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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All Posts filed under »Materials Science«
Video: New Material for Invisibility Cloaks
The new material’s artificial “atoms” are designed to work with a broad range of light frequencies. With adjustments, the researchers believe it could lead to perfect microscope lenses or invisibility cloaks. One of the exciting possibilities of metamaterials – engineered materials that exhibit properties not found in the natural world – is the potential to […]
Spin waves carry energy from cold to hot
April 23, 2013
Unidirectional spin-wave heat conveyer T. An et al When energy is introduced into a region of matter, it heats up and the local temperature increases. This energy spontaneously diffuses away from the heated region. In general, heat should flow from warmer to cooler regions and it is not possible to externally change the direction of […]
Physicists create SQUID-like Bose–Einstein condensate
January 19, 2013
K. C. Wright, R. B. Blakestad, C. J. Lobb‡, W. D. Phillips, and G. K. Campbell We have observed well-defined phase slips between quantized persistent current states around a toroidal atomic (23Na) Bose-Einstein condensate. These phase slips are induced by a weak link (a localized region of reduced superfluid density) rotated slowly around the ring. […]
The 500 Phases of Matter
December 22, 2012
Forget solid, liquid, and gas: there are in fact more than 500 phases of matter. In a major paper in a recent issue of Science, Perimeter Faculty member Xiao-Gang Wen reveals a modern reclassification of all of them. Condensed matter physics — the branch of physics responsible for discovering and describing most of these phases […]
Graphene: from a conceptual material to a material of the future
November 27, 2012
Costas Galiotis FORTH/ ICE-HT and Dept. Materials Science, University of Patras Graphene is a perfect 2D crystal of covalently bonded carbon atoms and forms the basis of all graphitic structures[1,2]. The material was well known as a concept structure (platform) to mathematicians and modellers for many years and to the material physicists and scientists as […]
Ultracold fermions simulate spin–orbit coupling
September 5, 2012
Two independent groups of physicists are the first to use ultracold fermionic atoms to simulate “spin–orbit coupling” – an interaction that plays an important role in the electronic properties of solid materials. Both experiments were done by firing laser beams at the atoms, which caused their momentum to change by an amount that depends on […]
Physicists see hints of Majorana fermions
August 7, 2012
Evidence for the existence of “Majorana fermions” – theoretically proposed particles that are also their own anti-particles – could be seen in the behaviour of a novel Josephson junction. That is the view of physicists at Stanford University in the US, who have examined the properties of a Josephson junction that incorporates material called a […]
Is this the most boring experiment ever?
May 14, 2012
Scientists watch drops of pitch form – and there have been eight in 75 years Experiment began in 1927 to prove pitch is a liquid In 75 years, just EIGHT drops have fallen The rate is slowing, and last drop fell 12 years ago Current custodian has watched since 60s – but has missed all […]
Move over graphene, silicene is the new star material
April 30, 2012
AFTER only a few years basking in the limelight, wonder material graphene has a competitor in the shape of silicene. For the first time, silicon has been turned into a sheet just one atom thick. Silicene is thought to have similar electronic properties to graphene but ought to be more compatible with silicon-based electronic devices. […]
‘Magnetic Josephson effect’ seen for the first time
April 21, 2012
A fundamental prediction of superconductivity theory has been demonstrated in the lab for the first time. An international team of physicists has observed coherent quantum phase slip, a phenomenon similar to the well-known Josephson effect in which magnetic flux takes the place of electric charge. Its discovery has fundamental implications for our understanding of macroscopic […]
Orbiton: a new quasiparticle
April 19, 2012
Spin–orbital separation in the quasi-one-dimensional Mott insulator Sr2CuO3 J. Schlappa et al When viewed as an elementary particle, the electron has spin and charge. When binding to the atomic nucleus, it also acquires an angular momentum quantum number corresponding to the quantized atomic orbital it occupies. Even if electrons in solids form bands and delocalize […]
Red Wine, Tartaric Acid And The Secret Of Superconductivity
March 22, 2012
Last year, physicists discovered that red wine can turn certain materials into superconductors. Now they’ve found that Beaujolais works best and think they know why Last year, a group of Japanese physicists grabbed headlines around the world by announcing that they could induce superconductivity in a sample of iron telluride by soaking it in red […]
Actuation at a distance
January 18, 2012
…of microelectromechanical systems using photoelectrowetting: proof-of-concept Microelectromechanical devices could soon be remotely controlled using light thanks to a proof-of-concept experiment demonstrating ‘photoelectrowetting’ Moving water is fairly straightforward on the human scale: a pump or a bucket will usually do the trick. But in the last couple of decades, various teams have begun to study ways of […]
Flies walk on air in levitation experiment
January 4, 2012
Scientists have used magnetic fields to ‘levitate’ flies in the first weightless tests conducted outside space The technique, known as ”diamagnetic levitation”, allows water and organic based materials to become weightless. Floating freely inside a plastic tube, the flies were observed closely to spot any changes in their behaviour. The scientists confirmed effects previously seen […]
How Superconductors Can Detect Gravitational Waves
November 15, 2011
Superconducting metal bars could revolutionise the detection of gravitational waves, says physicists Gravitational waves are vibrations in the fabric of spacetime. They are among the most exciting phenomena in the universe because they are generated by exotic processes such as collisions between black holes and even in the moment of creation itself, the Big Bang. […]
Video: Light creates instant origami
November 13, 2011
http://youtu.be/_l9RDqOxIws Too lazy to learn origami? Now you can sit back and let heat do the work, thanks to a new technique developed by Michael Dickey and his team at North Carolina State University that uses a material that can fold up on its own. The researchers used plastic sheets that shrink when placed under a heat […]
Could graphene be the new silicon?
November 13, 2011
It started with a few experiments with Scotch tape and a pencil. Then graphene, stronger than steel, one atom thick and a super-conductor, was born, a wonder material that could be as revolutionary as silicon, say its Nobel prize-winning creators. Now with £50m from the UK government, they’re out to prove it. Somehow it seems […]
Electromagnons
October 31, 2011
Electromagnons open up new opportunities to control electric and magnetic properties. Michel Kenzelmann This week, the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference takes place in Scottsdale, Arizona. This article takes a look back on the discovery of electromagnons, and how it influenced the search for materials with coupled electric and magnetic properties. Physical phenomena living in […]
A new kind of superconductivity
October 24, 2011
Physicists unveil a theory for a new kind of superconductivity In this 100th anniversary year of the discovery of superconductivity, physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology have published a fully self-consistent theory of the new kind of superconducting behavior, Type 1.5, this month in the journal Physical Review […]
Supercapacitor electrodes go for a dip
October 22, 2011
A new and simple “dipping” technique that can significantly improve the performance of supercapacitors has been developed by researchers at Stanford University in the US. The method, dubbed “conductive wrapping”, could be applied to a range of electrode materials. It might even be used to improve next-generation electrodes made from sulphur, lithium manganese phosphate and […]
Graphene: 2010 Nobel Lectures
October 10, 2011
Andre Geim, Random walk to graphene K. S. Novoselov, Graphene: Materials in the Flatland http://rmp.aps.org/
Magnetic joystick
August 29, 2011
Regulating Brownian Fluctuations with Tunable Microscopic Magnetic Traps A. Chen, G. Vieira, T. Henighan, M. Howdyshell, J. A. North, A. J. Hauser, F. Y. Yang, M. G. Poirier, C. Jayaprakash, and R. Sooryakumar Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 087206 (Published August 18, 2011) Magnetic particles can be guided with external fields through small-scale fluidic environments, bringing […]
Candles shine new light on diamonds
August 18, 2011
By Christine Lavelle Candle flames contain millions of tiny diamond particles, a university professor has discovered. Research by Wuzong Zhou, a professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews in Fife, revealed that around 1.5 million diamond nanoparticles are created in a candle flame every second it is burning. Dr Zhou used a new […]
Physicists take inspiration from spilled milk
August 13, 2011
Two Lehigh physicists have developed an imaging technique that makes it possible to directly observe light-emitting excitons as they diffuse in a new material that is being explored for its extraordinary electronic properties. Called rubrene, it is one of a new generation of single-crystal organic semiconductors. Excitons, which are created by light, play a central […]
Researchers Develop Technique for Dynamically Controlling Plasmonic Airy Beams
August 12, 2011
One of the earliest lessons in science that students learn is that a ray or beam of light travels in a straight line. Students also learn that light rays fan out or diffract as they travel. Recently it was discovered that light rays can travel without diffraction in a curved arc in free space. These […]
A Single Molecule of Water Encapsulated in Fullerene C-60
August 7, 2011
Kei Kurotobi, Yasujiro Murata Water normally exists in hydrogen-bonded environments, but a single molecule of H2O without any hydrogen bonds can be completely isolated within the confined subnano space inside fullerene C60. We isolated bulk quantities of such a molecule by first synthesizing an open-cage C60 derivative whose opening can be enlarged in situ at 120°C […]
Spinons take the heat
July 28, 2011
An international group of researchers has measured, for the first time, the phenomenon of spin–charge separation in bulk in a solid. They also found that the material violates the empirical Wiedemann–Franz law that has held true for more than 150 years. The Wiedemann–Franz law says that the ratio of thermal to electrical conductivity for a […]
Space stuff of the future put to the test
July 18, 2011
This may look like a NASA version of the game Connect Four, but in fact it’s a scientific experiment. Photographed during a spacewalk as part of the current Atlantis shuttle mission, the Materials on International Space Station Experiment 8 (MISSE-8) consists of a series of circular test beds containing solar cells, computing devices and new and experimental materials, some […]
Graphene gives up more of its secrets
July 16, 2011
Graphene, a sheet of carbon only a single atom thick, was an object of theoretical speculation long before it was actually made. Theory predicts extraordinary properties for graphene, but testing the predictions against experimental results is often challenging. Now researchers using the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley […]
Nanomagnet memories approach low-power limit
July 9, 2011
Tiny magnetic memory and logic devices that consume very little energy have been developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. With further improvements, the devices could operate close to the “Landauer limit” of minimum energy consumption because they require no moving electrons to work – something that could revolutionize electronics…..
Rotating cylinder puts a new spin on slow light
July 6, 2011
Physicists in the UK and Canada claim to have demonstrated for the first time how a spinning medium can rotate a transmitted image. According to the researchers, the phenomenon could be used to encode images with extra data. It has long been known that a moving medium can shift the position of passing light. The […]
Raman Spectra of Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes
July 1, 2011
Why skin is a better lens than glass
July 1, 2011
IT’S as if Humpty Dumpty was put back together again – stronger than before. Light that passes through an opaque medium, such as an eggshell, can be reassembled in sharper detail and over a wider field of view than if it passed through a transparent lens alone. Such “scattering” lenses could one day be used […]
The Flames of Betelgeuse
June 23, 2011
New image reveals vast nebula around famous supergiant star Using the VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have imaged a complex and bright nebula around the supergiant star Betelgeuse in greater detail than ever before. This structure, which resembles flames emanating from the star, is formed as the behemoth sheds its material […]
The Challenge of Unconventional Superconductivity
June 21, 2011
M. R. Norman During the past few decades, several new classes of superconductors have been discovered. Most of these do not appear to be related to traditional superconductors. As a consequence, it is felt by many that for these materials, superconductivity arises from a different source than the electron-ion interactions that are at the heart […]
Self-Assembling Electronic Nano-Components
June 20, 2011
Magnetic storage media such as hard drives have revolutionized the handling of information: We are used to dealing with huge quantities of magnetically stored data while relying on highly sensitive electronic components. And hope to further increase data capacities through ever smaller components. Together with experts from Grenoble and Strasbourg, researchers of KIT’s Institute of […]
Superconductivity’s third side unmasked
June 17, 2011
The debate over the mechanism that causes superconductivity in a class of materials called the pnictides has been settled by a research team from Japan and China. Superconductivity was discovered in the pnictides only recently, and they belong to the class of so-called ‘high-temperature superconductors’. Despite their name, the temperature at which they function as […]
Physicists Apply Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to Superconducting Circuits
June 12, 2011
In recent years, UC Santa Barbara scientists showed that they could reproduce a basic superconductor using Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Now, using the same theory, they have demonstrated that the Josephson junction could be reproduced. The results are explained in a recent issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. The Josephson junction, a device […]
Physicists Hit on Mathematical Description of Superfluid Dynamics
June 11, 2011
— It has been 100 years since the discovery of superconductivity, a state achieved when mercury was cooled, with the help of liquid helium, to nearly the coldest temperature achievable to form a superfluid that provides no resistance to electrons as they flow through it. During that century, scientists have struggled to find a precise […]
Graphene integrated circuit is a first
June 10, 2011
IBM researchers have made the first graphene circuit in which all of the circuit elements are integrated on a compact single chip. The new circuit is another important step forward for graphene-based electronics and potential applications include wireless communications and amplifiers….. Read more: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46237
New super-dense forms of carbon outshine diamond
June 8, 2011
We can all only dream of owning rocks made of these. Simulations have revealed three stable forms of pure carbon that would sparkle more than diamond if synthesised. Carbon atoms can be combined in different configurations with widely varying properties. Graphite and diamond are the most familiar, while more exotic allotropes include graphene, with versatile electrical […]
May 7, 2013
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