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Category: materials – Page 23

A breakthrough discovery in indium selenide could revolutionize memory storage technology by enabling crystalline-to-glass transitions with minimal energy.

Researchers found that this transformation can occur through mechanical shocks induced by continuous electric current, bypassing the energy-intensive melting and quenching process. This new approach reduces energy consumption by a billion times, potentially enabling more efficient data storage devices.

Revolutionary discovery in memory storage materials.

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Minnesota researchers boost semiconductor transparency and speed for high-power devices.

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota has developed a next-generation transparent and efficient semiconductor material. This breakthrough could have enormous ramifications for improving the efficiency of high-power electronics, especially those that need transparency, like lasers.

The material is entirely manmade, allowing electrons to travel faster while remaining transparent to visible and ultraviolet light.

Continue reading “Transparent semiconductor material could make electronics faster” | >

A small twist allowed scientists to capture a rare quantum phase that has been under the shadows for decades.

“Wigner molecular crystals are important because they may exhibit novel transport and spin properties that could be useful for future quantum technologies such as quantum simulations,” researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) note.

For the first time, LBL researchers have captured direct images of the Wigner molecular crystal using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) —- an imaging technique that produces high-resolution visuals of materials at the atomic scale.

“We are the first to directly observe this new quantum phase, which was quite unexpected. It’s pretty exciting,” said Feng Wang, one of the study authors and a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Continue reading “Scientists capture images of the cold ‘electron ice’ for first time” | >

Until now, only a small fraction of meteorites that land on Earth had been firmly linked back to their parent body out in space – but a set of new studies has just given us compelling origin stories for more than 90 percent of meteorites today.

Past analyses of meteorites striking our planet today suggest some kind of shared origin; they’re made from very similar materials and have been baked by cosmic radiation for a suspiciously short amount of time, hinting at a relatively recent break-up from shared parent bodies.

The teams behind three new published papers used a combination of super-detailed telescope observations and computer modeling simulations to compare asteroids out in space with meteorites recovered on Earth, matching up rock types and orbital paths between the two.

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After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing.

While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk fibers are a messy tangle of spaghetti-like strands.

Now, a research team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has tamed the tangle. They report in the journal Science Advances (“Two-dimensional silk”) that they have achieved a uniform two-dimensional (2D) layer of silk protein fragments, or “fibroins,” on graphene, a carbon-based material useful for its excellent electrical conductivity.

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Fermilab is tackling the extreme conditions generated in neutrino experiments to ensure the success of future research.

“Researchers need to overcome three challenges to make a lasting target: radiation damage, high temperatures and stress from thermal expansion,” remarked the press release.

Nanofibers, incredibly thin threads with exceptional strength and flexibility, are being investigated for their ability to better absorb the shock of the proton beam.

“A nanofiber developed by Fermilab engineer Sujit Bidhar is being researched as a potential target material due to its ability to mitigate thermal shock and be more resistant to radiation damage,” highlighted the press release.

Continue reading “US tests materials for neutrino targets to endure proton bombardment” | >

Can theory and computation methods help the search for the best divertor material and thus contribute to making fusion energy a reality?

Exploring nuclear fusion as a clean energy source reveals a critical need for advanced plasma-facing materials. MARVEL lab researchers identified materials that might withstand fusion’s extreme conditions and proposed alternatives to tungsten, the current choice.

Nuclear fusion and the material challenge.

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Researchers at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), using muon spin rotation at the Swiss Muon Source (SmS), have discovered that a quantum phenomenon called time-reversal symmetry breaking takes place at the surface of the Kagome superconductor RbV₃Sb₅, occurring at temperatures up to 175 K.

This sets a new record for the temperature at which time-reversal symmetry breaking is observed among Kagome systems.

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Researchers have unveiled a new photonic in-memory computing method that promises to advance optical computing significantly.

This technology, using magneto-optical materials, achieves high-speed, low-energy, and durable memory solutions suitable for integration with existing computing technologies.

Photonic In-Memory Computing

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