Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The eerie, ethereal sound of the singing saw has been a part of folk music traditions around the globe, from China to Appalachia, since the proliferation of cheap, flexible steel in the early 19th century. Made from bending a metal hand saw and bowing it...
Scientists turn a hydrogen molecule into a quantum sensor
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Physicists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated the use of a hydrogen molecule as a quantum sensor in a terahertz laser-equipped scanning tunneling microscope, a technique that can measure the chemical properties of materials at unprecedented time and spatial resolutions. This new technique...
Light-controllable time-domain metasurface for dynamic harmonic manipulation
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Metasurfaces are artificial array structures consisting of subwavelength unit cells arranged on a specific two-dimensional surface. Dynamic, reconfigurable metasurfaces are an excellent way to manipulate electromagnetic (EM) waves flexibly. Thanks to the work of Tie Jun Cui and his colleagues, programmable metasurfaces emerged in 2014....
Pushing the boundaries of space exploration with X-ray polarimetry
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The secrets hiding in the vast expanse of outer space have intrigued humankind for ages. The invention of the optical telescope during the 17th century allowed humans to see stars appearing as mere twinkling dots in the night sky. Thanks to scientific innovations over the...
Scientists use machine learning to identify antibiotic resistant bacteria that can spread between animals, humans and the environment
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Experts from the University of Nottingham have developed a ground-breaking software, which combines DNA sequencing and machine learning to help them find where, and to what extent, antibiotic resistant bacteria is being transmitted between humans, animals and the environment. The study, which is published in...
Interface engineering enables tunable topological transistions in biaxial crystals
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Polaritons in biaxial crystals offer a promising route to manipulate nanoscale light-matter interactions. The dynamic modulation of their dispersion is of great significance for future integrated nano-optics but remains challenging. Here, we report tunable topological transitions in a graphene and α-MoO3 (G/MoO3) heterostructure. We theoretically...
A luminescent material shines brighter by simultaneously stretching it and applying an electric field
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in Korea have fabricated a flexible material that lights up brightly when stretched and/or when an electric field is applied. The results were published in the journal Applied Physics Reviews ("Bright and uniform light emission...
Safely storing dangerous gasses in pores
Apr 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A highly flammable industrial gas can be stored and released more safely and efficiently using cylinders containing porous coordination polymers (PCPs), also known as metal organic frameworks (MOFs). Scientists at Japan’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Air Liquide Innovation Campus Tokyo developed the...
Atomic Terahertz-vibrations solve the enigma of ultrashort soliton molecules
Apr 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Stable packets of light waves – called optical solitons – are emitted in ultrashort-pulse lasers as a chain of light flashes. These solitons often combine into pairs with very short temporal separation. Introducing atomic vibrations in the terahertz range, researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth...
Microdrones with light-driven nanomotors
Apr 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Propelling micrometre-sized drones using light only and exerting precise control: Physicists at the University of Würzburg have succeeded at this for the first time. Their microdrones are significantly smaller than red blood cells. Artistic representation of a microdrone with two active light-driven nanomotors between red...