Home 3

A printable ink with an unsurpassed conductivity and transparency tradeoff has been developed by a KAUST team for use in...

bandage-like test for malaria features an array of microneedles that collect interstitial fluid from skin and delivers results on a test strip within minutes. (Image: Jeff Fitlow)

Biological Science & Technology

Malaria test as simple as putting on a bandage

1

Testing for malaria could become as simple as putting on a bandage. That’s the idea behind a platform developed by...

Using an elaborate process, the research team has joined two polymers at the nanoscale in a flowing process: The transition from PV3D3 to Teflon (PTFE) in the scanning electron microscope image of the gradient layer is marked here as the transition from red to blue. Courtesy: Kiel University.

Material Science & Technology

Nano coatings with many functions

Using an elaborate process, the research team has joined two polymers at the nanoscale in a flowing process: The transition...

Physical Science & Technology

Researchers probe how nanoparticles affect neighbors in catalysis

Are you affected by your neighbors? So are nanoparticles in catalysts. New research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, published...

Innovations & Education

3-D print experts discover how to make tomorrow’s technology using ink-jet printed graphene

he University of Nottingham has cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3-D-print novel electronic devices with useful...

Chemical Science & Technology

2-D nanomaterial hexagonal boron nitride

A thin 2-D nanomaterial of hexagonal boron nitride is a key component of a cost-effective technology developed by Rice University...

Promoising platform for generating quantum light nano digest

Material Science & Technology

A Promising platform for generating quantum light

A new study published in Nature Materials, an international multidisciplinary collaboration led by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), discovered...

Average ZT (a) and the conversion efficiency (b) in the temperature range from 300K to 512K for the PbSe/BST composite specimen with x=0.2 vol.%. Courtesy: Ming Hongwei.

Physical Science & Technology

High thermoelectric performance achieved in P-type alloys

Average ZT (a) and the conversion efficiency (b) in the temperature range from 300K to 512K for the PbSe/BST composite...

Figure 1. Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscope images of copper nanoparticles and of the synthesized diamond-like carbon fiber film, and a High-Resolution transmission electron microscope image of a single nanofiber. Courtesy: Professor Rodney S. Ruoff (IBS CMCM, UNIST).

Material Science & Technology

Synthesis of diamond-like carbon nanofiber film

Figure 1. Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscope images of copper nanoparticles and of the synthesized diamond-like carbon fiber film, and a...

A team of physicists from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom has found a new way to observe magnon-polarons by using a nanopatterned magnetic structure lit with short laser pulses. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review B, the group describes extending prior research involving magnon-polarons to develop a better method for observing magnon polarons. Magnons are quantized spin waves that carry information, but because they are difficult to manipulate, there have been no practical applications. Polarons are quasiparticles that have been used by researchers to study interactions between atoms and electrons in solid materials. Both magnons and polarons are the subject of research efforts aimed at packing more information into smaller spaces (for computers, smartphones, etc.) Some of that research has involved using phonons (lattice deformations) to excite magnons. In such work, energy is transferred in just one direction. In more recent work, researchers have produced mutual interactions that result in the formation of magnon-polarons, hybrid quasiparticles that are no longer either phonons or magnons. Devices capable of working with magnon-polarons remained elusive until last year, when a team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used a nanomagnet to observe a magnon-polaron. This is believed to be a necessary step for creating a device that could make use of them. In this new effort, the researchers have built on that effort by developing a more sophisticated apparatus that allowed them to view a magnon-polaron for a longer period of time and in more detail. The new apparatus was made by first carving grooves into a thin film made of Galfenol. The grooves on the surface of the film served as a means for impacting the spatial distribution of phonons and magnons. The team then used a pump probe to observe magnons and phonons as they interacted during formation of magnon-polarons. A secondary pulse probe was then applied as a means of measuring reflectivity. The final step was applying a magnetic field to tune the frequency of the mode of the magnon. In addition to allowing the researchers an opportunity to watch as magnon-polarons formed, the apparatus allowed them to tune the hybrids as they were formed to create a stronger hybridization between them.

Physical Science & Technology

Observing magnon-polarons using a nanopatterned magnetic structure lit by short laser pulses