US researchers at little explored area of quantum geometry to improve performance of superconductors at higher temperatures.
Category: materials – Page 6
Engineers at RMIT University have invented a small “neuromorphic” device that detects hand movement, stores memories and processes information like a human brain, without the need for an external computer.
The findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies.
Team leader Professor Sumeet Walia said the innovation marked a step toward enabling instant visual processing in autonomous vehicles, advanced robotics and other next-generation applications for improved human interaction.
A study led by Paolo Padoan, ICREA research professor at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), is challenging the understanding of planetary disk formation around young stars.
The paper, published in Nature Astronomy, reveals that the environment plays a crucial role in determining the size and lifetime of these planetary disks, which are the sites of planet formation.
When a star forms, it is surrounded by a spinning disk of gas and dust. Over time, this material eventually forms the planets. Traditionally, scientists believed that once a disk forms, it simply loses too much over time as it feeds the star and the growing planets.
As demand for energy-intensive computing grows, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new technique that lets scientists see—in unprecedented detail—how interfaces move in promising materials for computing and other applications. The method, now available to users at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL, could help design dramatically more energy-efficient technologies.
The research is published in the journal Small Methods.
Data centers today consume as much energy as small cities, and that usage is skyrocketing. To counter the trend, scientists are studying exotic materials such as ferroelectrics that could store and process information far more efficiently than silicon, which is traditionally used. But realizing the potential depends on understanding the processes occurring at dimensions thousands of times smaller than a human hair —specifically, at the ferroelectric material’s domain walls, which are the boundaries between areas of the material that exhibit different magnetic or electric properties.
The materials that make up all the structures and physical systems around us, including our own bodies, are not perfect—they contain flaws in the form of tiny cracks. When one of these cracks suddenly and rapidly spreads, it can be life-threatening, but the rich, intricate patterns formed by cracks can also be spectacular and intriguing.
Until now, physicists have struggled to provide a theoretical framework explaining why cracks often branch out and deviate from their expected path, slowing down as a result.
Two recent studies from the Weizmann Institute of Science bring order to the disorderly propagation of cracks and show that, although each crack may seem unique, there are quantitative physical parameters that shape the propagation process and explain the formation of asymmetrical crack patterns.
The study identifies a new class of layered antiferromagnets with spin-valley locking, offering efficient spin control without relying on spin–orbit coupling.
Altermagnets are a newly recognized class of materials that show momentum-dependent spin splitting without requiring spin-orbit coupling (SOC) or net magnetization. These materials have recently garnered international attention.
A research team led by Prof. Junwei Liu from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), together with experimental collaborators, published groundbreaking findings in Nature Physics.
Phase-change actuation has been revived for the era of untethered, electrically driven soft robots. Our team at the University of Coimbra have developed a phase transition soft actuator designed to power electric soft robots that require high force and precision. Our innovation leverages the liquid-to-gas phase transition of water to generate mechanical motion in a way that is simple, scalable, and remarkably powerful.
Unlike traditional soft actuators, which often rely on bulky pneumatics, exotic materials, or high voltages, our design exploits a well-known process: boiling. Using a tiny embedded heater, our actuator transforms water into steam, generating internal pressure that drives motion in soft, flexible structures. As a result, our actuator can operate at voltages as low as 24 V, deliver forces exceeding 50 N, and achieve pressurization rates of up to 100 kPa/s.
Our findings are published in Nature Communications.
In our recent study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, our team from the National University of Singapore has developed a rapid and eco-friendly method for synthesizing imide-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) using a water-assisted microwave approach.
This innovative technique significantly reduces the synthesis time and eliminates the need for toxic organic solvents, marking a major advancement in the field of materials science.
X-ray imaging is indispensable in medical diagnostics and material characterization. To generate an image, a detector converts X-rays that pass through the object into electrical signals. Higher detector sensitivity enables lower radiation doses, which is particularly important in medical applications.
Currently used X-ray detectors consist of inorganic compounds of elements with medium to high atomic numbers. In recent years, inorganic perovskite compounds have also been tested as X-ray detectors with very good results.
Superconductors are one major step closer to practical use thanks to new work from Columbia University physicists.