[Image above] Credit: ACerS
NANOMATERIALS
Researchers electrically power nanophotonic lasers without disturbing light
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory introduced an architecture that decouples electrical injection from optical confinement. This architecture overcomes a longstanding challenge in nanophotonics in which the electrical connections disrupt the light-confining nanostructures that make the device useful.
Researchers uncover why gold resists tarnish
Tulane University researchers discovered that atoms on gold surfaces reorganize themselves into patterns that block oxygen from reacting with the metal, suppressing oxidation by up to a trillion-fold. The research could have important implications for catalysis.
ENERGY
First-known computations of fusion materials achieved on a quantum computer
A team of scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM calculated nine molecular configurations of a promising material to produce fuel for fusion energy—the first-known instance of such computations on quantum computers. These computations are a fundamental step toward optimizing the production and extraction of tritium.
BIOMATERIALS
Tiny silica particles wiped out aggressive prostate cancer in mice
Researchers led by Weill Cornell Medicine and the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering developed silica nanoparticles that can directly destroy prostate tumors while also awakening the body’s immune system to fight cancer.
MANUFACTURING
First bulk ferromagnetic icosahedral quasicrystals synthesized without rapid quenching
Tokyo University of Science researchers successfully developed bulk, annealable ferromagnetic icosahedral quasicrystals without rapid quenching. To identify favorable compositions, the researchers employed a machine-learning-based phase classifier.
Experimental investigation on cohesion–friction mechanical properties for early-age concrete
Researchers applied a two-stage triaxial loading method to separate the contributions of cohesion and friction mechanical properties to the failure behavior of early-age concrete. The results show that, under the same confining pressure, differences in macroscopic shear strength are mainly controlled by cohesive strength while frictional strength remains largely consistent.
OTHER STORIES
High-temperature activation energies determine decoupling in glass-forming liquids
An international research team led by Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Wesleyan University conducted extensive molecular dynamics simulations on more than a dozen different glass-forming systems. In all systems, they observed a universal power-law relationship between the structural relaxation time and the peak time of the non-Gaussian parameter.
Metallic rutile oxides break the rules of cooling
Researchers led by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi showed that the mysterious divide between metallic and insulating rutile oxides comes down to how strongly electrons and phonons “talk” to each other in each material.
New technique sheds light on longstanding debates about ferroelectric materials
North Carolina State University researchers developed a technique that allows them to capture polarization changes in ferroelectric material in a single image. It involves splitting a beam of white light into multiple wavelengths of light, each of which has a different optical polarization.
Transparent ceramic enables rewritable 3D optical storage
Researchers designed a calcium-doped yttrium oxide ceramic that could be used for rewritable 3D optical storage. They achieved micro-level patterning with about 50 µm spatial resolution and reliable erasure by thermal stimulation.