Quantum Emitters: Beyond Crystal Clear to Single-Photon Pure

Nanoscale luminescence quenching occurs when a focused ion beam is irradiated. By selectively quenching the uncorrelated light, one can increase the single-photon purity from the quantum emitter without optical degradation and structural destruction

A research team has developed a technique that can isolate the desired quality emitter by reducing the noise surrounding the target with what they have dubbed a ‘nanoscale focus pinspot.’

Photons – fundamental particles of light – are carrying these words to your eyes via the light from your computer screen or phone. Photons play a key role in the next-generation quantum information technology, such as quantum computing and communications...

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Stellar Collision Trggers Supernova Explosion

Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Astronomers have found dramatic evidence that a black hole or neutron star spiraled its way into the core of a companion star and caused that companion to explode as a supernova. The astronomers were tipped off by data from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), a multi-year project using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).

“Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen such an event,” said Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author on a paper reporting the discovery in the journal Science.

The first clue came when the scientists examined images from VLASS, which began observations in 2017, and found an object brightly emitting radio waves but ...

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New Molecular Device has unprecedented Reconfigurability reminiscent of Brain-Plasticity

Decision trees within a molecular memristor | Nature
Fig. 1: Circuit element structure and I(V) characteristics

Device can be reconfigured multiple times simply by changing applied voltage. In a discovery published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers has described a novel molecular device with exceptional computing prowess.

Reminiscent of the plasticity of connections in the human brain, the device can be reconfigured on the fly for different computational tasks by simply changing applied voltages. Furthermore, like nerve cells can store memories, the same device can also retain information for future retrieval and processing.

“The brain has the remarkable ability to change its wiring around by making and breaking connections between nerve cells...

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The case of the Missing Mantle: How impact debris may have disappeared from the solar system

Debris from planet-forming collisions can range from solid materials to gases. The work from Gabriel & Allen-Sutter (2021) suggests large collisions form predominantly gas, leaving behind little trace in the current solar system. Illustration credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the early solar system, terrestrial planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are thought to have formed from planetesimals, small early planets. These early planets grew over time, through collisions and mergers, to make them the size they are today.

The material released from these violent collisions is commonly thought to have escaped and orbited around the sun, bombarding the growing planets and altering the composition of the asteroid belt...

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