[Images above] Credit: NIST
NANOMATERIALS
Stretching metals at the atomic level
A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team developed a first-of-its-kind, breakthrough method that makes it easier to create high-quality metal oxide thin films out of “stubborn” metals that have historically been difficult to synthesize in an atomically precise manner.
Simulation provides images from the carbon nucleus
Researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich, Michigan State University, and the University of Bonn simulated all known energy states of the carbon atom’s nucleus. They showed that the nuclear particles do not exist independently of each other. Instead, they are clustered into groups of two neutrons and two protons each.
ENERGY
Calcium rechargeable battery with long cycle life
Tohoku University researchers tested the long-term operation of a calcium metal battery with a copper sulfide nanoparticle/carbon composite cathode and a hydride-based electrolyte. The prototype battery maintained 92% capacity retention over 500 cycles based on the capacity of the tenth cycle.
Breakthrough in computer chip energy efficiency could cut data center electricity use
Researchers at Oregon State University and Baylor University made a breakthrough toward reducing the energy consumption of the photonic chips used in data centers and supercomputers. They showed temperature can be controlled via gate voltage, which means using virtually no electric current.
MANUFACTURING
Fastest industry standard optical fiber
Researchers from Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, and Italy set a new speed record for an industry standard optical fiber, achieving 1.7 petabits over a 67 km length of fiber. The fiber, which contains 19 cores that can each carry a signal, meets the global standards for fiber size, ensuring that it can be adopted without massive infrastructure change.
Absolute vs. relative efficiency: How efficient are blue LEDs, actually?
The absolute internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of indium gallium nitride-based blue light-emitting diodes at low temperatures is often assumed to be 100%. But a new study found that the assumption of always perfect IQE is incorrect: the IQE can be as low as 27.5%.
OTHER STORIES
Researchers use AI to identify similar materials in images
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Adobe Research developed a technique that can identify all pixels in an image representing a given material, which is shown in a pixel selected by the user. The method is accurate even when objects have varying shapes and sizes, and it isn’t tricked by shadows or lighting conditions.
Forging a dream material with semiconductor quantum dots
Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators succeeded in creating a superlattice of semiconductor quantum dots that can behave like a metal. The key was to get individual quantum dots in the lattice to attach to one another directly, without ligands, with their facets oriented in a precise way.