Lifeboat Foundation

Current laser technologies for the extended short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral range rely on expensive and complex materials, limiting their scalability and affordability. To address these challenges, ICFO researchers have presented a novel approach based on colloidal quantum dots in an Advanced Materials article. The team managed to emit coherent light (a necessary condition to create lasers) in the extended SWIR range with large colloidal quantum dots made of lead sulfide (PbS).

This new CQD-based technology offers a solution to the aforementioned challenges while maintaining compatibility with silicon CMOS platforms (the technology used for constructing integrated circuit chips) for on-chip integration.

Their PbS colloidal quantum dots are the first semiconductor lasing material to cover such a broad wavelength range. Remarkably, the researchers accomplished this without altering the dots’ chemical composition. These results pave the way towards the realization of more practical and compact colloidal quantum dots lasers.

A team of Rice University scientists has solved a long-standing problem in thermal imaging, making it possible to capture clear images of objects through hot windows. Imaging applications in a range of fields—such as security, surveillance, industrial research and diagnostics—could benefit from the research findings, which were reported in the journal Communications Engineering.

“Say you want to use thermal imaging to monitor chemical reactions in a high-temperature reactor chamber,” said Gururaj Naik, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice and corresponding author on the study. “The problem you’d be facing is that the thermal radiation emitted by the window itself overwhelms the camera, obscuring the view of objects on the other side.”

A possible solution could involve coating the window in a material that suppresses thermal light emission toward the camera, but this would also render the window opaque. To get around this issue, the researchers developed a coating that relies on an engineered asymmetry to filter out the thermal noise of a hot window, doubling the contrast of thermal imaging compared to conventional methods.

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new approach that combines generative artificial intelligence (AI) and first-principles simulations to predict three-dimensional atomic structures of highly complex materials.

This research highlights LLNL’s efforts in advancing machine learning for materials science research and supporting the Lab’s mission to develop innovative technological solutions for energy and sustainability.

The study, recently published in Machine Learning: Science and Technology, represents a potential leap forward in the application of AI for materials characterization and inverse design.

The shift from an awake state to unconsciousness is a phenomenon that has long captured the interest of scientists and philosophers alike, but how it happens has remained a mystery—until now. Through studies on rats, a team of researchers at Penn State has pinpointed the exact moment of loss of consciousness due to anesthesia, mapping what happens in different brain regions during that moment.

The study has implications for humans as well as for other types of loss of consciousness, such as sleep, the researchers said. They published their results in Advanced Science.

“People in the neuroscience field generally understand what happens to a patient who is going under anesthesia at a molecular level,” said corresponding author Nanyin Zhang, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State.

Yongcui Mi has developed a new technology that enables real-time shaping and control of laser beams for laser welding and directed energy deposition using laser and wire. The innovation is based on the same mirror technology used in advanced telescopes for astronomy.

In a few years, this new technology could lead to more efficient and reliable ways of using high-power lasers for welding and directed energy deposition with laser and wire. The manufacturing industry could benefit from new opportunities to build more robust processes that meet stringent quality standards.

“We are the first to use deformable mirror technology for this application. The mirror optics can handle multi-kilowatt laser power, and with the help of computer vision and AI, the laser beam can be shaped in real time to adapt to variations in joint gaps,” explains Yongcui, a newly minted Ph.D. in Production technology from University West.

The search for quantum gravity has gone on for 100 years, but it is not the only unification challenge in physics. Many of us believe that one day there will be a unification theory—a theory that will reconcile many divergent physical theories.

Our new article published in Physica Scripta brings new hope that such a theory exists. It demonstrates that the use of a certain mathematical object called Alena Tensor reconciles various physical theories, including general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics and continuum mechanics. Will this finally allow scientists to unify descriptions used in physics?

Researchers have developed XLuminA, an AI framework for the automated discovery of super-resolution microscopy techniques. With 10,000x faster optimization than traditional methods, it discovers unexplored designs breaking the diffraction limit.

Researchers have developed a tiny, room-temperature device that creates a special type of structured light called radially polarized photons, which are highly useful for secure communication, advanced imaging, and precision optical tools.

By carefully designing and positioning a quantum dot within a nanoantenna, they achieved high-quality light with more than 93% polarization purity. This breakthrough helps improve the efficiency and practicality of devices that use structured light, paving the way for advancements in communication and optical technology.

A team led by Prof. Ronen Rapaport from the Racah School of Physics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed the new device that produces radially polarized photons at room temperature. This advancement offers new possibilities for both classical and quantum communication technologies.

New analysis supports Einstein’s relativity and narrows neutrino mass ranges, hinting at evolving dark energy.

Gravity, the fundamental force sculpting the universe, has shaped tiny variations in matter from the early cosmos into the vast networks of galaxies we see today. Using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), scientists have traced the evolution of these cosmic structures over the past 11 billion years. This research represents the most precise large-scale test of gravity ever conducted, offering unprecedented insights into the universe’s formation and behavior.

Introduction to DESI and its global impact.