May 08, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Artificial intelligence has rapidly progressed in recent years, transforming fields from healthcare to finance to transportation. AI systems can now match or exceed human-level performance on many complex tasks. However, as AI becomes more ubiquitous, a critical challenge has emerged - the "black box" problem....
Researchers can now accurately measure the emergence and damping of a plasmonic field
May 08, 2024 (Nanowerk News) An international research team led by Universität Hamburg, DESY, and Stanford University has developed a new approach to characterize the electric field of arbitrary plasmonic samples, like e.g. gold nanoparticles. Plasmonic materials are of particular interest due to their extraordinary efficiency at absorbing light, which...
X-ray study offers first look at a quantum version of the liquid-crystal phase
May 08, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Ever since superconductivity was discovered in the early 1900s, it has both captivated and mystified scientists. Superconductors conduct electricity with virtually zero resistance, allowing for highly efficient transmission of electrical currents. Among other uses, they create the strong magnetic fields we depend on for medical...
‘Quartet nanocage’ vaccine protects against future coronavirus outbreaks
May 06, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed a new vaccine technology that has been shown in mice to provide protection against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks - including ones we don’t even know about. This is a new approach to vaccine development called...
Caterbot? Robatapillar? It crawls with ease through loops and bends
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Engineers at Princeton and North Carolina State University have combined ancient paperfolding and modern materials science to create a soft robot that bends and twists through mazes with ease. Soft robots can be challenging to guide because steering equipment often increases the robot’s rigidity and...
A second life for batteries
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Discarded lithium-ion cells from electric cars could be re-used as stationary power storage units. Researchers at TU Graz have established the first indicators for a reliable assessment of their condition. In 2030, around 1.2 million lithium-ion batteries of electric cars, buses and construction machinery will...
Researchers ‘unzip’ 2D materials with lasers
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In a new paper published in the journal Science Advances ("Unzipping hBN with ultrashort mid-infrared pulses"), researchers at Columbia Engineering used commercially available tabletop lasers to create tiny, atomically sharp nanostructures, or nanopatterns, in samples of a layered 2D material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)....
Adjustment methods of Schottky barrier height in one- and two-dimensional semiconductor devices
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In a paper published in Science Bulletin ("Adjustment methods of Schottky barrier height in one- and two-dimensional semiconductor devices"), an international team of scientists present a comprehensive overview of the static and dynamic adjustment methods of Schottky barrier height, with a particular focus on the...
New super-pure silicon chip opens path to powerful quantum computers
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the Universities of Melbourne and Manchester have invented a technique for manufacturing highly purified silicon that brings powerful quantum computers a big step closer. The new technique to engineer ultra-pure silicon makes it the perfect material to make quantum computers at scale and...
Tiny displacements, giant changes in optical properties
May 07, 2024 (Nanowerk News) While we usually think of disorder as a bad thing, a team of materials science researchers led by Rohan Mishra, from Washington University in St. Louis, and Jayakanth Ravichandran, from the University of Southern California, have revealed that – when it comes to certain crystals...