Category Technology/Electronics

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...

A scanning electron microscope image shows the rigid pillar-like bristles of the FLUENCE rake, which is used to apply light-harvesting polymers to a solar cell. The distance between the pillars is 1 micrometer, about one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair. Credit: Z. Bao et al, Nature Communications

When commercialized, this advance could help make polymer solar cells an economically attractive alternative to those made with much more expensive silicon-crystal wafers. In experiments, solar cells made with the tiny rake double the efficiency of cells made without it and are 18% better than cells made using a microscopic straightedge blade.

Polymer-based photovoltaic cells are much cheaper than silicon because they’re made of inexpensive materials that can be simply painted or printed in...