properties are of great importance for many apps. A particularly versatile class of materials are the ‘perovskite oxides’.

Twente University researchers have discovered a special effect relating to the magnetism of one of such perovskite-oxides; lanthanum-manganese-oxide. This material consists of stackings of LaMnO3 unit cells, quite comparable to stacking of LEGO but the building blocks are only 0.4nm in size.

The new discovery is that the magnetism in these layers is switched on abruptly when the number of LaMnO3 building blocks changes from 5 to 6...

This is the silicon based quantum optics lab-on-a-chip. Credit: University of Bristol

The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionized people’s life, allowing them to use one machine to surf the web, check emails and keep track of finances. Now, researchers have pulled off the same feat for light in the quantum world by developing an optical chip that can process photons in an infinite number of ways.

It’s a major step forward in creating a quantum computer to solve problems such as designing new drugs, superfast database searches, and performing otherwise intractable mathematics that aren’t possible for super computers...