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Category: nanotechnology – Page 6
The 21st century faces an unprecedented energy challenge that demands innovative solutions. This video explores Zero Point Energy (ZPE), a groundbreaking concept rooted in quantum mechanics that promises limitless, clean, and sustainable power. Learn how the quantum vacuum—long considered empty—is teeming with virtual particles and untapped energy potential. From understanding the Casimir effect to leveraging advanced technologies like fractal energy collectors and quantum batteries, this video details how ZPE could revolutionize industries, mitigate climate change, and empower underserved communities. Dive into the science, challenges, and global implications of a ZPE-powered future.
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With so much fascinating research going on in quantum science and technology, it’s hard to pick just a handful of highlights. Fun, but hard. Research on entanglement-based imaging and quantum error correction both appear in Physics World’s list of 2024’s top 10 breakthroughs, but beyond that, here are a few other achievements worth remembering as we head into 2025 – the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
Quantum sensing
In July, physicists at Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich and Korea’s IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS) reported that they had fabricated a quantum sensor that can detect the electric and magnetic fields of individual atoms. The sensor consists of a molecule containing an unpaired electron (a molecular spin) that the physicists attached to the tip of a scanning-tunnelling microscope. They then used it to measure the magnetic and electric dipole fields emanating from a single iron atom and a silver dimer on a gold substrate.
Researchers have successfully stabilized ferrocene molecules on a flat substrate for the first time, enabling the creation of an electronically controllable sliding molecular machine.
Artificial molecular machines, composed of only a few molecules, hold transformative potential across diverse fields, including catalysis, molecular electronics, medicine, and quantum materials. These nanoscale devices function by converting external stimuli, such as electrical signals, into controlled mechanical motion at the molecular level.
Ferrocene—a unique drum-shaped molecule featuring an iron (Fe) atom sandwiched between two five-membered carbon rings—is a standout candidate for molecular machinery. Its discovery, which earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1973, has positioned it as a foundational molecule in this area of study.
The study authors successfully developed quantum-grade bright fluorescent nanodiamonds. Now in order to use them for quantum sensing or bioimaging, one is required to study their spin states using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).
ODMR is a method that combines light and microwaves to examine magnetic fields. Scientists first shine a light on materials like nanodiamonds and then apply microwaves, to see how the material reacts. By studying this interaction, they can detect tiny magnetic signals and understand the material’s magnetic properties such as spin.
To test the capabilities of their nanodiamonds, they introduced them into HeLa cells (human cells widely used by scientists for lab research experiments) and then employed ODMR to examine the spin. The NDs successfully detected slight temperature changes, which are nearly impossible to detect with existing technologies.
Heat management at the nanoscale has long been a cornerstone of advanced technological applications, ranging from high-performance electronics to quantum computing. Addressing this critical challenge, we have been deeply intrigued by the emerging field of thermotronics, which focuses on manipulating heat flux in ways analogous to how electronics control electric energy. Among its most promising advancements are quantum thermal diodes, which enable directional heat control, and quantum thermal transistors, which regulate heat flow with precision.
Thermal diodes, much like their electrical counterparts, provide unidirectional heat transfer, allowing heat to flow in one direction while blocking it in the reverse. We find this capability revolutionary for heat management, as it has the potential to transform numerous fields.
For instance, thermal diodes can significantly improve the cooling of high-performance electronics, where heat dissipation is a major bottleneck. They could also enable more efficient energy harvesting by converting waste heat into usable energy, contributing to sustainability efforts.
Scientists unveil a cutting-edge nanoparticle platform that supercharges vaccines for stronger, longer-lasting immunity tailored to every age group.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a method to generate bright, twisted light using technology similar to an Edison light bulb. This breakthrough overcomes the challenges of producing twisted light with sufficient brightness using traditional methods like electron or photon luminescence.
Middlemen get a bad rap for adding cost and complications to an operation. So, eliminating the go-betweens can reduce expense and simplify a process, increasing efficiency and consumer happiness.
James Dahlman and his research team have been thinking along those same lines for stem cell treatments. They’ve created a technique that eliminates noisome middlemen and could lead to new, less-invasive treatments for blood disorders and genetic diseases. It sidesteps the discomfort and risks of current treatments, making life easier for patients.
“This would be an alternative to invasive hematopoietic stem cell therapies—we could just give you an IV drip,” said Dahlman, McCamish Early Career Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “It simplifies the process and reduces the risks to patients. That’s why this work is important.”
A research group led by Prof. Yao Baoli and Dr. Xu Xiaohao from Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have revealed a full-gray optical trap in structured light, which is able to capture nanoparticles but appears at the region where the intensity is neither maximized nor minimized. The study is published in Physical Review A.
The optical trap is one of the greatest findings in optics and photonics. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, the optical trap has been employed in a broad range of applications in life sciences, physics, and engineering. Akin to its thermal and acoustic counterparts, this trap is typically either bright or dark, located at the field intensity maxima or minima.
In this study, researchers developed a high-order multipole model for gradient forces based on multipole expansion theory. Through immersing the Si particles in the structured light with a petal-shaped field, they found that the high-order multipole gradient forces can trap Si particles at the optical intensity, which is neither maximized nor minimized.