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Organic molecule with ultranarrow emission spectrum could lead to better LEDs

Over the past several decades, light sources have gradually transitioned to light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, and inorganic LEDs are now used across a wide range of applications. In parallel, organic LEDs, or OLEDs, have become widely used in display technologies.

OLEDs in particular offer significant advantages in devices such as smartphones, including higher resolution and lower power consumption. All LEDs operate based on spontaneous emission, which is inherently broadband, and OLEDs in particular produce broad emission spectra.

Narrowing this spontaneous emission toward a monochromatic limit would greatly increase its utility, a goal that has long been a central pursuit in photonics. For example, a narrower emission would achieve more highly saturated colors in LED-based displays.

Newly synthesized fullerene material remains metallic even under low temperatures

An international team whose research was coordinated by Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has reported the survival of metallic behavior in the strongly correlated molecular material ytterbium cesium fulleride (Yb₂CsC₆₀). The electrons in the newly synthesized material remained mobile and continued to conduct electricity even at the lowest temperatures studied, despite strong electron interactions that would normally be expected to drive the material into an insulating state.

The findings were published in Nature Communications.

In materials such as metals, electrons move freely, allowing them to conduct electricity. However, as interactions between electrons become stronger, freedom of motion can be suppressed. Under these conditions, materials undergo a phenomenon known as a Mott metal-insulator transition, where they change from a conducting metal into an insulating state in which electrons become effectively immobile.

Diffusion model links foam physics to voting shifts and market behavior

A drop of dye added to a glass of water undergoes ordinary diffusion. However, when placed on the surface of a foam, the dye spreads differently—diffusion becomes anomalous. An example of this is the pattern on the froth of a cup of cappuccino. Interestingly, recent research suggests that diffusion equations in a heterogeneous environment can also describe social phenomena, such as election results or the behavior of stock market traders. The study is published in the Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science.

The movement of particles in complex media—such as porous materials, gels or foams—bears more resemblance to a random journey through an irregular maze than to a leisurely stroll through a homogeneous space. The presence of local “traps” alongside narrow passages or branches causes the transport of matter or energy to be significantly slowed down or accelerated. Such deviations from classical diffusion are referred to as anomalous diffusion. It is also observed in media with a nonuniform structure.

An international team of physicists from Poland, Croatia, Macedonia and Hungary has undertaken a mathematical description of diffusion in such systems; the Polish side was represented by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow.

New cavity control strategy improves performance of blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

GaN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are promising for displays, sensing and optical communication, but improving efficiency remains challenging. Researchers have now shown that “cavity tuning,” which controls resonance wavelength, strongly affects laser performance. By analyzing variations across a VCSEL wafer, the team identified optimal mirror loss conditions and extracted device parameters. Their approach achieved 26.4% wall plug efficiency, offering guidance for next-generation high-efficiency visible-light semiconductor lasers.

Gallium nitride (GaN)-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, or VCSELs, are attracting increasing attention as compact and energy-efficient light sources for future technologies. These semiconductor lasers are considered promising for applications such as next-generation displays, biometric sensing, environmental monitoring and short-range optical communication. However, improving their efficiency has remained a major challenge because laser performance depends strongly on precise optical design and cavity control.

Addressing this challenge, a research team led by Professor Tetsuya Takeuchi, Professor Satoshi Kamiyama and Professor Motoaki Iwaya from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Meijo University, Japan, along with Mr. Naoki Shibahara, first author and graduate student at the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Meijo University, Japan, investigated how “cavity tuning” influences the lasing characteristics of GaN-based VCSELs. While conventional studies mainly focused on gain tuning, also known as detuning, the researchers demonstrated that resonance wavelength alignment relative to the distributed Bragg reflector center wavelength critically affects laser operation.

New art test could help museums spot fake Van Goghs without touching paintings

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties introduces a pioneering, noninvasive technique that can distinguish authentic artworks from forgeries, offering museums, collectors, and auction houses a major advantage in tackling art fraud.

The study, developed at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, introduces a method that analyzes the microscopic “texture” of a painting by converting high-resolution images into 3D-like maps, allowing researchers to measure how rough or detailed the surface is using fractal dimensions. This measurement captures subtle patterns created by an artist’s brushwork—patterns so consistent that they act like a morphological signature unique to that artist.

Using works attributed to Vincent van Gogh, the researchers showed that the method can reliably distinguish between authentic paintings and known forgeries. In tests, the well-documented fake “The Plowmen” was identified as a strong outlier, while the recently authenticated “Sunset at Montmajour” aligned closely with Van Gogh’s known works.

ShinyHunters Exploits Oracle PeopleSoft Zero-Day (CVE-2026–35273) to Breach Universities

The ShinyHunters extortion crew exploited an unpatched flaw in Oracle PeopleSoft to break into enterprise systems, steal data, and demand payment to keep it private. The campaign hit universities hardest.

Google’s Mandiant attributes it to the group it tracks as UNC6240, and dates the activity between May 27 and June 9. Oracle did not publish its advisory until June 10, so the bug was a zero-day the entire time.

The flaw, CVE-2026–35273, is a remote code execution bug in PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools rated 9.8 out of 10. It needs no login and no user interaction, just network access over HTTP, to take over the server. If you run PeopleSoft with the Environment Management Hub reachable from outside, that is your exposure, and the immediate move is to lock those endpoints down.

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