Nano Antennas for Data Transfer
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- Written by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
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For the first time, physicists from the University of Würzburg have successfully converted electrical signals into photons and radiated them in specific directions using a low-footprint optical antenna that is only 800 nanometres in size. Directional antennas convert electrical signals to radio waves and emit them in a particular direction, allowing increased performance and reduced interference. This principle, which is useful in radio wave technology, could also be interesting for miniaturised light sources. After all, almost all Internet-based communication utilises optical light communication. Directional antennas for light could be used to exchange data between different processor cores with little loss and at the speed of light. To enable antennas to operate with the very short wavelengths of visible light, such directional antennas have to be shrunk to nanometre scale.
Highly Promising Solid Electrolytes for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries
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- Written by Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik IWM
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High-performance, long-lasting energy storage devices are crucially important for many future-oriented technologies: e.g. for electromobility, for mobile end devices such as tablets and smartphones as well as for the efficient use of energy from renewable sources. Dr. Daniel Mutter from the Fraunhofer IWM was able to clarify what the chemical composition of solid ceramic electrolytes should be in order to ensure good performance in lithium-ion batteries. The research was published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Such solid electrolytes are more environmentally friendly than traditional liquid electrolytes and could make lithium-ion batteries significantly safer and more efficient.
New Quantum Material with Intrinsically Magnetic and Topological Properties
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- Written by Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung Dresden
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An international consortium of chemists and physicists has discovered a new type of quantum material with intrinsic magnetic and topological properties. Since they manifest without doping or strong external magnetic fields, this material may lead the way to new applications in spintronics, two-dimensional magnetism and quantum transport. Since their discovery in 2009, topological insulators are a hot topic of material physics. The special thing about them is that they simultaneously act as both insulators and electron conductors. While an electrically insulating state prevails inside the crystals, the crystal surfaces are conducting.
How to Induce Magnetism in Graphene
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- Written by Empa - Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt
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Graphene, a two-dimensional structure made of carbon, is a material with excellent mechani-cal, electronic and optical properties. However, it did not seem suitable for magnetic applica-tions. Together with international partners, Empa researchers have now succeeded in synthesiz-ing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that car-bon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronic applica-tions. The results have just been published in the renowned journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Electron Correlations in Carbon Nanostructures
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- Written by Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
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New materials are needed to further reduce the size of electronic components and thus make devices such as laptops and smartphones faster and more efficient. Tiny nanostructures of the novel material graphene are promising in this respect. Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms and, among other things, has a very high electrical conductivity. However, the extreme spatial confinement in such nanostructures influences strongly their electronic properties. A team led by Professor Michael Bonitz of the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics (ITAP) at Kiel University has now succeeded in simulating the detailed behavior of electrons in these special nanostructures using an elaborate computational model. This knowledge is crucial for the potential use of graphene nanostructures in electronic devices.
Novel Sensor Implant Radically Improves Significance of NMR Brain Scans
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- Written by Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik
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A team of neuroscientists and electrical engineers from Germany and Switzerland developed a highly sensitive implant that enables to probe brain physiology with unparalleled spatial and temporal resolution. Now published in Nature Methods, they introduce an ultra-fine needle with an integrated chip that is capable of detecting and transmitting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data from nanoliter volumes of brain oxygen metabolism. The breakthrough design will allow entirely new applications in the life sciences.
Small Particles, Big Effects: How Graphene Nanoparticles Improve the Resolution of Microscopes
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- Written by Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung
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Conventional light microscopes cannot distinguish structures when they are separated by a distance smaller than, roughly, the wavelength of light. Superresolution microscopy, developed since the 1980s, lifts this limitation, using fluorescent moieties. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now discovered that graphene nano-molecules can be used to improve this microscopy technique. These graphene nano-molecules offer a number of substantial advantages over the materials previously used, making superresolution microscopy even more versatile.
Fine-Tuning for Additive Production
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- Written by Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik IWS
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"COAXshield" and "LIsec": Fraunhofer IWS presents shielding gas nozzle and light scanner for laser powder build-up welding at "formnext" trade fair. Additive manufacturing systems can generate highly complex components, which could not be produced with conventional machine tools or only with great effort. Nevertheless, such industrial 3D printers are far from being standard equipment in factories. This is not just due to the purchase costs, but also to many other challenges.
Synapses in 3d: Scientists Develop New Method to Map Brain Structures
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- Written by Leibniz-Institut für Photonische Technologien e. V.
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Our brain consists of countless nerve cells that transmit signals from one cell to the next. The connections between these cells, the synapses, provide a key to understanding how our memory works. An American research team in collaboration with Rainer Heintzmann from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena has now succeeded in identifying these switching points in millimeter-sized tissue with a light microscope on the basis of their structure. The scientists published their results on 31 October 2019 in Nature Methods.
Laser Pulses Create Topological State in Graphene
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- Written by Max-Planck-Institut für Struktur und Dynamik der Materie
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Discovering ways to control the topological aspects of quantum materials is an important research frontier because it can lead to desirable electrical and spin transport properties for future device technologies. Now MPSD scientists have discovered a pioneering laser-driven approach to generate a topological state in graphene. Their work has just been published in Nature Physics.
In topological materials, electrons experience a twisted world. Instead of simply moving straight ahead when feeling a force, they may be pushed sideways. In such a material current actually flows orthogonally to an applied voltage.
High Entropy Alloys for Hot Turbines and Tireless Metal-Forming Presses
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- Written by Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik IWS
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Symposium in Dresden focuses on a new class of materials.
A new class of materials promises many innovations in aviation, turbine construction and other branches of industry: High entropy alloys (HEA) are metals in which five or more elements are atomically bonded in similar proportions. Properly designed, they are harder, more heat-resistant and lighter than steel, aluminum and other classic materials. For about 15 years, engineers around the world have been trying to make these innovative materials ready for series production. But high-entropy alloys are still too expensive and difficult to process.
A Memory Effect at Single-Atom Level
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- Written by Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts
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An international research group has observed new quantum properties on an artificial giant atom and has now published its results in the high-ranking journal Nature Physics. The quantum system under investigation apparently has a memory - a new finding that could be used to build a quantum computer. The research group, consisting of German, Swedish and Indian scientists, has investigated an artificial quantum system and found new properties. The experiments were done at Chalmers University of technology (Sweden) and the theory was done by Dr. Lingzhen Guo at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen. The measured effect has never been observed on a single quantum system.
Secure Communication Between Quantum Computers Implemented: The Quantum Internet Is Within Reach
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- Written by Technische Universität München
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An international team headed by physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time ever, experimentally implemented secure quantum communication in the microwave band in a local quantum network. The new architecture represents a crucial step on the road to distributed quantum computing. As of yet, there are no universal quantum computers in the world. But for the first time, an international team led by TUM physicists Rudolf Gross, Frank Deppe and Kirill Fedorov has successfully implemented secure quantum communication in a local network – via a 35-centimeter superconducting cable.
News About Drug Delivery
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- Written by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
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Nanocontainer for drugs can have their pitfalls: If they are too heavily loaded, they will only dissolve poorly. Why this happens is now reported by a Würzburg research group in "Angewandte Chemie". Nanocapsules and other containers can transport drugs through a patient's body directly to the origin of the disease and release them there in a controlled manner. Such sophisticated systems are occasionally used in cancer therapy. Because they work very specifically, they have fewer side effects than drugs that are distributed throughout the entire organism.
Topological Nanoelectronics
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- Written by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
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Physicists at the University of Würzburg have made a ground-breaking discovery: They have realized a fundamental nanoelectronic device based on the topological insulator HgTe previously discovered in Würzburg. Topological insulators are materials with astonishing properties: Electric current flows only along their surfaces or edges, whereas the interior of the material behaves as an insulator. In 2007, Professor Laurens Molenkamp at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, was the first who experimentally demonstrated the existence of such topological states. His team achieved this seminal work with quantum wells based on mercury and tellurium (HgTe). Since then, these novel materials have been the hope for a fundamentally new generation of components that, for example, promise innovations for information technology.
Deep Inside the Brain: Unraveling the Dense Networks in the Cerebral Cortex
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- Written by Max-Planck-Institut für Hirnforschung
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Mammalian brains, with their unmatched number of nerve cells and density of communication, are the most complex networks known. While methods to analyze neuronal networks sparsely have been available for decades, the dense mapping of neuronal circuits is a major scientific challenge. Researchers from the MPI for Brain Research have now succeeded in the dense connectomic mapping of brain tissue from the cerebral cortex, and quantify the possible imprint of learning in the circuit.