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    New design results in compact, highly efficient Frequency Comb

    March 7, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    High efficiency quantum cascade laser frequency comb (a) Beatnote spectra at different currents at 293 K. (b) Beatnote linewidth and frequency as functions of currents. Beatnote spectra at currents of (c) 800 mA and (d) 938 mA at 293 K.

    (a) Beatnote spectra at different currents at 293 K. (b) Beatnote linewidth and frequency as functions of currents. Beatnote spectra at currents of (c) 800 mA and (d) 938 mA at 293 K.

    Device could be used to Detect Dangerous Chemical Agents. researchers in Northwestern’s Center for Quantum Devices theoretically designed and experimentally synthesized a new, strain-engineered emitter material. Made with the new material, the compact QCL frequency comb is one order of magnitude more efficient and emits more than 4X output power than all previous demonstrations.

    Razeghi’s QCL frequency comb operates in the infrared spectral region, which is useful for detecting many different kinds of chemicals, including industrial emissions, explosives, and chemical warfare agents...

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    New Materials could turn Water into the Fuel of the Future

    March 7, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    New materials are created through deposition onto disks, which are then tested to determine their properties. Credit: Caltech

    New materials are created through deposition onto disks, which are then tested to determine their properties. Credit: Caltech

    A new materials discovery approach puts solar fuels on the fast track to commercial viability. Combining computational with experimental approaches, researchers identify 12 new materials with use in solar fuels generators. Researchers at Caltech and Berkeley Lab have – in just 2 years – nearly doubled the number of materials known to have potential for use in solar fuels.

    Researchers are exploring a range of target fuels, from hydrogen gas to liquid hydrocarbons, and producing any of these fuels involves splitting water...

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    Flashy 1st images arrive from NOAA’s GOES-16 Lightning Mapper

    March 7, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    This is one hour of GOES-16's Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) lightning data from Feb. 14.

    This is one hour of GOES-16’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) lightning data from Feb. 14, when GLM acquired 1.8 million images of the Earth. It is displayed over GOES-16 ABI full disk Band 2 imagery. Brighter colors indicate more lightning energy was recorded; color bar units are the calculated kilowatt-hours of total optical emissions from lightning. The brightest storm system is located over the Gulf Coast of Texas, the same storm system in the accompanying video. This is preliminary, non-operational data. Credits: NOAA/NASA

    Detecting and predicting lightning just got a lot easier...

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    Paleolake Deposits on Mars might look like Sediments in Indonesia

    March 7, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    Lake Towuti, Indonesia. (A) Regional context for Lake Towuti on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Red box indicates approximate location of part B. Background is the Ocean base map from ESRI et al. (2015). (B) Generalized geologic map of Lake Towuti and the surrounding area showing the dominance of ultramafic material. Map is modified from Costa et al. (2015). (C) Bathymetry of Lake Towuti showing the location of the two analyzed sediment cores at the distal margins of the Mahalona River delta (white dots labeled 4 for TOW4 and 5 for TOW5). River inputs are shown in thin blue lines, with the Mahalona River shown as a thick blue line. Credit: Goudge et al. and GSA Bulletin

    Lake Towuti, Indonesia. (A) Regional context for Lake Towuti on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Red box indicates approximate location of part B. Background is the Ocean base map from ESRI et al. (2015). (B) Generalized geologic map of Lake Towuti and the surrounding area showing the dominance of ultramafic material. Map is modified from Costa et al. (2015). (C) Bathymetry of Lake Towuti showing the location of the two analyzed sediment cores at the distal margins of the Mahalona River delta (white dots labeled 4 for TOW4 and 5 for TOW5). River inputs are shown in thin blue lines, with the Mahalona River shown as a thick blue line. Credit: Goudge et al. and GSA Bulletin

    Timothy A...

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