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Category: computing – Page 15

Magnetic octupole model captures domain-wall motion in noncollinear antiferromagnets

Researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed the first magnetic multipole-based micromagnetic model for antiferromagnets. Published in Applied Physics Reviews, their generalized framework provides a theoretical and computational foundation for designing future spintronic devices made with antiferromagnetic materials.

Unlike traditional electronics, which rely on an electron’s charge, spin electronics harnesses an electron’s magnetic orientation (spin). In recent years, materials science researchers have identified antiferromagnets as a promising material for future spintronic devices because of their ultrafast spin dynamics and stability under external magnetic fields.

But before these materials can be implemented in practical devices, researchers need robust models that decipher their complex, nonuniform movements. Although micromagnetic simulations have been widely used to study spin dynamics in ferromagnets, a comparable framework had yet to be fully established for antiferromagnets, whose spin structure is more difficult to control. However, some types of antiferromagnets—such as noncollinear antiferromagnets—have a unique rotating structure that is more easily manipulated.

Steering light in a flash: New chip redirects light beams in less than a trillionth of a second

Light can carry enormous amounts of information at extreme speeds, making photonic technologies promising for the development of faster communications, more powerful computing systems and more sensitive sensors. But for light to be useful for these purposes, engineers need to be able to control where it goes and redirect it quickly. A new device built by Caltech researchers uses a beam of light to steer another to a different angle in just 74 femtoseconds (74 quadrillionths of a second). That’s about the time it takes light to travel the width of a human hair.

“Steering light with light is very challenging because light typically interacts very weakly with matter. Using optical metasurfaces (ultrathin carefully nanoengineered sheets), we can up the interaction strength to make this possible with much higher efficiency,” says Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech.

The team describes the work in a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The paper’s lead author, Claudio Hail, completed the work as a postdoctoral scholar in Atwater’s lab at Caltech and is now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley.

University of Chicago Confirmed Quantum Reach Its Transistor Moment?—Classical Computing Is Now 1947

Researchers at University of Chicago continue to make significant contributions to quantum science, helping advance quantum computing, quantum networking, and quantum materials. Headlines claiming that quantum computing has reached its \.

Optical writing of antiferromagnets points toward new storage devices and energy efficient information systems

A German-Japanese research team involving the University of Augsburg has made a significant breakthrough in the use of antiferromagnets. For the first time, the team has succeeded in writing magnetic information using only ultrashort laser pulses—without the need for electric currents or magnetic fields.

Antiferromagnetic materials are considered promising for the next generation of data storage devices because they react particularly quickly and are insensitive to external disturbances. Until now, however, their application has been limited because their magnetic states are difficult to control precisely.

The research team led by experimental physicist Prof. Dr. István Kézsmárki has now developed a new method in which it is not the polarization of the light, but its direction of propagation (“pulse”), that is used for control. Through targeted irradiation, it is possible to switch between different magnetic states and write information. Furthermore, this information can also be read out using purely optical means. The paper is published in the journal Nature Materials.

Quantum computing: Laser-optical system offers full control over 2,000 trapped Rydberg atoms

Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen has developed a highly complex laser-optical system for a quantum computer currently under construction at the 5th Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart. This system enables 2,000 Rydberg atoms to be positioned with submicrometer precision in the computer’s highly compact vacuum chamber. To do this, the system projects an array of 2,000 individually controllable laser beams into the chamber. These beams act as optical tweezers and hold the trapped Rydberg atoms precisely at the distance required for them to interact with each other. The computer’s quantum logic processes are based on these interactions.

The task was formidable: to develop a system capable of controlling 2,000 trapped strontium atoms using optical tweezers and positioning them with an accuracy of less than 100 nanometers (nm) within the vacuum chamber of a Rydberg quantum computer. The vacuum chamber is the computer’s processing unit, where two adjacent atoms are brought into a state through laser excitation in which they interact with one another. These interactions can be controlled and measured. Scientists refer to them as two-qubit logic gates; they are the building blocks of quantum logic in a Rydberg quantum computer.

Rydberg atoms are particularly well suited for quantum computing. In their laser-excited state, they are more than one micrometer (µm) in size because, as a result of the excitation, their outermost electron briefly moves to an orbital far from the atomic nucleus, where it nevertheless remains bound. However, due to the weak binding of the outer electron, the atoms are highly sensitive to electric fields, which can also originate from neighboring atoms. Scientists are leveraging this property for the highly precise electromagnetic control of quantum operations.

Controlling magnetic chirality could help memory pack in more data

Magnetic storage devices, like a computer’s hard disk drive, utilize magnets to represent binary data. However, as these devices are downsized, stray magnetic fields generated by individual magnetic components can interact with neighboring elements to cause operational malfunctions, limiting how much data we can densely pack into memory devices.

A joint research team led by Hidetoshi Masuda and Yoshinori Onose from Tohoku University’s Institute for Materials Research—in collaboration with CROSS, J-PARC, Keio University, and Kyoto University—has successfully demonstrated precise, deterministic control over the spiral-handedness (magnetic chirality) in a metallic helimagnet, a material that inherently avoids malfunction-causing crosstalk. Details of their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 16, 2026.

A helimagnet features microscopic atomic magnets arranged in a twisted, spiral pattern. Utilizing its chirality (right-or left-handed mirror images) to represent binary data (“0” and “1”) could enable ultra-high-density storage. While some experiments suggested that this chirality could be controlled by simultaneously applying an electric current and a magnetic field, previous confirmations relied on indirect, macroscopic electrical measurements highly susceptible to experimental artifacts.

Antibiotics reverse damage caused to blood stem cells by chronic Salmonella

2 Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA.

3Department of Computational Biology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

4Department of Neurological Surgery, Malnati Brain Tumor Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

What could humans build in 2000 years

What does humanity look like two thousand years into the future?
In this cinematic 4K documentary, we embark on an extraordinary voyage to the year 4001. For over five centuries, star ships have departed from the third arm of the Milky Way galaxy, gradually piecing together a complete map of our cosmic neighborhood. From harvesting the energy of entire stars to exploring the unseen boundaries of higher dimensions, this is the blueprint of a civilization that has outgrown its cradle.

▶A Film by: Scienshell Studio.

What began as a fragile step into orbit has evolved into a grand interstellar federation. Guided by advanced computing minds and fueled by cosmic mega-structures, human intelligence now spreads across distant territories light-years away, flourishing under the light of alien suns.

In this video, you’ll discover:
00:00 Introduction.
02:26 The Grand Era of Space Exploration.
04:02 Dyson Power Station No. 22
06:18 The Mind: The Galactic Brain and Reversible Computing.
09:38 Gravitational Dams and Artificial Black Holes.
12:04 Antimatter Batteries and Space Travel.
13:13 The Oasis Rings and the Dinosaur Renaissance.
15:56 Project Asgard: Unlocking the extra Dimensions of Space.

▶ About This Video.
Two millennia after our first steps into space, humanity has transformed from planetary inhabitants into cosmic architects. Through cinematic 3D visuals and detailed scientific narration, this film explores the reality of a Type II civilization: Dyson spheres draining entire stars for energy, gravitational dams capturing the mass of artificial black holes, and orbital evolutionary rings designed to replicate ancient Earth and trigger a prehistoric renaissance. Finally, we look at Project Asgard, an experiment tracking graviton escape to map the hidden nine dimensions of space.

This documentary is perfect for anyone fascinated by speculative future technology, Dyson spheres, advanced civilizations, black hole energy extraction, and the ultimate destiny of human exploration.

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