News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

"Heavy fermions" are an appealing theoretical way to produce quantum entangled phenomena, but until recently have been observed mostly in dangerously radioactive compounds. Researchers have now shown it is possible to make heavy fermions in subtly modified graphene, which is much cheaper and safer

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have found a way to simultaneously increase the strength and ductility of an alloy by introducing tiny precipitates into its matrix and tuning their size and spacing. The precipitates are solids that separate from the metal mixture as the alloy cools. The results will open new avenues for advancing structural materials.

What connection could possibly exist between the stripes on tropical fish and crystal growth? The answer is the way in which order emerges from randomness through Turing patterns, according to what a research team led by Dr. Fuseya of the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, has recently found. After analyzing a mysterious striped pattern, they observed while trying to grow a monoatomic layer of bismuth, they showed that Turing patterns also exist at the nanoscale.

Physicists of Ruhr-Universität Bochum have taken spectacular pictures that allow the ignition process of plasma under water to be viewed and tracked in real time. They have provided the first data sets with ultra-high temporal resolution, supporting a new hypothesis on the ignition of these plasmas: In the nanosecond range, there is not enough time to form a gas environment. Electrons generated by field effects lead to the propagation of the plasma.

Scientists at KAIST have fabricated a laser system that generates highly interactive quantum particles at room temperature. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Photonics, could lead to a single microcavity laser system that requires lower threshold energy as its energy loss increases.

Physicists used cross-correlation noise spectroscopy to measure miniscule fluctuations in electrical current flowing between materials inside silicon solar cells. The researchers identified crucial electrical noise signals that are completely invisible to conventional noise-measuring methods. They were also able to pinpoint the likely physical processes causing the noise, which often results in a loss of energy and lower efficiency. The technique is an important new tool to improve material interfaces for a better solar cell.

Using epitaxial growth approach, researchers address the electrical conductivity problem of thin film materials by realizing a highly conductive in-plane orientation of a metal-organic framework. Furthermore, they show that it is possible to fabricate oriented thin film patterns by integration with UV lithography technology.

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used high power impulse magnetron scattering (HiPIMS) to create thin films of tungsten with unprecedentedly low levels of film stress. By optimizing the timing of a 'substrate bias pulse' with microsecond precision, they minimized impurities and defects to form crystalline films with stresses as low as 0.03 GPa, similar to those achieved through annealing. Their work promises efficient pathways for creating metallic films for the electronics industry.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) experiments are slow and expensive. Engineers from the University of Illinois are using physics-informed neural networks to predict the outcomes of complex processes involved in AM. The team trained the model on supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center using experimental and simulated data. They recreated the dynamics of two benchmark experiments in metal AM. The method could lead to fast prediction tools for AM in the future.