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Category: nanotechnology

Harnessing nanoscale magnetic spins to overcome the limits of conventional electronics

Researchers at Kyushu University have shown that careful engineering of materials interfaces can unlock new applications for nanoscale magnetic spins, overcoming the limits of conventional electronics. Their findings, published in APL Materials, open up a promising path for tackling a key challenge in the field and ushering in a new era of next-generation information devices.

The study centers around magnetic skyrmions—swirling, nanoscale magnetic structures that behave like particles. Skyrmions possess three key features that make them useful as data carriers in information devices: nanoscale size for high capacity, compatibility with high-speed operations in the GHz range, and the ability to be moved around with very low electrical currents.

A skyrmion-based device could, in theory, surpass modern electronics in applications such as large-scale AI computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and other big data applications.

Nanoparticles That Destroy Disease Proteins Could Unlock New Treatments for Dementia and Cancer

Scientists have developed a new nanoparticle-based strategy that could dramatically expand the range of disease-causing proteins that can be targeted by modern medicine. A newly released perspective in Nature Nanotechnology describes an emerging nanoparticle-based approach designed to remove harm

Engineers invent wireless transceiver that rivals fiber-optic speed

A new transceiver invented by electrical engineers at the University of California, Irvine boosts radio frequencies into 140-gigahertz territory, unlocking data speeds that rival those of physical fiber-optic cables and laying the groundwork for a transition to 6G and FutureG data transmission protocols.

To create the transceiver, researchers in UC Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering devised a unique architecture that blends digital and analog processing. The result is a silicon chip system, comprising both a transmitter and a receiver, that’s capable of processing digital signals significantly faster and with much greater energy efficiency than previously available technologies.

The team from UC Irvine’s Nanoscale Communication Integrated Circuits Labs outline its work in two papers published this month in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. In one, the engineers discuss the technology they call a “bits-to-antenna” transmitter, and in the second, they cover their “antenna-to-bits” receiver.

Magnetic ‘sweet spots’ enable optimal operation of hole spin qubits

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could reliably tackle various computational problems that cannot be solved by classical computers. These systems process information in the form of qubits, units of information that can exist in two states at once (0 and 1).

Hole spins, the intrinsic angular momentum of holes (i.e., missing electrons in semiconductors that can be trapped in nanoscale regions called quantum dots), have been widely used as qubits. These spins can be controlled using electric fields, as they are strongly influenced by a quantum effect known as spin-orbit coupling, which links the motion of particles to their magnetism.

Unfortunately, due to this spin-orbit coupling, hole spin qubits are also known to be highly vulnerable to noise, including random electrical disturbances that can prompt decoherence. This in turn can result in the loss of valuable quantum information.

A new optical centrifuge is helping physicists probe the mysteries of superfluids

Physicists have used a new optical centrifuge to control the rotation of molecules suspended in liquid helium nano-droplets, bringing them a step closer to demystifying the behavior of exotic, frictionless superfluids.

It’s the first demonstration of controlled spinning inside a superfluid—researchers can now directly set the direction and frequency of the molecule’s rotation, which is vital in studying how molecules interact with the quantum environment at various rotational frequencies. The method was outlined this week by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and colleagues at the University of Freiburg in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“Controlling the rotation of a molecule dissolved in any fluid is a challenge,” said Dr. Valery Milner, associate professor with UBC Physics and Astronomy and lead author on the paper.

Metal clumps in a quantum state: Physicists place thousands of sodium atoms in a ‘Schrödinger’s cat state’

Can a small lump of metal be in a quantum state that extends over distant locations? A research team at the University of Vienna answers this question with a resounding yes. In the journal Nature, physicists from the University of Vienna and the University of Duisburg-Essen show that even massive nanoparticles consisting of thousands of sodium atoms follow the rules of quantum mechanics. The experiment is currently one of the best tests of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale.

In quantum mechanics, not only light but also matter can behave both as a particle and as a wave. This has been proven many times for electrons, atoms, and small molecules through double-slit diffraction or interference experiments. However, we do not see this in everyday life: marbles, stones, and dust particles have a well-defined location and a predictable trajectory; they follow the rules of classical physics.

At the University of Vienna, the team led by Markus Arndt and Stefan Gerlich has now demonstrated for the first time that the wave nature of matter is also preserved in massive metallic nanoparticles. The scale of the particles is impressive: the clusters have a diameter of around 8 nanometers, which is comparable to the size of modern transistor structures.

Peripheral neuropathy protection by mitochondrial transfer from glia to neurons

For millions living with nerve pain, even a light touch can feel unbearable. Scientists have long suspected that damaged nerve cells falter because their energy factories known as mitochondria don’t function properly.

Now research published in Nature suggests a way forward: supplying healthy mitochondria to struggling nerve cells.

Using human tissue and mouse models, researchers found that replenishing mitochondria significantly reduced pain tied to diabetic neuropathy and chemotherapy-induced nerve damage. In some cases, the relief lasted up to 48 hours.

Instead of masking symptoms, the approach could fix what the team sees as the root problem — restoring the energy flow that keeps nerve cells healthy and resilient.

“By giving damaged nerves fresh mitochondria — or helping them make more of their own — we can reduce inflammation and support healing,” said the study’s senior author. “This approach has the potential to ease pain in a completely new way.

The work highlights a previously undocumented role for satellite glial cells, which appear to deliver mitochondria to sensory neurons through tiny channels called tunnelling nanotubes.

When this mitochondrial handoff is disrupted, nerve fibers begin to degenerate — triggering pain, tingling and numbness, often in the hands and feet, the distal ends of the nerve fibers.

Continue reading “Peripheral neuropathy protection by mitochondrial transfer from glia to neurons” | >

Vibrational spectroscopy technique enables nanoscale mapping of molecular orientation at surfaces

Sum-frequency generation (SFG) is a powerful vibrational spectroscopy that can selectively probe molecular structures at surfaces and interfaces, but its spatial resolution has been limited to the micrometer scale by the diffraction limit of light.

In a study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, investigators overcame this limitation by utilizing a highly confined near field within a plasmonic nanogap and successfully extended the SFG spectroscopy into a nanoscopic regime with ~10-nm spatial resolution.

The team also established a comprehensive theoretical framework that accurately describes the microscopic mechanisms of this near-field SFG process. These experimental and theoretical achievements collectively represent a groundbreaking advancement in near-field second-order nonlinear nanospectroscopy, enabling direct access to correlated chemical and topographic information of interfacial molecular systems at the nanoscale.

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